Soprano Elisabeth Werres was born in Bonn, Germany, and grew up in Chicago, Illinois, in a bi-lingual and very musical family. After High School she returned to her native Germany to study voice at the Cologne Conservatory of Music with Prof. Dietger Jacob. 

She began her career at just age 22  - while still a student - at Cologne Opera Studio. A year later she became resident soprano at Karlsruhe State Opera and,  after two years, at Dortmund Opera, singing 13 leading roles in over 300 performances in the first four years of her career, such as Musetta, Nedda, Adina, Martha, Gilda, Adele, Zdenka, Constanze and many others. 

 

Television appearances, guest performances and radio broadcasts followed as she moved on to Hannover State Opera, which remained her artistic home for 12 years before devoting her time solely to freelancing.  During this time her repertoire - which encompasses over 65 roles - expanded to roles such as Contessa, Freia, Tatjana, Rosalinde, Elvira, Marguerite (Faust)  and - later - Tosca, Turandot (Busoni), Chrysothemis, Milada (Dalibor), Marie (Wozzeck), Arabella, Elena (Vespri Siciliani), Sieglinde as well as her signature role, the FELDMARSCHALLIN in Der Rosenkavalier. A role which has remained a central part of her repertoire to this day. 

 

The soprano has performed in over 30 Opera Houses in Germany such as Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf; Hamburg State Opera; Munich State Opera; Deutsche Oper Berlin; Komische Oper Berlin; National Theatre Mannheim; Opera Cologne, State Opera Wiesbaden, State Opera Weimar, Opera Leipzig and many more, as well as in guest appearances in Japan, Austria, The Netherlands Luxembourg, France, Romania, Spain, Hong Kong, Switzerland and USA.