Bettina Ranch

Bettina Ranch was born in Berlin and initially studied violin before turning her attention entirely to singing. Since season 2016/17, she has been a permanent member of the ensemble at the Aalto Theater Essen, where she has built up an impressive repertoire with a wide range of roles, including Carmen, Fricka ("Die Walküre"), Adalgisa ("Norma"), Maddalena ("Rigoletto"), Fenena ("Nabucco"), Dorabella ("Così fan tutte"), Annina ("Der Rosenkavalier"), Adelaide ("Arabella"), La Zia Principessa and La Frugola in Puccini's "Il Trittico", the title role in Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice", and Cain in Scarlatti's "Cain and Abel". She is currently receiving artistic guidance from vocal coach Caroline Merz.

In recent years, she has made a deliberate shift towards dramatic repertoire. She has sung Brangäne ("Tristan und Isolde"), Amneris ("Aida"), and Preziosilla ("Forza del Destino"), among others, and made her role debut as Kundry in Wagner's "Parsifal" in season 2024/25. For her impressive performance in this role in Roland Schwab's new production at the Aalto Theater Essen, she is currently nominated for the German Theater Award DER FAUST 2025 in the category “Best Actress in Musical Theater.” The award ceremony will take place in Stuttgart in the fall of 2025. In the summer of 2024, she also appeared as Fricka in “Rheingold” on a guest performance tour in Beijing (director: Stefano Poda, musical director: Lü Jia). At the end of season 2024/25, she made a guest appearance at the Shanghai Grand Theatre as Brangäne in Roland Schwab's Bayreuth Festival production of “Tristan und Isolde.”

Bettina Ranch has also performed at other renowned opera houses such as the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Oper Köln, the Staatsoper Hamburg, the Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg, and the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam.

In the concert arena, Bettina Ranch impresses with a wide-ranging repertoire that extends from Baroque to modern music. This includes Mozart's great masses, Bach's Passions and Mass in B minor, Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Missa solemnis, Mendelssohn's "Elias" and "Lobgesang", Schumann's "Das Paradies und die Peri", Verdi's Requiem, Dvořák's "Stabat Mater", Bruckner's Te Deum, Wagner's "Wesendonck Lieder", and numerous works by Gustav Mahler, Franz Schmidt, and Luigi Nono ("Il canto sospeso" – debut at the Salzburg Festival). She has worked with ensembles such as the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, the International Bach Academy Stuttgart, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the RTVE Radio Symphony Orchestra Madrid, and other renowned orchestras. She has worked with conductors such as Hartmut Haenchen, Markus Poschner, Simone Young, Tomáš Netopil, Claus Peter Flor, Helmuth Rilling, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Rubén Dubrovsky, Hansjörg Albrecht, Paul Goodwin, Christopher Moulds, Peter Rundel, Michael Sanderling, Marc Albrecht, Andrey Boreyko, Erik Nielsen, Roland Kluttig, Krzysztof Urbański, Christoph König, and Ivor Bolton.

More recently, she sang Mahler's Symphony No. 8 (Mulier Samaritana) in Milan Cathedral and again with the Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro Sinfonico di Milano. Other highlights included Mozart's Requiem and Mahler's Symphony No. 2 at the Auditorium in Milan, as well as her debut at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.

Numerous CD productions document Bettina Ranch's artistic work: "Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln" by Franz Schmidt (Oehms Classics) with the Hamburg Philharmonic under Simone Young, Haydn's "Il ritorno di Tobia" (Sony Classics) with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg under Ivor Bolton, and Mahler's 2nd and 3rd Symphonies (Oehms Classics, 2022 and 2023) under Tomáš Netopil.

In season 2025/26, Bettina Ranch will appear as Fricka in the new “Ring des Nibelungen” at the Cologne Opera. She will return to the Aalto Theater Essen for another role debut as Gertrud in “Hänsel und Gretel” before returning to Cologne to appear as Fricka in “Die Walküre.” In April 2026, she will once again perform Kundry in "Parsifal" in Essen. She will also sing Santuzza in Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" for the first time in concert with the Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra before concluding the season with Andrea Sanguineti and the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra in another symphony concert featuring Verdi's Requiem.