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Soprano Caroline Whisnant has quickly established her reputation for impeccable artistry and remarkable versatility, with a repertoire ranging from Elektra to Turandot and from Lady Macbeth to Fidelio. The Indianapolis News once asked:

“Is there anything Whisnant can’t do? Certainly she demonstrated that Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, and his contemporaries are within her grasp. In a few years, I wouldn’t be surprised to read that she had been cast in the title role of Bellini’s NORMA.”

Indeed, this prophecy has since been realized, as Whisnant’s “Norma” has enjoyed triumphant critical and popular success in both the United Staes and South America.

From 2004 till 2010 Caroline Whisnant was a member of the renowned State Theatre of Mannheim, where she has since appeared for example as Elektra, Ariadne auf Naxos, Leonore|Fidelio, Ortrud|Lohengrin, Senta|Der fliegende Holländer, Turandot, Elisabeth|Tannhäuser, Agathe|Der Freischütz, the Dyer's Wife|Die Frau ohne Schatten, Brünnhilde|Wagner's Ring Cycle and also in the roles of Anna Bolena, Tosca and Medée.

At the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe Whisnant gave her European debut as Elektra in 2004. She was then immediately invited to debut all three Brünnhilde in the new Ring Cycle staged and designed by Denis Krief. This project had its peak with the December 2006 première of Götterdämmerung. Numerous cycles are planned until 2011. In 2006 Whisnant was Karlsruhe's Turandot in a new production. 2007 saw her return also as the Dyer's Wife. She performed again Turandot, Brünnhilde and the Dyer's Wife in 2008/09 and 2009/10.

It was Whisnant's role debut as Lady Macbeth under the baton of Paolo Carignani and in the controversial Calixto Bieito production that she scored a tremendous success with at Frankfurt Opera in May 2005. Opernwelt hailed her as one of Europe's female singers of the year and the Frankfurt Opera invited her again for several interesting projects: in 2006 she performed Elektra under Lothar Zagrosek and Lady Macbeth under Pier Giorgio Morandi. In 2007 she returned to Frankfurt as Elektra, performed there in 2008 for the first time Regan|Lear under Sebastian Weigle, and in 2009 the Dyer's Wife, again with M° Weigle.

In Cagliari, Caroline Whisnant sang Brünnhilde|Die Walküre with great success in April 2006. With Turandot she made her debut at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice in 2007.

Her performance as Brünnhilde|Die Walküre marked Caroline Whisnant's highly successful debut at the Royal Opera Stockholm in the reprisal series in October 2006 and 2008. In 2009 Whisnant performed as Elektra at the Oslo Opera and in 2010 again at Stockholm's Royal Opera.

In 2010, she sang Sieglinde|Die Walküre in the Alte Oper Frankfurt with the NDR Radiophilharmonie. Afterwards Whisnant returned to Essen with the Dyer's Wife, followed by Brünnhilde|Götterdämmerung in a new production led by M° Stefan Soltesz and director Barrie Kosky. With Elektra she made her debut at Teatr Wielki in Warsaw as well as in Wiesbaden.

In 2011, Whisnant returned to Essen as Brünnhilde, performed Turandot in Mannheim, Brünnhilde in the RING production of Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and made her debut as Claire Zachanassian|Der Besuch der Alten Dame in Gießen. Further engagements will take her to, for example, Wiesbaden, Frankfurt and Turin.

Caroline Whisnant was born in the USA where she studied music sciences and lyrics. After a having been at the Opera Studio of the Virginia Opera she made her debut as Fiordiligi|Così fan tutte. She has won acclaim with critics and audiences alike for her sensitive and technically assured performances of a wide range of roles, including Tosca in Pensacola and New Jersey, Suor Angelica in Nevada, Leonore|Fidelio in San Antonio, Desdemona|Otello in Baltimore, Santuzza|Cavalleria rusticana in Kansas City, Senta|Der fliegender Holländer in Buffalo, Madame Lidoine|Les Dialogues des Carmélites in Tulsa, Maddalena de Coigny|Andrea Chénier in Kansas City, Rosalinde|Die Fledermaus in Kentucky, Norma in Bogotà and also Turandot in Bogotà, Des Moines, Dallas, Kentucky, Pensacola, Arkansas, Portland and Santiago de Chile.

Elektra & Brünnhilde photographs by Jacqueline Krause-Burberg. © 2006.