German soprano PETRA MARIA SCHNITZER (Elisabeth) makes her Company debut this season in a role she has sung at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Los Angeles Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet. A native of Vienna, she studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum and the Vienna Conservatory, and she was a member of the studio at Vienna State Opera. Schnitzer won Barcelona's 1993 Viñas Competition and made her debut as Agathe in Der Freischütz at Vienna State Opera later that year, returning as Countess Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Ilia (Idomeneo), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Micaëla (Carmen), Freia (Das Rheingold), and Gutrune (Götterdämmerung). She has appeared with the Salzburg Festival (Der Freischütz), the Bayreuth Festival (Lohengrin), Bavarian State Opera (The Bartered Bride, Der Freischütz), Zurich Opera (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tiefland), the Vienna International Festival (Così fan tutte under Riccardo Muti), and Die Walküre (Sieglinde) in Valencia and Florence. Upcoming engagements include Elsa (Lohengrin) and Leonore (Fidelio) with Deutsche Oper Berlin; the title role of The Merry Widow with Saxon State Opera in Dresden; Elisabeth with the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and Teatro Real in Madrid; and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) at the Met. She is featured with her husband Peter Seiffert on a recording of lieder and duets by Robert and Clara Schumann; her discography also includes recordings of Der Freischütz and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.