The artist is famous for her interpretation of all great dramatic roles by Wagner and Strauss, of Beethoven's "Fidelio", Marie in Berg's "Wozzeck" and - since her debut with the Salzburg Festival in the summer of 2000 - of Didon and Cassandre in Berlioz' "Les Troyens", as well as the Kostelnicka in "Jenufa" and others.

 

The title role in "Elektra" has been a focal point of her career, and she performed this demanding role with many of the most important conductors, orchestras, and stage directors. Recordings are available with Daniel Barenboim, conductor and in an uncut version with Semyon Bychkov, conductor, and it was televised with the WDR Cologne (Semyon Bychkov, conductor). Other audio recordings include Wolf-Ferrari’s „Sly”, Wagner’s „Ring“ (excerpts), „Walküre“ (excerpts), „Lohengrin“a, and „Tristan & Isolde“ (excerpts), and Berlioz’ „Les Troyens“ and Wagner’s „Walküre“, „Siegfried“, „Götterdämmerung“, and „Tristan und Isolde“ are available on DVD.

 

Between 1988 and 1998, Deborah Polaski wrote history with the Bayreuth Festival, where she sang Brünnhilde in more performances than any other soprano in the annals of the post-war Bayreuth Festival. She was furthermore a guest in Amsterdam and at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the State Opera Berlin, and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, in Bonn, Chicago, Copenhagen, and Cologne, in Duisburg, Dresden, Florence, Frankfurt, Geneva, Genoa, Hamburg, at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, in Lucerne, Mannheim, Milan, Montreux, and Munich, at the Metropolitan Opera of New York and in Carnegie Hall, in Oslo, Paris, Rome, San Francisco, Stuttgart, and with the Sydney Festival, in Vienna, Tokyo, Yokohama, and Zurich, among others.

 

Aside from her deep commitment to the opera stage, she has dedicated a large amount of time to the recital repertoire since 1997, and together with her accompanist Charles Spencer she has given recitals in Barcelona, Bonn, Bordeaux, Lisbon, and London, at the Ludwigsburger Schloßfestspiele, the Theatre de Chatelet in Paris, in Stadthagen, Strasbourg, Tokyo, and at the Wiener Festwochen as well as in Nancy.

She has also sung in recital at the Berlin State Opera with Daniel Barenboim at the piano, and

a recording (with Charles Spencer) is available on CD.
 

 

August 2007