Bio

Greek lyric coloratura soprano Dimitra Kotidou has been praised by the press for being a “a magical voice with its own coloring, a brilliant actress!”. Most recently, she made her debut as a brilliant “Lucia di Lammermoor” in Germany, where critics have lauded her performance as an “impressive confirmation of her high art of singing” (Martin Köhl – Art5drei). Despite her young age, she has worked and studied with celebrated artists, such as Montserrat Caballé, Renata Scotto, Linda Watson, Cheryl Studer, Franco Zeffirelli, Bo Skovhus, Dimitri Kavrakos, David Syrus, Sir Graham Vick. Dimitra has craved her own path into the forefront of exciting young sopranos through numerous outstanding role debuts, including Queen of the Night, Konstanze, Lucia di Lammermoor, Gilda, La Reine de Chemakha and Olympia.

photo credit : Sylvain Guillot

In the season 2023/24, Dimitra celebrated a remarkable house debut at the Staatsoper Hannover as Queen of the Night in “Die Zauberflöte”, a beloved and most-performed role of hers, which has already brought her to many major operatic stages of Europe. The season marked another successful, critically acclaimed role debut for the young soprano, as Dimitra performed in Greece the role of Gilda in G. Verdi’s “Rigoletto”, directed by Éric Chevalier. In May 2024 Dimitra returned to Greek National Opera during the 2nd Sacred Music Festival, where she performed as the Soprano in “Requiem” (K.626) by W.A. Mozart. Since 2018 she is a regular guest singer at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein where, among other noteworthy roles, she has performed as Queen of the Night in numerous performances of “Die Zauberflöte” in the world-famous staging of Barrie Kosky by the Komische Oper Berlin.

During the 2024/25 Season, the young soprano will sing the title role of the Nightingale in the contemporary Opera by the acclaimed Greek composer Lena Platonos “The Emperor’s Nightingale”, a production by the Greek National Opera staged at the National Theatre of Nothern Greece under the auspices of the Dimitria59 Festival. She will also make her role debut as Adele in “Die Fledermaus” by J. Strauss II at the Olympia Municipal Theater in Athens, and she will perform the Soprano part in the “Requiem” by Andrew Lloyd Webber in the highly anticipated annual Easter concert with the Athens State Orchestra at Megaron Athens Concert Hall. Furthermore, Dimitra is looking forward to coming back to her artistic home in Germany, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where she will reprise her much-celebrated role as Queen of the Night.

Dimitra has worked with renowned conductors including Antonino Fogliani, Axel Kober, Marc Piollet, Jochen Rieder, Vitali Alekseenok, Roland Kluttig, Daniel Carter, Giordano Bellincampi, and has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras including the Athens State Symphony Orchestra, the Greek National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Camerata Baroque Orchestra, the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, the Duisburger Philharmoniker, the Bielefelder Philharmoniker, the Berner Symphonieorchester, the Osnabrücker Symphonieorchester and the Niedersächsische Staatsorchester Hannover. She made her solo debut with Greek National Opera aged 19 singing Ninetta (La finta semplice) and Clarice (L’ amante di tutte). From 2016 to 2018 she was a member of the Opera Studio of Deutsche Oper am Rhein where her repertoire ranged from Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Olympia (Les Contes d’ Hoffmann) to Le Feu/La Princesse/Le Rossignol (L’ enfant et les sortilèges) and Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte).

In 2021, she successfully completed her studies on “18th-Century Opera: Handel & Mozart” from Harvard University with Professor Thomas Forrest Kelly. Dimitra studied piano, theory of music, harmony, counterpoint and fugue at the Greek National Conservatoire. She went on to study Opera with Christina Giannakopoulou at the Athenaeum “Maria Callas” Conservatorium and at the Kodàly International Music Institute, from which she graduated with distinction, and was the recipient of the award for most distinguished performance. She has studied International and European Relations at the University of Piraeus. Dimitra was born in Athens, Greece.