Since her debut as Kundry (Parsifal) at the Bayreuth Festival in 1998, Linda Watson ’79 has been recognized as one of the most important interpreters of Wagner and Strauss in our time.

After her studies in Boston and Vienna, she started her career at Aachen, and moved on to world prominence via Leipzig to Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where she was a regular ensemble member for eight years. Originally a mezzo, she sang her first soprano part as Sieglinde (Die Walküre) in Essen. She soon enlarged her new repertoire with Leonore (Fidelio), Wagner's Kundry, Isolde, Ortrud, Elisabeth and Brünnhilde, and Strauss' Ariadne, the Feldmarschallin, the Dyer’s Wife, and Elektra.

Linda Watson appears regularly in Munich, Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Florence, Bologna, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Milan's La Scala, New York's Metropolitan Opera (including Ring cycles under Levine) and Bayreuth (1998 as Kundry, 2000-2005 as Ortrud, 2006-2010 as Brünnhilde). She has worked with the world's leading conductors including Mehta, Levine, Gergiev, Thielemann, Pappano, Gatti, and Nagano. In 2013 she was nominated for the Principal Soloist Grammy award with Christian Thielemann’s Ring recording. During the 2015-16 season, Linda Watson sang a new Ring cycle at the Vienna State Opera and a new Elektra at the Hamburg State Opera.