Claudia Huckle

Anglo-German contralto Claudia Huckle, a “marvel in Mahler with perfect technique” (BBC Music Magazine), was a Grand Final Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the first female recipient of Operalia’s Birgit Nilsson Prize for singing Wagner. She has since appeared with opera companies and orchestras across Europe and the United States.

In the 2024/2025 season, Claudia returns to the Opéra national de Paris as Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte and debuts at The Grange Festival as Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus. On the concert platform, Claudia debuts with Canada’s National Arts Centre in Handel’s Messiah, conducted by Trevor Pinnock and performs with the Stuttgart Ballet as the mezzo soloist in Das Lied von der Erde.

Recent opera highlights include her debut for the Bavarian State Opera as The Innkeeper in Boris Godunov, Galatea in Aci, Galatea e Polifemo for the London Handel Festival, Meg Page in Falstaff at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Theatre, under Daniele Gatti, and at the Bregenzer Festspiele as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, a role she has also sung for the Zurich Opera and the Glyndebourne on Tour. She returned to the Opéra national de Paris for Blumenmädchen/Stimme von Oben in Parsifal and sang Erda/ Flosshilde in Das Rheingold for the Bregenzer Festspiele. She has also sung Erda for the Leipzig Opera, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Opera North. She debuted at Teatro alla Scala Milan singing “Die allwissende Muschel” in Strauss’s Die Ägyptische Helena, conducted by Franz Welser Möst.

Claudia’s notable concert appearances include First Norn from Götterdämmerung with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski, Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder, Dritte Dame Die in Zauberflöte at the Edinburgh International Festival conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev, First Maid in Elektra with the Bergen Philharmonic and Edward Gardner, Haydn’s Paukenmesse at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Theatre under Zubin Mehta, Mozart’s Requiem at the 2021 BBC Proms, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Rouen Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Bach’s St John Passion with the Ulster Orchestra, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Dunedin Consort and on tour with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Claudia has also sung Delius’s A Mass of Life with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder, Saint-Saën’s Oratorio de Noël with the Netherlands Radio Philarmonic Orchestra, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo, Schubert’s Mass No. 5 in A-flat major and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with Kent Nagano and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Verdi’s Requiem at King’s College Chapel, Flosshilde in Götterdämmerung with Sir Andrew Davis at the Edinburgh Festival, Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Lars Vogt, and Schwertleite in Die Walküre with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestr and Sir Simon Rattle.

Claudia studied at the Royal College of Music in London, the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She is a graduate of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program at the Washington National Opera and was a member of the ensemble at the Leipzig Opera for four seasons.