Catherine Daniel

Canadian mezzo-soprano Catherine Daniel is based in Edmonton and works across opera, concert and contemporary music theatre in Canada, the United States and Europe. Her 2026/27 engagements include the Witch in Hänsel und Gretel at the Staatsoperette Dresden and Pacific Opera Victoria. These engagements continue relationships that have included Queenie in Show Boat in Dresden and Mrs. Grose in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw in Victoria.

Wagner has featured regularly in Ms. Daniel’s Canadian engagements. She sang Fricka in Die Walküre with Edmonton Opera in 2025, following Fricka in Das Rheingold with the same company in 2024 and Erda with Calgary Opera that year. She had previously sung Erda with Opéra de Montréal. Her work in Europe also includes Ježibaba in Rusalka at Theater Erfurt in 2024.

Contemporary opera is a substantial part of her career. Ms. Daniel made her Spoleto Festival USA debut in 2022 as Katie Ellen in Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’s Omar, subsequently taking the role to Chapel Hill and Boston Lyric Opera. Her Canadian Opera Company debut followed in Kye Marshall’s Pomegranate in 2023, singing Livie and Mother. That year she also appeared in David Bontemps’ La Flambeau with the Orchestre classique de Montréal. Her work in this repertoire includes Emelda Griffith in Terence Blanchard’s Champion at Opéra de Montréal and the Overseer in Juliet Palmer’s Sweat with the Bicycle Opera Project, with which she also worked on the opera’s film adaptation. Digital projects include Messiah Complex with Against the Grain Theatre.

Among Ms. Daniel’s earlier career milestones was stepping in as Klytemnestra in Edmonton Opera’s Elektra in 2017. Her other roles include Carmen with Opera Tampa, Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana and Queen Elizabeth in Maria Stuarda with Knoxville Opera, and Carmen in Peter Brook’s adaptation with the Magogo Orkest in the Netherlands. She has also toured extensively in Porgy and Bess across Europe and North America.

Concert and recital work has taken her to Edmonton and Winnipeg, with appearances in Handel’s Messiah in Canada and the United States. She sang Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in 2023 and Haydn’s Mass in Time of War at Carnegie Hall in 2017.

Ms. Daniel completed her Master of Vocal Performance with John Tessier at the University of Alberta in 2023. She holds Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Education degrees from the University of Manitoba, where she studied voice with Tracy Dahl. Her further training includes the Franz Schubert Institute, the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal and Opera Studio Nederland.