Biography

Emma Rothmann is a Berlin-based London grown mezzo-soprano who has thrived in Germany since 2012 and has been described as “appropriately grotesque”.

After training at the Royal Academy of Music in her hometown of London and subsequently entering opera work through the Dutch National Opera Academy in Holland. Ms. Rothmann has worked across Europe, including in the development of new music theater at the University of Gothenburg, a city theatre contract in Görlitz and during the pandemic on the stage of the Landestheater, Innsbruck.

Rothmann most recently debuted the ‘Alte Nonne’ as part of Florentina Holzinger’s infamous production of ‘SANCTA’, a groundbreaking, joyous, and controversial interpretation of Paul Hindemith’s opera “Sancta Susanna” which was will tour from the Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater, Wiener Festwoche, Staatsoper Stuttgart, and Volksbühne Berlin. 

She opened the 2023/4 season with a staged performance of Pierrot Lunaire (Schönberg) at the Theater Schloß Schönbrunn, Vienna, during an evening presenting the life and influence of the emigrated cultural innovator Saska Viertel. This was followed by a world premiere of the lead role of Thomas Lutz's new opera on the story of Widukind, then the posthumous premiere of the emotional elaboration on the themes of failure, collectivity and self-responsibility at Paul Dittrich's Bruchstücken, alongside her traditional roles.

As well as performing repertoire roles such as The Witch (Humperdinck) and Venus (Wagner) on stage and Requiem (Verdi) and St. John Passion in concert, Emma Rothman focuses on developing contemporary music theater that addresses themes and experiences outside the canon.

Rothmann also carries out cultural creation, also as a producer and as a disability representative in the cultural space. She works from Berlin with the aim of supporting less represented artistic voices in realizing their visions at the highest level.