Romana Vaccaro

Romana Vaccaro sang in the open-air productions that toured German towns in 2007 and 2008, appearing in Puccini's Tosca at Stadtlohn, Bad Dürkheim and Kirn, and in Verdi's Aida at Siegen. She was born Romana Kahlerova in Prague on 20 February 1956, studied at the Prague Conservatory and twice took first prize in the Czechoslovak television singing competition. She settled in Germany in 1980, studied privately with Eike Wilm Schulte and George-Emil Crasnaru and attended Josef Metternich's masterclass. From the 1982/83 season she sang in the chorus of the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden and then mezzo roles there — Lola in Cavalleria rusticana, Giovanna in Rigoletto, the mother in Knussen's Where the Wild Things Are. Angelina in La Cenerentola came at the Kammeroper Frankfurt in 1996, Santuzza at Constanta in 1998, Fenena at Heidenheim in 1999. She moved to the dramatic soprano repertoire around 2003, singing her first Tosca that August with L'Opera Piccola of Bad Schwalbach, and her first Aida in July 2008. She died at Bad Schwalbach on 23 January 2024.