SERENA SÁENZ
VOCALIST - SOPRANO
CLASSICAL
Photo 1 © Dovile Sermokas
Photo 3 © Natalia Cornudella
Javier Manzana
Special projects: Concerts and Recitals for Limited Territories
General Management: CSAM
ABOUT
Spanish soprano Serena Sáenz is one of the most exciting lyric coloraturas of her generation, acclaimed for her “musicality, good taste in ornamentation and luminous high notes with a good arsenal of bel canto resources” (Scherzo). She is a multiple award winnerat Operalia 2022, receiving Second Prize, the Pepita Embil Zarzuela Prize, and the Birgit Nilsson Prize, and was the first Spaniard to win both the First Prize and Audience Award at the Montserrat Caballé International Singing Competition in 2021. She has also earned distinctions at the Paris Opera Competition and the Francesc Viñas Competition.
A frequent guest at leading international opera houses, Sáenz has performed with the Vienna State Opera, Staatsoper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper, Teatro Real de Madrid, and Gran Teatre del Liceu, among others. Signature roles include Nannetta in Falstaff, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Clorinda in La Cenerentola, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Queen of the Night & Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, role that she sung at the Gran Teatre del Liceu led by Gustavo Dudamel.
Her 2024/25 season includes key house and role debuts: Lucia di Lammermoor at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Ilia in Idomeneo and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at Staatsoper Berlin, Olympia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann at Vienna State Opera conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, Queen of the Night also at Vienna State Opera, and Marie in La fille du régiment at Bayerische Staatsoper. She also debuts at Teatro de la Zarzuela in La Tabernera del Puerto, and returns to Salzburg for Il re pastore at the DomQuartier Rittersaal under Rolando Villazón.
Concert appearances this season include Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in Madrid with Alondra de la Parra, a Strauss “Silvesterkonzert” at Vienna’s Musikverein with Tonkuenstler Orchester, and recitals across Europe and Latin America with guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas and Plácido Domingo.
Past highlights include debuts at the Royal Danish Opera, Palau de les Arts Valencia, and a surprise debut in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor at Bayerische Staatsoper. She has appeared at the Salzburg Mozart Week with the Vienna Philharmonic and at the Teatro alla Scala.
In 2024 Serena opened the Vienna Opera Ball alongside renowned artists Elīna Garanča and Piotr Beczała, with the orchestra of the Wiener Staatsoper conducted by Bertrand de Billy. Serena has also sung Mahler's Symphonies Nos. 4 under S. Bychkov, Mozart's Requiem, Carmina Burana, a Scarlatti programme with Accademia Bizantina at the Pierre Boulez-Saal and Mozart Mass in C minor.
In March 2025 Serena Sáenz has released her debut album BIRDS in cooperation with EuroArts. The album, recorded with the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra, explores the connection between the lyrical coloratura soprano voice and the fascinating world of songbirds.
A graduate of the HfM Hanns Eisler in Berlin, Sáenz previously trained at the Conservatori Superior del Liceu in Barcelona and was a member of the Internationales Opernstudio at Staatsoper Berlin. She has studied with renowned artists including Montserrat Caballé, Dolora Zajick, and Mariella Devia.