Christine Weidinger

Christine Weidinger (born 31 March 1946 is an American operatic soprano who has had an active international career in operas and concerts since the early 1970s. Her career started at the Metropolitan Opera, after which she was active as a resident artist with opera houses in Germany during the late 1970s and 1980s. From the 1970s through the 1990s she worked as a guest artist with many leading opera houses throughout Europe, South America, and the United States.Born in Springville, New York, Weidinger grew up in New York and Arizona. She studied singing with Marlene Delavan at Grand Canyon University, Richard Dales at Arizona State University, David Scott at San Fernando Valley State College, and Margaret Harshaw at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. In April 1972 she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions; which was followed just a few months later by her professional opera debut as Cherubino in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at the Central City Opera in Colorado. She performed the same role in July 1972 for her debut with the New York City Opera with conductor Ernst Märzendorfer.

On November 24, 1972 Weidinger made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera House as Ortlinde in Richard Wagner's Die Walküre with conductor Erich Leinsdorf, Birgit Nilsson as Brünnhilde, Jon Vickers as Siegmund, and Gwyneth Jones as Sieglinde. She performed regularly at the Met through the Spring of 1976 where she was heard in mainly supporting roles like Elvira in Gioachino Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri, Frasquita in Georges Bizet's Carmen, Gianetta in Gaetano Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, the High Priestess in Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, Naiad in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, Stéphano in Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, and Woglinde in Wagner's The Ring Cycle among others. She did occasionally sing some more prominent parts like Gretel in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Marzelline in Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio, and Musetta in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème.

Following her early career at the Met, Weidinger became a resident artist at the Staatsoper Stuttgart (1976–1980; debut as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro) and the Bielefeld Opera (1981–1989). She also appeared as a guest artist at major opera houses and festivals internationally, including the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Bavarian State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Hamburg State Opera, La Fenice, La Scala, the Liceu, the Los Angeles Opera, the Municipal Theatre of Santiago, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna State Opera, and the Welsh National Opera among others. In 1988 she performed the role of Eupaforice in Carl Heinrich Graun's Montezuma at the Spoleto Festival USA. After a 16 year absence, she returned to the Metropolitan Opera in 1992 to sing the title role in Rossini's Semiramide.

Some of the many other roles Weidinger has sung on stage are Amina in La sonnambula, Arminda in La finta giardiniera, the Countess in Le comte Ory, Gilda in Rigoletto, Konstanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Leonora in Il trovatore, Violetta in La traviata, and the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor. She married North Carolina native and opera director Kenneth Smith, then assistant house manager of the Metropolitan Opera, in 1976. They currently reside in Laurinburg, North Carolina.