Mezzo-Soprano Angelika Kirchschlager Announces Retirement

The Austrian mezzo-soprano says that her current project, "Sweeney Todd," will be her last

In a podcast hosted by Opernhaus Zürich, 58-year-old Austrian mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager said that the current Zurich production of Sweeney Todd will be her final staged work.

Kirchschlager initially studied percussion and piano at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, before studying singing with Gerhard Kahry and Walter Berry at the Vienna Music Academy. In 1991, she won an equal First Prize with Morenike Fadayomi in Vienna's international Operncafé Hartauer Competition and received third prize in the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition.

She made her stage debut in 1993 as Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier), and joined the Vienna State Opera later that year — where she made her debut in the role of Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro).

Kirchschlager gave the premiere performance of the role of Sophie in Nicholas Maw's opera Sophie's Choice at London's Royal Opera House in 2002.

In 2007 Kirchschlager received the title of Kammersängerin from the the Austrian government for her outstanding contributions to the Vienna State Opera, and in 2009 she became an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London.