The young Swedish soprano Karolina Bengtsson has joined the ensemble at Oper Frankfurt in season 23/24, where her roles have included Silvia, Belisa & a Young Shepherd in new productions of Mozart's Ascanio in Alba, Wolfgang Fortner's In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplin Belisa and Wagner's Tannhäuser. Karolina has also performed as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and 1st Maid in their production of Strauss' Daphne. Last season has also marked her house debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in the role of Clotilde in Bellini’s Norma.
Karolina Bengtsson will make her debut this summer at the Aix-en-Provence Festival as Camille in Louise by Charpentier and at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music as Dori in Ifigenia in Tauride by Traetta. This season also marks her debuts with two of Sweden’s leading orchestras, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, she will perform Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro and make role debuts as Aljeja in From the House of the Dead and as a Lady-in-Waiting in a new production of Macbeth at Oper Frankfurt.
The season of 2022/23 included the roles of Nerina and Diana in a concert version of Haydn’s La fedeltà premiata at the Haydn Festival, Brühler Schlosskonzerte at Schloss Augustburg. Karolina also appeared in several roles at Oper Frankfurt; Pamina and Papagena in a new production of Die Zauberflöte, a Cock and Jay in The Cunning Little Vixen and Isaura in Mercadante's Francesca da Rimini, also performed at Tiroler Festspiele Erl.
Karolina Bengtsson made her debut at Oper Frankfurt during the season of 2021/22 when she joined the Oper Frankfurt Opera Studio, singing Clotilde in Norma, Frasquita in Carmen, Second Woman in Dido and Aeneas and Suor Osmina in Suor Angelica. The same season Karolina sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni in a concert version in the concert Salon Frankfurt: Das Opernhaus als Papiertheater at Alte Oper Frankfurt.
Karolina studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and Mozarteum in Salzburg, where teachers included Barbara Bonney, and Wolfgang Holzmair in Lied. Barbara Bonney guided her through her master’s degree in art, including Oper, Lied and Oratorium, and she sang her first Pamina at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg in 2021.
Karolina has worked with conductors such as Benjamin Reiners, Daniel Geiss (Brixen Classics Festival) and Andreas Spering (Capella Augustina) and her concert repertoire include a wide range of Lied and concert arias as well as oratorio repertoire such as Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Bach’s St. Matthew passion, Pergolesi Stabat Mater and Lars-Erik Larsson, Förklädd Gud/God in Disguise.
Karolina Bengtsson has in 2018 performed the world premiere of The Death and Juliet a piece dedicated to her written by Daniel Nelson, performed and later recorded with violinist Malin Broman and the Musica Vitae Chamber Orchestra. Karolina has also appeared in the baroque “Sound the trumpet” concert series with Musica Vitae in 2017.
Karolina Bengtsson won The Best Young Artist award at the International Singing Competition Die Meistersingen von Nürnberg in the summer of 2022. In 2021, Karolina won the 3rd prize, as well as three special prizes including engagements at the International Haydn Competition for Classical Lied and Aria in Austria: the Sonderpreis der Bühne Baden, the Sonderpreis des Teatro Mayor in Bogotá and the Sonderpreis der Capella Augustina in Cologne. In 2020, Karolina won the first prize - the Golden Victoria - at the Debut International Singing Competition in Weikersheim and the same year, the Prize Beethoven Lieder at Rheinsberg International Singing Competition.
February 2025
