Schnaut, Gabriele (1951– )

German soprano. She studied in Frankfurt and Berlin, singing first in Darmstadt (1978–80). She appeared at the Bayreuth Festival from 1977, as Waltraute, Venus, and Sieglinde. She made her US debut at Chicago, as Fricka, in a concert of Wagner's Das Rheingold. She sang Ophelia in the first performance of Rihm's Die Hamletmaschine (1987), and appeared in London at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 1988, as Ortrud and Sieglinde (Wagner, Lohengrin and Die Walküre/The Valkyrie). She made her US stage debut at San Francisco in 1991, as Isolde (Wagner, Tristan und Isolde). She sang Brünnhilde (Wagner, the Ring cycle) at Cologne in 1990 and at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris in 1994.