Christine Weidinger

Christine Weidinger (born March 31, 1946) is an American operatic soprano who has had an active international career in operas and concerts since the early 1970s. Her career started at the Metropolitan Opera, after which she was active as a resident artist with opera houses in Germany during the late 1970s and 1980s. From the 1970s through the 1990s she worked as a guest artist with many leading opera houses throughout Europe, South America, and the United States.

Born in Springville, New York, Weidinger grew up in New York and Arizona. She studied singing with Marlene Delavan at Grand Canyon University, Richard Dales at Arizona State University, David Scott at San Fernando Valley State College, and Margaret Harshaw at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. In April 1972 she won the national first prize in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions with a contract at the Met and the enthusiastic endorsement of the in-coming General Manager Goeren Gentele, who announced to the "New York Times" that Weidinger would be his first "home-grown" star. This was followed just a few months later by her professional opera debut as Cherubino in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at the Central City Opera in Colorado.

On November 24, 1972 Weidinger made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera House as Ortlinde in Richard Wagner's Die Walküre with conductor Erich Leinsdorf, Birgit Nilsson as Brünnhilde, Jon Vickers as Siegmund, and Gwyneth Jones as Sieglinde. This performance was a jump-in. She had been scheduled to debut as Musetta in "La Boheme", which she finally sang a few days later. She performed regularly at the Met through the Spring of 1976 where she was heard as Elvira in Gioachino Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri, Frasquita in Georges Bizet's Carmen, Gianetta in Gaetano Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, the High Priestess in Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, Naiad in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, Stéphano in Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Woglinde in Wagner's The Ring Cycle, Gretel in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Marzelline in Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio, and, of course, Musetta in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème.

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