“Her singing is a testament to self-confidence and virtuosity. Its silky and warm timbre is able to embody the multiple facets of the character through thoughtful and precise nuances. The low register is dark and menacing, but also seductive and appealing due to its natural gravity, while the high register is pleasingly piercing, uniting precision with sensuality. ”
“A fearless, fully inhabited performance” …as Salome with Tulsa Opera. Hear it next at Queen Elizabeth Hall on 2 May 2024. Tickets here
Julia Mintzer recently won rave reviews stepping into the title role of Tobias Picker’s Thérèse Raquin at Theater an der Wien with under a week’s notice. She made her UK debut in spring of 2020 in the title role of Carmen at Welsh National Opera. Hailed by Montreal’s La Presse as “a true Carmen: extremely sensual, with the grace of a serpent, the violence of a tiger, and a mezzo of penetrating depth,” Julia has performed principal roles at Washington National Opera, Die Semperoper Dresden, and The Glimmerglass Festival. She has recently moved into soprano repertoire, and sang the title role in Salome at Tulsa Opera, in a new production by Thaddeus Strassburger. She will debut as Tosca at Theater Sankt Gallen in 2025.
She was a member of the Junges Ensemble at the Semperoper Dresden from 2013-15 and a young artist at the Washington National Opera from 2012-13. In 2015-16 she returned to Washington National Opera as Hansel and to the Dresden Semperoper as Mercédès. She returned to Dresden again for the world premiere of Chasing Waterfalls, a co-production of the Semperoper Dresden and phase7 performing arts Berlin with the Hongkong New Vision Arts Festival and made her role debut as the Foreign Princess in Rusalka at Stadttheater Bremerhaven
Her previous roles for the Dresden Semperoper include the leading role in Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren, Zweite Dame, Flora, The Page (Salome), Dryade, and Emma May in the world premiere of Tsangaris's Karl May: Raum der Wahrheit. At the Washington National Opera, her roles were Hansel, Clotilde (Norma) and Giovanna Seymour (Anna Bolena – WNO Opera Insight, Kennedy Center).
She sang the first staged performance of David Lang’s Little Match Girl Passion at the Glimmerglass Festival in 2013. Recently, Julia has been seen as Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda and Preziosilla in La forza del Destino at Theater Aachen. She joined the Landestheater Schleswig-Holstein to sing the title role in Carmen and Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda, returning for Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana and Giulietta in Les Contes d’Hoffman before reprising the title role in Carmen at the Theater Lüneburg.
Julia graduated from The Juilliard School and the Boston University Opera Institute. Her concert engagements include Handel's Messiah with Boston Baroque, Washington National Cathedral, and the Toledo Symphony and Mozart's Requiem at Washington National Cathedral.
Julia holds a Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visa in the United Kingdom. She can next be heard performing the final scene from Salome at Queen Elizabeth Hall with the Odyssey Festival Orchestra, narrated by Simon Callow, and in a new experimental opera Zuam touring to the O Festival, Oeral Festival, and Gaudeuamus Festival (other locations to be announced.)
