Russian mezzo-soprano Maria Kataeva successfully completed her degree in vocal studies at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg in 2012. In addition to singing, she studied piano and choral conducting there. While still a student, she became a member of the opera studio at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, where she later sang various leading parts.

Maria Kataeva has won numerous competitions. In 2019 she was awarded both the Audience Prize and the Second Prize of the Jury of Experts at the Operalia. In 2016 she won the 1st prize in the overall category and 3rd prize in the German fach of the singing competition Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and in 2014 she was awardee of the 3rd prize at the Paris Opera Competition.

After her great success as Carmen at the Semperoper Dresden, she returned there in the 2019/20 season as Marquise Melibea in the new production of Il viaggio a Reims. At the Deutsche Oper am Rhein she could be seen in the 2019/20 season in the new production of Handel’s Alcina as Ruggiero, she sang again Angelina in Rossini’s Cenerentola and child in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges. In October 2019 Maria Kataeva took part in the prestigious Placido Domingo concert in Crocus City Hall in Moscow.

In the 2020/2021 season she will make her debut at the Macerata Festival in Italy (Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia). The concert, which would have been her debut at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg, unfortunately, had to be cancelled due to restrictions related to the corona pandemic.

Maria Kataeva’s repertoire includes such roles as Carmen, Cenerentola, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Olga in Eugen Onegin, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Idamante in Idomeneo, Nicklausse in Les contes d’Hoffmann, composer in Ariadne auf Naxos and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Ruggero in Alcina, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Polina in Pique Dame, Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and Ronja in Arnecke’s Ronja, the robber’s daughter.