Singing Opera in Germany

Marita Knobel was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and studied psychology, voice pathology and speech therapy at the University of Pretoria. She worked subsequently for six years as a speech therapist for disabled children while singing in her free time at the Pretoria State Opera. After completing her studies at the London Opera Centre, she began her career as a soloist (mezzo-soprano) at the Cologne City Opera, in Germany in 1971. There she sang many roles of her Fach, specializing in the German, Slavic and modern repertoire. Fourteen years later she returned to South Africa as Assistant Artistic Director at the Cape Town Opera, where she also developed the Young Professionals Training Program.

In 1985 she resumed her operatic career in Germany, where after a few years of freelancing she joined the Bavarian State Opera in Munich as a soloist in the character Fach. She has also appeared as a guest singer in Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao, Rome, Tokyo, Vienna, Tel Aviv, Strasbourg and Toulouse.

Marita Knobel now offers individual audition training and career counselling for the operatic profession. She is also the founder and artistic director of the Sommerkurs für Operndarstellung, a summer course offering movement, acting, musical interpretation and audition training in Munich.

She is the co-author of the German opera handbook, Beruf: Opernsänger. Ein Ratgeber, which was published by Bärenreiter in 2002.

Brigitte Steinert is the chief librarian of a Bavarian state cultural institution and is a qualified cultural manager. She studied singing with Kammersänger Karl Christian Kohn and stage direction with Horst Reday at the Richard-Strauss-Konservatorium in Munich. She sang for ten years in the extra chorus of the Bavarian State Opera and was a soloist and assistant stage director at the Freies Landestheater Bayern.

She does audition training, career counselling and German dialogue for the stage. She is the co-director of the Sommerkurs für Operndarstellung and founding chairman of the Förderverein Meisterkurse für Operndarstellung e.V. in Munich.

She is the co-author of Beruf: Opernsänger.