Karolina Bengtsson

The young Swedish soprano Karolina Bengtsson has an exiting 2026/27 season at Oper Frankfurt, beginning the season with Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and the title role in Mozart’s Zaide. She will also sing Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Oberto in Alcina, as well as a major role for the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm.

Karolina has been part of the soloist ensemble at Oper Frankfurt from the season 2023/24, where her roles have included Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Silvia in Mozart's Ascanio in Alba, Belisa in Fortner's In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplin Belisa, Anna in Blühen/Blossoming by Žuraj, Aljeja in From the House of the Dead, Sophie in Werther, Clotilde in Bellini’s Norma and many more.

Karolina has been a guest at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence as Camille in Louise by Charpentier, and at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music as Dori in Ifigenia in Tauride by Traetta, both in 2025. In 2024, she stepped in on short notice for her Bayerische Staatsoper debut as Clotilde in Norma, followed by a similar late-notice debut at The Royal Swedish Opera as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro in 2025. In 2022/23 she sang Nerina and Diana in a concert version of Haydn’s La fedeltà premiata at the Haydn Festival at Schloss Augustburg and Isaura in Mercadante's Francesca da Rimini, performed at Tiroler Festspiele Erl.

Karolina has performed with Sweden’s leading orchestras, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. She has worked with conductors such as Thomas Guggeis, Benjamin Reiners, Daniel Geiss (Brixen Classics Festival) and Andreas Spering (Capella Augustina) and her concert repertoire include a wide range of Lied and concert arias as well as oratorio repertoire such as Haydn’s Die Schöpfung and Die Jahreszeiten, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, Pergolesi Stabat Mater and Lars-Erik Larsson, Förklädd Gud/God in Disguise. Karolina Bengtsson has in 2018 performed the world premiere of The Death and Juliet a piece dedicated to her written by Daniel Nelson, performed and later recorded with violinist Malin Broman and the Musica Vitae Chamber Orchestra.

Karolina studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and Mozarteum in Salzburg, where teachers included Barbara Bonney, and Wolfgang Holzmair in Lied. Barbara Bonney guided her through her master’s degree in art, including Oper, Lied and Oratorium, and she sang her first Pamina at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg in 2021.

Karolina made her debut at Oper Frankfurt during the season of 2021/22 when she joined the Oper Frankfurt Opera Studio, singing Clotilde in Norma, Frasquita in Carmen, Second Woman in Dido and Aeneas and Suor Osmina in Suor Angelica. The same season Karolina sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni in a concert version in the concert Salon Frankfurt: Das Opernhaus als Papiertheater at Alte Oper Frankfurt.

Karolina Bengtsson was named the recipient of the Birgit Nilsson Stipendium in 2025. Karolina has distinguished herself in major singing competitions across Europe, such as the Golden Victoria First Prize at DEBUT 2020, the Rheinsberg Beethoven Lieder Prize 2020, and the Best Young Artist distinction at the Meistersinger von Nürnberg Competition in 2022. 2021 included the 3rd prize, as well as three special prizes including engagements at the International Haydn Competition for Classical Lied and Aria in Austria: the Sonderpreis der Bühne Baden, the Sonderpreis des Teatro Mayor in Bogotá and the Sonderpreis der Capella Augustina in Cologne.

October 2026