The Australian-born soprano Deborah Riedel studied at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music in Sydney where she won several major singing awards enabling her to continue her studies in Europe. Operatic work in Australia includes Leonora in Il trovatore, Mimì in La bohème, Violetta in La traviata, the four heroines in Les contes d'Hoffmann, Marguerite in Faust, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, title-rôles in Maria Stuarda, Tosca and Norma for Opera Australia; Leila in Les pêcheurs de perles, Micaela in Carmen and Marguerite in Faust for the Victoria State Opera; Marguerite for Opera Queensland, and Tosca for the State Opera of South Australia. She made her United States début in 1994 as Amina in La sonnambula for the San Diego Opera and has since performed Donna Anna, Adina in L'elisir d'amore, Violetta, and Alice Ford in Falstaff for the company. Further American engagements include Donna Anna at the Metropolitan Opera, and Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes and Donna Anna for the San Francisco Opera. In Europe she has appeared in leading rôles at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opéra National de Paris, Opéra de Montpellier, Opéra de Bordeaux and Aix-en-Provence, Opéra de Tours, the Opera di Roma, De Nederlandse Opera, the Bavarian and Vienna State Operas, the Royal Opera Covent Garden, and Welsh National Opera. She appears frequently as a concert artist in Australia and abroad, and has sung with all of the State Symphony Orchestras, the Australian Pops Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and at the Melbourne Festival. Her recordings include Lehár's Giuditta and Paganini with Richard Bonynge for Telarc, Zeisl's Requiem Ebraico and the title-rôle in Die Herzogin von Chicago (Bonynge) for Decca, and her début solo CD with Richard Bonynge entitled The Power of Love for Melba Recordings.