Maria Polanska

Starting from the 2024/25 season, Maria Polańska will join the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where she will perform the following roles: Olga in "Eugene Onegin," Second Lady in "The Magic Flute," Flosshilde in "Das Rheingold," Mercédès in "Carmen," Musico in "Viva la Mamma," and Sonjetka in "Lady Macbeth of Mzensk”.

Maria was born in 1995 in Tarnów, Poland. After completing her bachelor's degree at the Music Academy in Krakow under Katarzyna Oleś-Blacha, she finished her master's studies with Teru Yoshihara at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart. She receives regular lessons from Matthias Rexroth and Eytan Pessen in Stuttgart.

Since the 2021/22 season, she has been a member of the International Opera Studio at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, performing roles such as Dritte Dame in “Die Zauberflöte”, Alt 2 in “Jakob Lenz”, Blumenmädchen, 2. Knappe and Stimme aus der Höhe in “Parsifal”, Mercédès in “Carmen”, Fjodor in “Boris Godunov”, Driade in “Ariadne auf Naxos”, Floßhilde in “Das Rheingold” and “Die Götterdämmerung” and Grimgerde in “Die Walküre”. For the 2022/23 season opening, she sang Flosshilde and Grimgerde at the 19th Daegu International Opera Festival in South Korea as a guest with the Nationaltheater Mannheim. She also performed the role of Schwertleite at the Saarland State Theatre.

Early music is an important focus of her repertoire. In the 2022/23 season, she sang Lesbia in "Zemira e Azor" by André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry with the Academy for Early Music under the musical direction of Bernhard Forck, and Maria of Cleophas in Handel's "La Resurrezione" under the musical direction of Wolfgang Katschner.

“Maria Polańska has been discovered as Maria of Cleophas. She is a member of the International Opera Studio at the Nationaltheater and captivates with a well-controlled and eminently beautiful mezzo-soprano, with which she performs her arias exquisitely,” wrote Karl Georg Berg in Die Rheinpfalz. Judith von Sternburg in the Frankfurter Rundschau wrote: “The mezzo-soprano Maria Polanska lacks nothing in vocal verve and dramatic dedication, she is a whirlwind of emotions and tones.”

In 2022, she was a finalist at the 51st National Singing Competition in Berlin, and in 2021, she won the 3rd prize at the International Ada Sari Vocal Competition in Nowy Sącz, Poland. She is a recipient of the Richard Wagner Association scholarship in 2023.