“For sheer consistency, though, could anyone hold a candle to Catharine Woodward as Brünnhilde, whose bright soprano gleamed from her first triumphant appearance to the blazing finish? One of the pleasures, and saving graces, of Die Götterdämmerung was seeing her simply stand and deliver. It’s not a competition but this treasurable talent took home the gold.”
Catharine is a British dramatic soprano resident in Germany. In early 2025 she completed her first two full Ring Cycles as Brünnhilde for Regents Opera in London to great acclaim. This Summer she returns to the Bayreuther Festspiele as Gerhilde Die Walküre.
Since moving into the dramatic repertoire she has been twice in the live finals of the Lauritz Melchior (Wagner) Competition in Denmark, and has been selected as one of the top singers in NYIOPs ANON:DE audition project. Her first Wagner role was Eva Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 2019. In February 2022 she made her debut as Leonora di Vargas La Forza Del Destino for Regent’s Opera in London. On the concert stage she has sung Isolde Tristan und Isolde Act 2 at the Tonhall Zürich and Kundry Parsifal Act 2 in London for New Palace Opera.
Catharine studied Music at the University of Durham, Vocal Performance at Trinity Laban & at the Alexander Gibson Opera School at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She has worked at the Royal and Ballet and Opera, Covent Garden; English National Opera; Scottish Opera; the Aix-en-Provence Festival and many other prestigious companies and festivals. Career highlights include a documentary for the Open University - Future Diva, and performing at Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s Coronation Festival in 2014. In 2017 she appeared in comedy series “Taskmaster” on Dave & also demonstrated the function of the vocal tract by singing Puccini in an MRI scanner for the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. In January 2018 she performed excerpts of Madama Butterfas a featured artist in ITV drama “Next Of Kin”.
Her opera roles include all three Brünnhilden, Eva Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Elisabetta Don Carlo, Leonora di Vargas Forza del destino, Mimi La Boheme (Regent’s Opera), Donna Elvira Don Giovanni (Diva Opera UK), Alice Ford Falstaff (Fulham Opera), Edna Tobias & The Angel and Sarah Clemency (both Highbury Opera Theatre). Roles in preparation include Elsa Lohengrin Isolde, Kundry, Elektra, and the Kostelnička Jenufa.
Photographs by Tom Medwell