
B I O G R A P H Y
Recognized for her vocalism and artistic commitment in both classical and contemporary operatic repertoire, American soprano Elizabeth Reiter has garnered critical acclaim for her
“rich and silvery” voice (The Boston Globe) and “impressive musical polish” (Opera News), characterizing her as “terrific, a very vital lyric soprano with stellar pitch and attack
wedded to fiercely communicative instincts.” (Opera Magazine)
Ms. Reiter is currently a member of the prestigious Oper Frankfurt ensemble,
where her 2022-23 season includes role debuts as Tatiana in Eugene Onegin and
the title character in Orff's Die Kluge, as well as reprisals of her acclaimed portrayals of
Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen and Asteria in Händel's Tamerlano.
During her time in Frankfurt, she has been lauded for her performances as Gretel in
Hänsel und Gretel, Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress, Armida in Händel’s Rinaldo, Valencienne in Die Lustige Witwe, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Katja in
Weinberg’s Die Passagierin, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Woglinde in Das Rheingold, and both Frasquita and Mercédès in Barrie Kosky’s Carmen, among many others.
Elsewhere in Europe, Ms. Reiter has performed Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with
Oper Stuttgart, Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte with Oper im Steinbruch, Ortlinde in Die Walküre with Staatstheater Kassel, The Cunning Little Vixen with Volkstheater Rostock,
and Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf.
In the United States, Ms. Reiter received international attention for her portrayal of
Aphrodite in the American premiere of HW Henze’s Phaedra with Opera Philadelphia,
where she has also appeared as The Cunning Little Vixen, Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Amor in Orphée et Eurydice. Other notable US appearances include Zerlina in Don Giovanni under the baton of James Levine (Tanglewood Music Center), Pamina in
The Magic Flute and Flora in The Turn of the Screw (Chicago Opera Theater),
Adele in Die Fledermaus (Opera Memphis), and La libellule in
L’Enfant et les Sortiléges with Lorin Maazel (Castleton Festival).
On the concert stage, Ms. Reiter recently performed Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915
with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the baton of John Wilson,
which was broadcast on BBC Radio. She has also sung a New Year's Eve Concert of Kálmán Operettas with the Tiroler Festspiele Erl under Alexander Prior, a concert of Joseph Marx and
Erich Korngold Lieder with the Jenaer Philharmonie under Christoph Altstaedt,
as soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem on the Frankfurt Alte Oper stage, and with
Frankfurt’s Ensemble Modern in Sofia Gubaidulina’s Hommage à T.S. Eliot.
A frequent interpreter of new music, Ms. Reiter made her professional debut at the age of 16 as Young Maria Celeste in the world premiere of Philip Glass and Mary Zimmerman’s
Galileo Galilei (Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and London’s Barbican Center). She later returned to the Goodman Theatre as Polyxena in Zimmerman’s staging of Seneca’s Trojan Women, singing an aria specially composed by Philip Glass.
Apart from the opera stage, Elizabeth has collaborated with composer Libby Larsen on her
Songs from Letters at the Ravinia Music Festival and with composer André Previn on his
Sallie Chisum remembers Billy the Kid both at the Tanglewood Music Center and in a
televised performance in Tokyo with the composer at the piano.
Ms. Reiter received her graduate degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and her undergraduate degree from the Manhattan School of Music, with additional studies at the Steans Institute at Ravinia Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, Chautauqua Institution, and as a Gerdine Young Artist with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Originally from Chicago, Elizabeth received her earliest operatic training as a member of the children’s chorus with the Lyric Opera of Chicago.