Mária
Celeng

Soprano Mária Celeng began her 2025–2026 season as the First Lady in Mozart’s *The Magic Flute* at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz. This was followed by performances at the same venue as Micaëla in Bizet’s *Carmen* and as Musetta in Puccini’s *La Bohème*. She also sang the role of Mrs. Fluth in *The Merry Wives of Windsor*.

During the 2023/24 season, she also appeared as Micaëla in Bizet’s *Carmen* at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz. From 2017 to 2025, she was a member of the ensemble there and sang numerous major soprano roles in recent seasons, including Fiordiligi (*Così fan tutte*), Susanna (*Le nozze di Figaro*), Musetta and Mimì (La Bohème), Pamina and First Lady (The Magic Flute), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Lucile Desmoulins (Danton’s Death), Luise (The Young Lord), and Baroness Freimann (The Poacher). In addition, she portrayed Giulietta in the new production of Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann (directed by Stefano Poda, conducted by Anthony Bramall), Ann Trulove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress (directed by Adam Cooper), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Anita (Jonny spielt auf), and the title role in Verdi’s Luisa Miller.

Celeng made her debut at major opera houses such as La Scala in Milan, where she sang the role of Drusilla in Monteverdi’s *L’incoronazione di Poppea* under the baton of Rinaldo Alessandrini. She was a member of the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project as well as the Bavarian State Opera’s Opera Studio. There she worked with conductors such as Antonio Pappano (Don Carlos, Salzburg Festival) and Franz Welser-Möst (Salzburg Festival).

In 2017, she made her debut as Despina (Così fan tutte) at the Opéra National de Paris under the musical direction of Philippe Jordan. A year later, she sang the roles of Amore and Valetto in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden under the baton of Diego Fasolis. That same year, she appeared as Annina in Strauss’s Eine Nacht in Venedig at the Royal Opera House Muscat under the baton of Daniele Rustioni.

Early in her career, she devoted herself intensively to the Baroque repertoire. For example, she sang the role of Araspe in Hasse’s *Didone abbandonata* at the Château de Versailles under the baton of Michael Hofstetter. This production was released on CD by Naxos Records. At the invitation of Rolando Villazón, she was scheduled to make her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2021 as Celidora in Mozart’s L’oca del Cairo under the direction of Robin Ticciati, but the performance was canceled due to the pandemic.
Even while she was a student, Mária Celeng devoted herself intensively to the concert and oratorio repertoire. She frequently sang the soprano part—especially at Müpa Budapest—and collaborated with renowned Hungarian musicians such as Zoltán Kocsis (Haydn’s Nelson Mass), Ádám Fischer (Haydn’s The Creation), and János Kovács (Debussy’s Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien).
Mária Celeng is a regular guest at the Hungarian State Opera and returned there during the 2023–24 season to perform the role of Musetta (La Bohème). She also returned to Müpa Budapest as the soprano soloist in the Messa per Rossini.

She earned her bachelor's degree at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and her master's degree at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich and the August Everding Theater Academy.
She has been a finalist and prize winner at major international competitions such as Neue Stimmen, Cardiff Singer of the World, and the Francisco Viñas Competition. In 2014, she received the prestigious Munich Opera Festival Prize and was awarded the Prima Primissima Junior Prize in Budapest that same year. Also in 2014, she was named “Singer of the Year” by the Abendzeitung.