The German mezzo-soprano Claudia Mahnke studied singing in Dresden with Heidi Petzhold and made her operatic début in 1992 in Chemnitz. She joined the Stuttgart State Theatre in 1996, where she sang a series of leading rôles, winning particular personal success in the title rôle of Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus in Stuttgart and at the Munich Opera Festival in 2005, and in August 2006 she was awarded the title of Kammersängerin of the Stuttgart State Theatre. In 2006 she joined the Frankfurt Opera, where she has taken principal rôles. She has undertaken guest engagements in opera and in concert at home and abroad.