Press

Thomas Rauchenwald

A brilliant PARSIFAL during the 2025 holidays at the Lindenoper

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner stepped in as Kundry for the originally announced Elina Garanca and, with her exceptionally well-focused, strong voice, lets you hear an erotically charged, sometimes blazing role portrait that is still convincing even with the high texture at the end of the second act.

Klassik begeistert

Pape, Schager, Baumgartner: The Berlin Festtags-Parsifal has the best possible cast!

Baumgartner confidently masters the dreaded screams that are not entirely harmless to the voice and sings her part, especially her big scene “Ich sah das Kind an seiner Mutter Brust”,” with great luminosity and a warm, round tone. And thanks to the size of her voice, she harmonizes perfectly with Andreas Schager's Parsifal.

Opera Online

.. the biblical penitents with sonorous alto voices Tanja Ariane Baumgartner (Mulier Samaritana) and Noa Beinart

Der Opernfreund

Munich: “Die Passagierin”, Mieczysław Weinberg — revival

The vocal performances were magnificent, with exemplary body support throughout. Tanja Ariane Baumgartner sang a good Lisa with a lush, sonorous and expressive mezzo-soprano, which she also played perfectly.

Der neue Merker

The supporting roles were also cast with Caroline Wenborne as Maiden Marianne Leitmetzerin, Gerhard Siegel as Valzacchi, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner as Annina and further festivals.

Operanews

For four performances from August 6, the distinguished German mezzo Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, a rare visitor to the UK, jumped in to replace Karen Cargillas Brangäne in the revival of Nikolaus Lehnhoff`s production of 'Tristan und Isolde' (faithfully rehearsed by his long-time assistant, Daniel Dooner.) Cargill had injured herself in a fall from one of the vertiginous steps in Roland Aeschlimann`s striking-to-look-at but singer-unfriendly design- After only a couple of day's rehearsal Baumgartner looked and sounded more comfortable on stage than her Tristan…… In Andrea Schmidt-Futterer`s striking costume, Baumgartner presented a more regal face to the world than her mistress and her voice initially veiled behind a a gauze – is a more sensual beautiful sound. Indeed, Brangäne`s warnings from an offstage tower matched the London Philharmonic`s sumptuous playing the score for the conductor Robin Ticciati. Baumgartner gave an object lesson in projection of the words and, an experienced Wagnerian, sang in exemplary style. One hope she can be lured back to Glyndebourne (for a revival of the next season's new Parsifal, perhaps?)

Wanderersite.com

As Annina and Valzacchi, on the other hand, two luxury guests: ...and Annina is Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, more often Fricka or Clytemnestra than Annina, to whom here she lends her strong, assertive voice, always mindful of diction and phrasing, and who makes the character vocally much more present than usual.

Bachtrack

Kirill Petrenko conquers La Scala with a splendid Rosenkavalier

I’d like to highlight ... Gerhard Siegel and Tanja Ariane Baumgartner as the Italian couple Valzacchi and Annina, both of whom demonstrated excellent comic timing and beautiful voices.

Bachtrack

The rise and fall of resistance: Dalbavie’s 'Melancholie des Widerstands' premieres in Berlin

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner was a textbook Madame Esther. Her ease in front of the camera and her full mezzo shaped the sly appeal of the character, which relies on occasional lyrical momentum while concealing darker motives.

The Guardian

Alfano: Complete Songs album review – reveals a much more surprising composer than one might expect

The Bastille Musique set documents all of this immaculately, and the performances, by soprano Alexandra Flood and mezzos Nina Tarandek and Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, with pianist Klaus Simon, are exemplary, exactly what’s needed for music that – outside Italy at least – is so little known.

Van Magazine

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, on the other hand, grows up to an almost oversized tragic size in the role of the hysterically evil queen: bitchy like Clytemnestra, brazen like Lady Macbeth.

Bachtrack

Detlev Glanert's 'Die Jüdin von Toledo' premieres at Semperoper Dresden

...Tanja Ariane Baumgartner's powerful mezzo seems completely comprehensible in her portrayal of the power-conscious, and ultimately victorious, Queen Eleonore.

Der neue Merker

Die Jüdin von Toledo by Detlev Glanert

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner appears as wife Eleonore of England, possessed by the war, with a unique vocal performance and a thrillingly dramatic balance.

Welt

Religious diversity and its enemies

Well-aware of the role models from Fricka to Amneris to Clytemnestra, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner gets everything out of her Eleonore with a proudly raised head and glistening mezzo, at once avenger and family guardian in her black dress. She enjoys the manipulative brilliance and biting nature of this character.

