Judit Kutasi
Judit Kutasi, a Romanian-Hungarian mezzo-soprano, is one of the outstanding voices in her field. Her distinctive profile is characterized by powerful interpretations of Verdi and Wagner roles.
The 2026/27 season brings a series of important debuts and returns. Kutasi makes her role debut as Judit in Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle at the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest. She returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Amneris in Verdi’s Aida and sings Fricka in Wagner’s Das Rheingold at the San Francisco Opera. A major highlight of the season is her debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Ortrud in the new production of Wagner’s Lohengrin. On the concert stage, Kutasi debuts Wagner’s 5 Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme with the Banatul Philharmonic of Timișoara and appears in an Opera Gala Concert with the Choir and Orchestra of the Romanian Radio Hall in Bucharest, held in support of a children’s hospital.
Highlights of recent seasons include her return to the Paris Opera as Amneris, Ortrud in a new production of Lohengrin at the Hungarian State Opera, and Pauline in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège. She also appeared as Amneris at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and as Azucena in Verdi’s Il trovatore at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. On the concert stage, she performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the George Enescu International Festival and with the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid (ORCAM), as well as Bruckner’s Te Deum with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra in Bucharest.
Kutasi performs regularly in major international opera houses and concert halls. Following her 2024 debut in Verdi’s La forza del destino at the Metropolitan Opera, she returned to New York to sing Amneris under Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Michael Mayer’s spectacular new staging of Aida, which became part of the Met’s Live in HD series and was shown in cinemas worldwide. In San Francisco, Kutasi sang Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera and portrayed Ortrud in the new production of Lohengrin under the baton of Eun Sun Kim. Her performances in San Francisco were also featured in the documentary Eun Sun Kim: A Journey into Lohengrin (produced by Elena Park, Lumahai Productions), which was nominated for a 2025 Northern California Emmy Award.
Other milestones of Kutasi’s opera career include the role of Erda in the new production of Wagner's Das Rheingold under the musical direction of Sir Donald Runnicles at the Deutsche Oper as well as spectacular performances as Amneris, both at the Arena di Verona and the Bayerische Staatsoper under Maestro Zubin Mehta, and the role of Azucena in Il Trovatore at the Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Opéra National de Paris. With great success, Judit Kutasi joined Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov in Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chénier at Teatro alla Scala Milano in performances led by Maestro Riccardo Chailly, subsequently released by the theater on DVD in a coproduction with CMajor.
As a sought-after artist on the concert stage, Judit Kutasi sang Federica in Verdi's Luisa Miller (CD production by BR Klassik) together with the Munich Radio Orchestra under the baton of Ivan Repušic. At the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, she sang Bruckner's Te Deum and performed in the opera house's New Year's Concert in 2019. She also sang Verdi's Requiem under Antonio Pappano in Salzburg and Stravinsky's Les Noces under Kent Nagano at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.
Judit Kutasi was born in Timisoara, Romania. She studied voice, piano and cello at the Colegiul Național de Artă “Ion Vidu” and continued her studies at the University of Oradea and the Music Academy Gheorghe Dima in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, graduating with a master’s degree. From 2013 to 2016, she was part of the Zurich Opera—first in the International Opera Studio, then as an ensemble member. Judit Kutasi was a Walter Sandvoss Fellow of the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2016/17 and has been a celebrated guest artist there ever since.
Engagements in Bayreuth
| Year | Opera | Part |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | Lohengrin | Ortrud |