In her earlier career she had an affinity towards Mozartian roles such as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. Over the years, she has been taking up heavier roles in 19th-century German and Italian operas, particularly those by Verdi and Wagner.
Harteros was born in Bergneustadt, North Rhine-Westphalia, to a Greek father and a German mother and has two siblings, Alexia and Georgios. As a child, she was encouraged by her parents to pursue classical music and singing. Eventually, her music teacher at the Wüllenweber-Gymnasium in Bergneustadt, August Wilhelm Welp, noticed her considerable talent and recommended that she be professionally educated in singing. In 1986, she started voice training under Astrid Huber-Aulmann in Gummersbach, concurrently with her schooling.[1]
In 1990, she began studies with Wolfgang Kastorp, conductor and répétiteur at the Cologne Opera, who accompanied her in a series of concerts and later became her husband.[2]
Her first performances were in music institute concerts and in a school production of The Marriage of Figaro in 1990, as the Countess. In 1992 she gave her first concert at the Kantonsschule Schwyz in Switzerland.[1]
After completing high school in 1991, she continued her voice studies under Liselotte Hammes at the Hochschule für Musik Köln.[1] Her original singing teacher, Huber-Aulmann, continued to teach her until early 1996, and Harteros accompanied Huber-Aulmann on concerts tours in 1993 and 1994 to Russia and the United States, which attracted much attention to the singer.[1] Just before her final exams, she was employed as an ensemble member of the Schillertheater NRW. After her 1996 exams, she joined the ensemble of the Theater Bonn.
International career
Harteros achieved the major breakthrough for her career when she won the Cardiff Singer of the World competition in the summer of 1999, becoming the first German singer to win the prize.[3]Peter Jonas, director of the Bavarian State Opera, who was in the jury, recognised her talent and engaged her in the role of Agathe in Der Freischütz. She became a frequent guest singer with the company, starring in roles such as Countess Almaviva (The Marriage of Figaro), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Mimì (La bohème), and among others she later took up. She has also appeared at other major opera houses, including the Vienna State Opera, Oper Frankfurt, De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, Semperoper, Cologne Opera, and Berlin's Deutsche Oper.
In 2003/04, Harteros made her New York Metropolitan Opera debut with Countess Almaviva, and also sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni in the same season.[8][9]
In 2008, she was featured in the opening gala of Oslo Opera House,[14] and in the first opera production in the house, Don Carlo, debuting in the role of Elisabetta di Valois.[15]
She made her Royal Opera, London debut with Simon Boccanegra.[16]
In February 2011, she debuted in Leonora in concert performances of Verdi's Il trovatore at the Kölner Philharmonie.[17] Withdrawing from the planned debuting performances as the Marschallin in Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier in San Diego,[18] she assumed the role in Munich and then in Vienna later in the year.[19][20]
In general, Harteros has restricted her professional appearances to attend to her family.[21]Christian Thielemann, a regular collaborator with Harteros, has noted this aspect of her life:
"If you have somebody at home you want to take care of, and need to, it's more than logical that you do it."[21]
In 2007, she was appointed the title Bavarian Kammersängerin. In 2013, she was awarded the Bavarian Europa-Medaille.
In 2018, she was awarded European Cultural Award Taurus, yet she was absent from the ceremony at the Dresden Frauenkirche on 8 June 2018.[27] In the same month, she received the Bavarian Order of Merit.[28]
Following her Tosca performance on 3 November 2019 at the Bavarian State Opera, celebrating her 20th anniversary since her debut with the company, she was awarded the Meistersinger-Medaille in honour of her artistic contribution.[29]