Selected by BBC Music Magazine as amongst “11 of the greatest contraltos of all time,” Anglo-German contralto Claudia Huckle 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. A graduate of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program at Washington National Opera, she was a member of the ensemble at Oper Leipzig for four seasons and has since appeared with opera companies and orchestras across Europe and the USA.
She sang Delius’ A Mass of Life at the 2025 BBC Proms, and current engagements further include Amastre Serse with Academy of Ancient Music, Schwertleite Die Walküre with Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, Messiah with both Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Huddersfield Choral Society, Mahler Das Klagende Lied and Bruckner Te Deum at Cheltenham Music Festival and Mahler Symphony No. 8 with Magna Sinfonia.
Highlights of her operatic career have included Lucretia The Rape of Lucretia (directed by Fiona Shaw) and Hippolyta A Midsumnmer Night’s Dream for Glyndebourne; Die allwissende Muschel Die Ägyptische Helena for Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Galatea Aci, Galatea e Polifemo for London Handel Festival; Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel for Garsington Opera and Oper Leipzig; The Innkeeper Boris Godunov at Bayerische Staatsoper; Marfa Khovanschina for Birmingham Opera Company; Dritte Dame Die Zauberflöte for Opéra de Paris; Suzuki Madama Butterfly for Bregenz Festival, Glyndebourne and Zürich Opera; Dalila Samson et Dalila for Chelsea Opera Group; Prince Orlofsky Die Fledermaus for the Grange Festival; Meg Page Falstaff at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Irene Tamerlano (with Plácido Domingo) and Smeton Anna Bolena for Washington National Opera; Olga Eugene Onegin for English National Opera, Oper Leipzig and WNO and Stimme von Oben / Blumenmädchen Parsifal for Opéra de Paris. Her Wagnerian repertoire has further included Erda Das Rheingold / Siegfried for Opera North, Bregenz Festival, Grand Théâtre de Genève and Oper Leipzig; Flosshilde Das Rheingold / Götterdämmerung for Opéra de Paris, Teatro Real, Madrid and Bregenz Festival and Erste Norn Götterdämmerung for Opéra de Paris and Teatro Real, Madrid. For the Royal Ballet and Opera, she has sung Mérope Oedipe, Dritte Dame Die Zauberflöte, Schwertleite Die Walküre and Erste Norn Götterdämmerung.
Claudia’s notable concert appearances include Delius A Mass of Life with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Mark Elder for the BBC Proms, Das Lied von der Erde with the Stuttgart Ballet, 1st Norn Götterdämmerung with the LPO and Vladimir Jurowski; Rossini Stabat Mater with the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder; Dritte Dame Die Zauberflöte at the Edinburgh International Festival and Maxim Emelyanychev; 1st Maid Elektra with the Bergen Philharmonic and Edward Gardner; Haydn Paukenmesse at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under Zubin Mehta; Mozart Requiem at the 2021 BBC Proms; Beethoven Missa Solemnis with the Rouen Philharmonic Orchestra; Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the RPO, LPO and RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra; Bach St John Passion with the Ulster Orchestra; Bach St Matthew Passion with the Dunedin Consort and on tour with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. She has sung Handel’s Messiah with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Canada under Trevor Pinnock and with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC.
Claudia’s performances of Mahler include Symphony No. 2 with the Boston Philharmonic, and under Myung Whun Chung at both the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and at the Festival de Saint-Denis with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; Symphony No. 3 with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia; Symphony No. 8 with the RPO, at the Quincena Musical de San Sebastián and for her 2018 Proms debut with the BBC NOW; Kindertotenlieder with the BBCSSO; and Rückert Lieder with the Britten Sinfonia and the RSNO. Claudia has recorded Mahler Das Lied von der Erde in the composer’s own arrangement for piano, with the conductor and pianist Justin Brown and tenor Nicky Spence on the Champs Hill Records label (released in 2023).
Claudia’s performances of Elgar include Dream of Gerontius and Sea Pictures with the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder; Sea Pictures with the BBC NOW; and The Apostles at Three Choirs Festival.
Claudia has also sung Delius A Mass of Life with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder; (recording released in 2024) Saint-Saëns Oratorio de Noel with the Netherlands Radio Philarmonic Orchestra; Mendelssohn Elijah with the BBCSO and Sakari Oramo; Schubert Mass in A flat and Beethoven Choral Fantasy with Kent Nagano and the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester; Verdi Requiem at King’s Chapel, Cambridge and Cadogan Hall; Flosshilde in Götterdämmerung with Sir Andrew Davis at the Edinburgh Festival; Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Brahms Alto Rhapsody with the Northern Sinfonia and Lars Vogt; and Schwertleite in Die Walküre with the Bayerische Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle.
Claudia studied at the Royal College of Music in London, the New England Conservatory in Boston, and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
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