BIOGRAPHY
After studying at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, Catherine Trottmann joined the ensemble of the Wiener Staatsoper, where she made her stage debut.
The young soprano was quickly noticed for the richness of her timbre as well as her acting skills, and soon appeared on many of the world’s leading stages. In recent years, she has been heard at Carnegie Hall in New York, Cincinnati Music Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Edinburgh Festival, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Paris Opera, La Scala di Milano, among many others.
In 2017 she was nominated in the category “Revelation Opera Artist” at the Victoires de la Musique and named an “HSBC Laureate” of the Aix-en-Provence Festival. That same year she also won First Prize at the Manhattan International Music Competition.
Competition.
Praised for her agility, she is regularly invited to sing Rossini, in particular Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Edinburgh Festival, and the Konzerthaus Dortmund. Her Rossini repertoire also includes Le Comte Ory at the Opéra-Théâtre de Metz, Il Turco in Italia at the Opéra de Dijon, La Cenerentola in Lausanne, Limoges, and Vienna, and most recently Jemmy in Guillaume Tell at Teatro alla Scala.
She has garnered widespread acclaim for her portrayal of both Leïla in Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de perles under Guillaume Tourniaire at the Opéra de Saint-Etienne and Adina in L’Elisir d’amore at the Bordeaux National Opera..
A devoted interpreter of Mozart, she has performed Zerlina (Don Giovanni) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Opéra de Lausanne, the Musikfest Bremen, and the Beaune Festival. She has also sung Le Nozze di Figaro at the Opéra National du Rhin, as well as Elisa in Il Re Pastore at the Manoel Theatre in Malta.
Catherine Trottmann is equally committed to the French repertoire. She has sung Debussy’s La Demoiselle Élue with the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France at the Philharmonie de Paris, Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges at the Salle Pleyel, the Opéra de Lille, and Limoges, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’étéwith the Orchestre Régional de Normandie, Honegger’s Le Roi David at the Salle Pleyel and Notre-Dame de Paris, Cunégonde in Offenbach’s Le Roi Carotte at the Opéra de Lyon, the title role in Sauguet’s Tistou les Pouces verts at the Opéra de Rouen, and Diane in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées..
She recently made a highly acclaimed debut as Leïla in Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de perles at the Opéra de Saint-Étienne, hailed in the press as “an exceptional Leïla, one of her most sumptuous portrayals.”
Catherine also created the role of La Rose in Michaël Levinas’s Le Petit Prince at the Opéra de Lausanne, the Opéra de Lille, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and the Théâtre du Châtelet.
On the concert stage, she has sung Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Mass in C at the Opéra d’Avignon, Saint-Saëns’s Oratorio de Noël in Russia with the New Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Orchestre National de Lyon and the Orchestre National de Lorraine, as well as the French premiere of Desyatnikov’s Lost Illusions with the Bolshoi Ballet at the Palais Garnier.
Catherine Trottmann has been unanimously praised by critics for her recent portrayal of the title role in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Opéra de Rennes, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Opéra de Rouen, and on tour in the Netherlands.
During the 2025/2026 season, she will appear as Ginevra in Handel’s Ariodante at the Opéra Royal de Versailles, Clara in Nuit sans Aube at the Opéra Comique, Zerlina in Don Giovanni at the Opéra de Dijon, and Edwige in Offenbach’s Robinson Crusoé at the operas of Nantes, Angers, and Rennes.