German soprano Serafina Starke made her operatic debut at the age of 13 as Flora in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. Much has happened since then: in 2023, she debuted at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival in Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten under the baton of Kirill Petrenko and at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich as Queen of the Night in the children’s opera Max und die Superheld:innen. In 2024, she appeared as Oriana in Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula at the Handel Festival in Halle.
Serafina Starke is currently a member of the International Opera Studio at the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, where she performed roles including Olympia (Les Contes d´Hoffmann), Frasquita (Carmen) and Echo (Ariadne auf Naxos), Ännchen (Der Freischütz für Kinder) and appeared as Isotta in a new production of Die schweigsame Frau under the baton of Christian Thielemann. In the 2025/26 season, she will make her debut as Blonde in a new staging of Die Entführung aus dem Serail.
Following her time at the opera studio, she remains closely associated with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. In the 2026/27 season, she makes her role debuts as Pamina in The Magic Flute and the Shepherd in Tannhäuser, and returns to the Staatsoper as Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail as well as Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos. At Opernhaus Zürich, she makes her role debut as Valencienne in The Merry Widow.
In 2022, she participated in the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project, returning the following year as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro.
Serafina Starke as a concert singer
Extensive repertoire
Serafina Starke’s concert repertoire includes Mozart’s Requiem, Mass in C minor and Exsultate, jubilate, as well as Haydn’s Creation. In 2023, she performed the soprano solo in Verdi’s Te Deum (Quattro pezzi sacri) at the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Riccardo Muti. She has worked with esteemed conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Raphaël Pichon, Daniele Rustioni and Thomas Guggeis.
Her concerts in the 2026/27 season include a return to the Thomanerchor for performances of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Dvorak´s Requiem and Beethoven´s Missa in C in Antwerp, a tour with the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées in Schubert’s Missa No. 6, and singing the Sandman in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel with the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of Kirill Petrenko. She also appears in numerous song recitals, including at Vienna’s Musikverein, in Munich and Cologne.
Awards and recognitions
In the 2025/26 season, she will make her debut with the Thomanerchor Leipzig in Bach’s Mass in B minor, and at the Zurich Opera House in Bach´s St. John Passion.
An accomplished Lied singer, she was awarded 3rd prize at the Paula-Salomon-Lindberg Competition Das Lied alongside pianist Rebeka Stojkoska.
Serafina Starke is a fellow of the Yehudi-Menuhin-Foundation Salzburg and the Gianna-Szel-Foundation. She won the Dostal Operetta Competition in 2022 and the Fritz-Wunderlich-Prize in 2021. Most recently, she received the Sweet Spot Award at the 2024 ARD Competition in Munich.