Klassik Favori

Anti-Semitism out of jealousy — Glanert's “Jüdin von Toledo” at the Semper Opera tells of utopia of love and spirals of hate

The strongest part in Glanert's opera is Eleonore, master of the hate spiral. In a tight-fitting black dress, she portrays the mercilessly impoverished woman in the center of power who, far from any feelings, defends her benefices and fights to the death for her son's succession. Tanja Ariane Baumgartner's dramatic alto and her acting ennoble the role in a great solo scene. The way she preaches her hatred at the altar, accompanied by whole-tone scales, confronts her demons and a ghostly whisper rises to her from the orchestra pit is menacing and truly frightening.

Financial Times

Die Jüdin von Toledo at Semperoper Dresden is a dazzling but difficult opera — review

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner gives her all as the cold-blooded Queen Eleonore. Glanert wrote these roles for these singers, and they fit like gloves.

Neue MusikZeitung

Love is a dream — Detlev Glanert's new opera “Die Jüdin von Toledo” premiered at the Semper Opera

that one can easily understand the furious force with which Tanja Ariane Baumgartner endows the power-conscious, ultimately triumphant Queen Eleonore in every respect.

BR Klassik

Ghostly topicality at the Semperoper

Everyone involved, from the choir to the six soloists, above all Christoph Pohl as King Alfonso, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner as his wife and Heidi Stober in the title role, contributed to the unusually successful premiere.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Finally, a pinch of criticism of Israel

When Queen Eleonore exposes her husband Alfonso in front of the child with the sentence “Your father is sensitive”, Glanert makes the prosody pointedly pointed. And Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, who is sharp in every situation anyway, lets this sentence pop out of her lips in a snippy-fiesque manner.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

My heart is dead, I'm waking up to new life

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner plays this role with an erotically saturated mezzo and a bustling presence.

GBOpera

Dresden Semperoper: “Tristan und Isolde”

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, substituting an indisposed Christa Mayer, an enchanting Brangäne

Operaplus.cz

World Tristan in Dresden

Her beautifully colored, round mezzo-soprano carried the lovers' two warnings from afar in the second act wonderfully and complemented Isolde appropriately in their two long joint exits in the first two acts.

VAN Magazine

Everyone sings for themselves

The combination with Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, standing in for Christa Mayer as Brangäne, whose voice has fullness, but above all warmth and melancholy, melancholy, seems ideal.

Das Opernmagazin.de

Highest Wagnerlust — “Tristan and Isolde” at the Semperoper Dresden

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, who stood in for Christa Mayer, who was ill, gives a convincing Brangäne across the board. She impresses with a pleasant vibrato, a beautiful dark undertone and a confident and well thought-out performance despite the short notice of her appearance

Seen and Heard International

Dresden’s Tristan und Isolde takes Wagner to a new level of excellence

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner offered a Brangäne who was an independent woman, sung with a well-rounded, rich voice.

Klassik begeistert

Dresden: Klaus Florian Vogt completes his Wagner cycle and also triumphs as Tristan

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner also has a confident evening as Brangäne, her round mezzo flowing over the love night scene like a lukewarm breeze. Vocally, the servant of her mistress Isolde has a lot to offer and is able to find her way in the overall confident vocal cast.

Mundo clasico

Ingo Metzmacher y el fin de siècle vienés

Interpreted resoundingly and impressively by the outstanding mezzo-soprano Tanja Ariane Baugartner, the character experiences all the emotions of the soul in this penumbra; fear and hope correspond in quick succession.

Kölner Stadt-Kurier

Like an Invitation to Dance Along

In addition, the mezzo-soprano sang the enormously demanding vocal part as generously in sound, as smoothly in line, as perfectly blended in vocalization, as if it had been composed by Wagner or Strauss.

Nachtkritik

And the soloists - above all Matthias Klink as the brooding Georges Esther, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner as his wife grasping for power, Sandrine Piau as Madame Pflaum and Philippe Jaroussky as her son Valouchka - oscillate virtuously between speaking and singing voice, film understatement and soap opera exaggeration.

Bachtrack

Christian Thielemann presides over a triumphant Die Frau ohne Schatten in Vienna

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner accomplished the rare feat of singing the scheming Nurse’s lengthy entreaties and cajoling with steadiness and a hint of vulnerability, arousing our sympathy for her final vanquishment

Bachtrack

Franz Welser-Möst begins his 'Ring' farewell with a rousing 'Rheingold' at the Staatsoper

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner had the mien and mezzo of the ideal Fricka, Wotan’s nagging wife who tries to keep her philandering husband by the fireside.

Bachtrack

Rage against the machine: Ulrich Rasche's 'Elektra' grinds down its performers

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner is an imposing Klytaemnestra...her presence strong and her “Ich habe keine guten Nächte”, a dark monologue on the weight of memory and the creeping devastation of trauma, deeply affecting

Operawire

Feb 21, 2024 Semperoper Dresden 2023-24 Review: Die Jüdin Von Toledo

By contrast, his wife, Eleonore, played by mezzo-soprano Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, was a veritable force of nature, able to assert her authority at will. She was a Lady Macbeth-type character who dominated her husband and was prepared to do whatever was necessary to hold on to power. Baumgartner’s vocal characterization was superb; her singing was assertive and self-assured as she punched out uncompromising lines, heavily accented and full of dynamic contrasts, taking in audacious leaps and overlaid with a determined and authoritative force. Her Act 3 confrontation with Alfonso illustrated the real balance of power that existed between them. Aggressive, manipulative and certain, she made short work of bringing Alfonso into line as she mixed her determination to reassert the power of the crown with her desire for vengeance in what was another example of Baumgartner’s interpretative vocal talent.

