Meier, Waltraud (1956– )

German mezzo-soprano. After study in Cologne she sang at Wurzburg from 1976, as Cherubino, Dorabella, and Nicklausse; at Mannheim from 1978; and at Dortmund from 1980, as Carmen, Fricka, Octavian, and Eboli. She is widely admired as Wagner's Kundry, which she has sung at Bayreuth (1983), the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London (1988), and at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. Other Bayreuth roles have been Brangaene, Waltraute (1988), and Isolde (1993). She made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1984, as Eboli and at the Metropolitan Opera House, as Fricka in the Ring. Other roles included Azucena, Venus, the Composer, Tchaikovsky's Maid of Orleans (Munich, 1990), and Sieglinde (Vienna, 1993).