Christa Mayer received her vocal training at the Bavarian Singers’ Academy and the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts, where she graduated in 2001 with a master class diploma. While still a student, she received several awards, including prizes at the International ARD Music Competition and from the Richard Strauss Society Munich.

Following new productions of Das Rheingold and Siegfried at La Scala in Milan in recent seasons, the 2025/26 season saw the continuation of the Ring project with a new production of Götterdämmerung as well as two complete Ring cycles. Another highlight of the season was a new production of Snow Queen in Dresden, as well as Christa Mayer’s debut at the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, where she will sang Annina in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. The season is rounded off by her return to the Bayreuth Festival and concerts featuring Verdi’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, along with further performances in Dresden, including Rigoletto (Maddalena) and The Love for Three Oranges (Princess Clarice). 

Christa Mayer has been a member of the ensemble of the Saxon State Opera Dresden since 2001, where she has given numerous highly successful role debuts, including Erda (Das Rheingold and Siegfried), Fenena (Nabucco), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Quickly (Falstaff), Ottavia (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Orlando (Orlando), Baba (The Rake’s Progress), Adelaide (Arabella), Gaea (Daphne), Ježibaba (Rusalka), and Countess Geschwitz (Lulu). In Dresden she has also appeared in other major roles of her repertoire, such as Waltraute (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde), Amneris (Aida), Dido (Les Troyens), Mrs. Quickly (Falstaff), Herodias (Salome), and Kabanicha (Káťa Kabanová).

From the Semperoper Dresden, Christa Mayer has gone on to conquer leading international stages. Her guest appearances regularly take her to venues such as the Vienna State Opera, La Scala Milan, the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the New National Theatre Tokyo, and opera houses in Barcelona, Seville, Bilbao, and Madrid, as well as the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, and the Salzburg Easter Festival.

The Bayreuth Festival holds a special place in her career. In 2008, under the direction of Christian Thielemann, she made her debut on the “Green Hill” singing Erda and Waltraute. Since then, the Bayreuth Festival has been a permanent fixture in her calendar, where she has also performed roles such as Brangäne, Fricka, Waltraute, and Magdalene.

Christa Mayer is also in high demand internationally as a concert singer. She has appeared with renowned orchestras including the Orchestre de Paris, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, the Gulbenkian Orchestra, and the Staatskapelle Dresden, performing works such as Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder, Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, and 8 as well as Das Lied von der Erde, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, and contemporary works such as Detlev Glanert’s Requiem.

In her concert and operatic engagements, she has worked with conductors including Herbert Blomstedt, Jaap van Zweeden, Christian Thielemann, Daniele Gatti, Fabio Luisi, Sir Colin Davis, Jonathan Nott, Axel Kober, Omer Meir Wellber, Robin Ticciati, Semyon Bychkov, Marek Janowski, Ingo Metzmacher, and Simone Young, among many others.

In February 2020, the Saxon State Opera Dresden honored Christa Mayer’s artistic achievements by awarding her the title of Kammersängerin. In autumn 2020, the State of Bavaria awarded Christa Mayer the Bavarian Cultural Prize.