OperaWire

Q & A: Tanja Ariane Baumgartner on Klytämnestra at Salzburg, the ‘New Normal’ After COVID-19

And then, my parents took me to “Tosca,” and that was the magical moment. And you know, I was singing all day, loud, in the courtyard, hopefully to the pleasure of my neighbors. In that way, classical music was always there with me – and a part of me.

Bachtrack

Nocturnal orgies versus controlled reason: 'The Bassarids' at Komische Oper

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner showed the full range of her talent, from the initial cool-toned sovereign to the heart-wrenching, agonising lines of a mother becoming aware of what she's done.

Opera Magazine

There´s no question that Berlioz`s characters need help and can appear static in their confrontations, but only Tanja Ariane Baumgartner`s visionary,noble and excitingly sung Cassandre had the measure of her role as a `descendant`of the classical heroines of Gluck and Cherubini`s Médée.

BiobioChile

Tras casi dos décadas, el conmovedor drama de la ópera Jenufa está de vuelta en Chile

La excelente mezzosoprano alemana Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, quien encarnando a Kostelnicka, la “Sacristana”, asumió con contundente medios un rol que además de su gran exigencia vocal (suele ser cantado por sopranos dramáticas) es un desafío en lo actoral, que ella abordó con una gran entrega dramática pero sin caer en los desbordes o la caricatura. Como era de esperar, aprovechó muy bien su climax dramático en el segundo acto, estremeciendo con su monólogo, pero también convenciendo en las bellas líneas vocales de su conversación con Steva. Una cantante de ascendente carrera (ha actuado en escenarios como el Covent Garden de Londres y el Festival de Salzburgo, y este año debutará en el Festival de Bayreuth, como Fricka en “La valquiria”), que ojalá tengamos pronto de regreso.

Bachtrack

On the Rake: Stravinsky at Oper Frankfurt

No such problem with Tanja Ariane Baumgartner’s vividly drawn Baba the Turk, though – every word of hers told, even in the patter of the comic scene where she nags her new husband to distraction, and she steals every scene in which she appears.

Oper Aktuell

Hamburg: LES TROYENS, 28.01.2017

It has now proved to be very fortunate that LES TROYENS will premiere at the Frankfurt Opera on February 19. The singer of this production, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, has now brought forward her debut, meritfully stepped into Hamburg and thus saved the performance. And how! Her amber-colored mezzo soprano shone and sparkled with captivating intensity, brilliant peaks crowned the ominous prophecies of the vainly admonishing seer. Understandably, she still sang from the side and with the piano score on the podium and Julia Franz played the role on stage. But that didn't bother at all, it even led to a very interesting effect, the fortune teller Cassandre thus gained supernatural weight by doubling the game. ”

Bachtrack

Wotan and his women: Family drama of Die Walküre in Frankfurt

Equally excellent was Tanja Ariane Baumgartner as Fricka who made her scene with Wotan a masterclass in inhabiting the role with her penetrating brilliant voice. This Fricka makes a final appearance at the end of Act II, proudly claiming victory over Wotan over the body of Siegmund, a nice directorial touch.

Bachtrack

Frankfurt's Ring Cycle off to a good start with a straightforward Das Rheingold

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner was elegant in both appearance and voice, and her Fricka was unusually sympathetic in her warm and incisive singing.

Anaclase

Die Jüdin von Toledo

Once again, the great dramatic mezzo Tanja Ariane Baumgartner impresses in the role of Queen Eleanor. The artist brings together the warmth of her timbre, the authority of jealousy and the political and religious conviction in a truly brilliant composition [read our reviews of Lulu, Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Œdipe, Tristan und Isolde in Berlin, Bluebeard's Castle, Die Soldaten, Serse, Les Troyens in Frankfurt, Capriccio in Frankfurt and Munich, Otello, The Bassarids in Salzburg and Berlin, Elektra in Salzburg and Geneva, Parsifal in Geneva, and his recording of Ervín Šulhov's Lieder.]

The Independent

The rest of this superb Prom consisted of Mahler’s Ruckert-Lieder and Mozart’s Mass in C minor. In the former, mezzo-soprano Tanja Ariane Baumgartner was the soloist, and one couldn’t have wished for a more gracefully accomplished exponent.

Das Rheingold

Lyric fielded an exceptional quartet of German singers in Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, as a luxuriously intoned Fricka.