Hermine May

Mezzo-soprano Hermine May, who was born in Timişoara, Romania, studied at the Music Academy in Stuttgart and was engaged right after she graduated as part of the Deutsche Oper Berlin ensemble, where she belonged for three years. Since 1996 she has been working as a freelancer and has made a name for herself with such roles as Wagner’s Kundry (Parsifal), Venus (Tannhäuser), Brangäne (Tristan), and Ortrud (Lohengrin); Verdi’s Azucena (Il trovatore) and Amneris (Aida); Bizet’s Carmen; and Saint-Saëns’s Dalila. May has collaborated with Sylvain Cambreling, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Marek Janowski, Zubin Mehta, and Marcello Viotti. She has performed at La Scala in Milan, the Opera di Roma, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, as well as with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Her concert repertoire includes such works as Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and Beethoven’s Ninth.

February 2019