Christian Thielemann hand picks Australian singer to front his latest Brahms’ Requiem.

Siobhan Stagg has been asked to step in at short notice to sing the lead in Brahms’ Requiem with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The Australian soprano, who has been making a name for herself in Germany since she joined the Deutsche Oper Berlin as a young artist in 2013, has been asked by Staatskapelle Dresden supremo Christian Thielemann to sing in performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week.

No-one was more surprised, apparently, than Stagg herself. “Yesterday morning I was standing at a boarding gate at Berlin’s Tegel airport about to fly to Zürich,” she told Limelight. “Out of the blue I received a call from my European agent who told me the Berlin Philharmonic were without a soprano for three performances of the Brahms Requiem with Christian Thielemann this weekend, and they wanted to know if I would be available. I could hardly believe what I was hearing!”

Thielemann is one of the hottest conducting talents on the planet, and tipped as a significant contender for most of the top jobs whenever they come...