Linda Watson is world renowned as one of the top Wagnerian sopranos of our time..

In December 2015 her next debut will be the title role of TURANDOT in Puccini's final masterpiece.

The entire year mainly she is on stage singing the big roles of the german repertoire in Vienna, Düsseldorf, Porto, Doha and Copenhagen.

 Her major figures are BRÜNNHILDE, ISOLDE by Wagner as well as MARSCHALLIN, FÄRBERIN, ARIADNE and ELEKTRA by Richard Strauss.

With conductor James Levine she sang KUNDRY at the MET in New York. With the same role she appeared next to Placido Domingo in Los Angeles. On stage at La Scala in Milano she succeeded with ORTRUD as well as she recently presented her interpretation of ISOLDE with Peter Seiffert as Tristan at the Vienna State Opera. Linda Watson appears in Paris, Tokyo, Bayreuth, Buenos Aires and many more great opera stages in the world.

There is no other dramatic soprano who can be heard on so many official Ring Cycle records as Linda Watson, including the latest Bayreuth Ring and the Grammy nomenee record from Vienna under Christian Thielemann.

A documentation and the complete opera movie about a special version of Wagner's Ring shows Linda Watson singing all three roles of Brünnhilde in one single performance which became the longest opera role of the world.

with Leonard Bernstein

 The native Californian began her career as a mezzo, when near the end of the 80’s, Leonard Bernstein brought her to Vienna to perform in his “A quiet place”, with him at the podium.

germany, where she added to her mezzo-Repertoire such  roles as Azucena in Verdi’s “Il Trovatore”, Marina in Mussorsky’s “Boris Godunov”, as well as her first Wagner roles: Brangäne in “Tristan und Isolde” and Venus in “Tannhäuser”.

as Marina in  "Boris Godunov"

as Ariadne in  "Ariadne auf Naxos" .

Between 1992-2005 Linda Watson became a member of the ensemble first in Aachen, followed by Leipzig and later at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Duesseldorf, when she was awarded the prestigious title of Kammersängerin.

During this time she smoothly made the change from mezzo to soprano, and could be heard as Sieglinde in “Die Walküre”, Marschallin in “Der Rosenkavalier”, Ariadne in “Ardiadne auf Naxos” and Isolde in “Tristan und Isolde”.

as Ortrud in "Lohengrin" (Düsseldorf 1999)

as Kundry with Domingo in "Parsifal" (MET-New York 2003) 

Linda Watson exceptional interpretation of Kundry attracted the attention of Placido Domingo, who then brought her to Barecelona in 2001, where he sang “Parsifal” at her side.

The great success of the collaboration between these two artists was such that they then appeared together in Madrid, Washington and Los Angeles. Linda Watson’s MET debut in New York came soon after, also as Kundry with Placido Domingo as her partner.

The composer's grandson Wolfgang Wagner congratulate "his" Brünnhilde Linda Watson

 In 1998 she followed her calling to the Bayreuth Festival where she appeared as Kundry; from 200-2005 as Ortrud; and 2006-10 as Brünnhilde in the new “Ring” production under Christian Thielemann.

Christian Thielmann

Christian Thielemann on the topic:

“We have the best “Ring” cast in the world. (…) Linda Watson has what I would wish for in Brünnhilde, the right dark timbre.”

(Die Welt, 24th of july 2006)

Next to Linda Watson’s incomparable timbre, conductors especially value her tremendous flexibility and her musicality, which led her in the last few years to working with such prominent artists as  Claudio Abbado, Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pappano, Christian Thielemann, Kent Nagano, Christoph Eschenbach, Bertrand de Billy, Franz Welser-Möst, Jeffrey Tate, Gidon Kremer, Jiri Kout, James Levine, Valery Gergiev, Daniele Gatti, James Conlon, Heinz Fricke, Hartmut Haenchen etc.