Johanni van Oostrum
The South African soprano Johanni van Oostrum is a sought-after interpreter, particularly of the major roles in the operas of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner and Leoš Janáček.
Most recently she enjoyed success in the title role of Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and as Eva in Wagner's The Mastersingers of Nuremberg at the Tokyo Spring Festival under Marek Janowski. In the 2023/24 season she also appeared as Chrysothemis in Strauss' Elektra under the direction of Kent Nagano in Hamburg and as Elsa in Kornél Mundruczó's new production of Wagner's Lohengrin under the baton of François-Xavier Roth at the Bavarian State Opera. This role also took her to the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, the Tokyo Spring Festival and the Hessian State Theater in Wiesbaden, among others.
She sang Agathe in Carl Maria von Weber's The Marksman at, among others, the Semperoper Dresden, the Barbican Center in London, Aix-en-Provence, the Theater an der Wien, the Ludwigsburg Castle Festival and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. She can also be heard as Agathe on CD and DVD. She was last seen as Senta in The Flying Dutchman under Nathalie Stutzmann in Turin in May 2024, a role in which she also shone in Bonn and Tampere. One of her other signature roles is the Marschallin in Richard Strauss' The Knight of the Rose, which she has sung at the Vienna State Opera under the direction of Philippe Jordan and at the Dutch National Opera under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle and at the Royal Opera in Stockholm under Alan Gilbert.
Other highlights of her career include Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser at the Opéra de Lyon, the title role in Richard Strauss' Salome at the Graz Opera, Leonore in Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio under the direction of Ádám Fischer, her role debut in the title role of Janáček's Jenůfa at the Concert Theater Bern and Marietta in Erich Wolfgang Korngold's The Dead Ctity at the Opéra de Limoges. She also sang Countess Almaviva in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Grete in Franz Schreker's The Distant Sound at the Graz Opera, Ellen Orford in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes at the Hessisches Staatstheater in Wiesbaden and the title role in Janáček's Káťa Kabanová at the Janáček Festival in Brno and on Hessian State Theater in Wiesbaden.
She appeared on the concert podium in Mahler's Eighth Symphony with both the Bavarian State Orchestra under Kirill Petrenko and with the Orchestre de Paris under Daniel Harding, and together with Jonas Kaufmann she sang the Mein Wien program in Nuremberg, Hamburg and Düsseldorf. In numerous appearances with the Staatskapelle Weimar, she interpreted under the direction of Bertrand de Billy Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Ah! Perfido and Strauss' Four Last Songs in Bayreuth and at the Al Bustan Festival in Beirut. As a concert soloist, she can be heard regularly in Johannes Brahms' A German Requiem, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Elias, Alexander Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony, Giuseppe Verdi's Messa da Requiem and as an interpreter of songs by Richard Strauss and South African composers.