SolenMainguené

She began her career at the Hamburg State Opera, where, as a resident artist, she performed more than twenty roles and built the foundation of her lyrical repertoire. Her roles there included Musetta, Micaëla, First Lady and the Flower Maiden in Parsifal, among others.

As a freelance artist, she continued to refine and expand her repertoire across Germany and Europe, performing roles such as Mimì, Violetta, Manon, Antonia, Liù, Nedda, Rosalinde, Tatjana, Contessa and the Governess. Her engagements included Theater Freiburg, Theater Aachen, Theater Dessau, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen, Oper Halle, Oper Leipzig, Malmö Opera, Opéra Grand Avignon, Opéra de Massy, Opéra de Clermont-Ferrand, Opéra de Vichy, Opéra de Reims and Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.

In 2023, she joined the ensemble of Oper Leipzig, marking a new chapter in her artistic development. There, she began exploring a more spinto and jugendlich dramatisch repertoire, adding roles such as Desdemona, Lisa, the Marschallin, Gutrune and Alice Ford to her repertoire.

In the 2026/27 season at Oper Leipzig, she returns as Mimìin Konwitschny’s celebrated production of La bohème and as Micaëla in Carmen. She will also appear as Giorgetta in Puccini’s Il Tabarro under the baton of Ivan Repušić and revisit one of her signature roles, Nedda, in a brand-new production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.

Alongside her work at Oper Leipzig, she is now expanding her international career, appearing at renowned opera houses including Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, Staatsoper Hannover, Teatro Real Madrid, Copenhagen Royal Opera and Prague State Opera.

A trained actress, Solen moves naturally between opera, theatre, film, narration and performance. She is particularly drawn to interdisciplinary work, in which different artistic languages meet and where she can move freely between singing, speaking and acting.

Narration and musical narration are a recurring part of her artistic practice. Her signature role is Jeanne d’Arc in Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, which she first performed alongside Fanny Ardant at the Laeiszhalle Hamburg in 2015 and for which she was Marion Cotillard’s understudy at Teatro Real Madrid in 2022. Her interdisciplinary work has also led her to reimagine operatic roles beyond conventional forms, notably as Violetta in La traviata at Oper Halle in 2021, in a production by the collective Hauen und Stechen that brought together singing, speech and dance. With the Bundesjugendballett, she has likewise developed productions in which opera, theatre and dance meet on equal terms.

Her work extends into theatre, including The Threepenny Opera with a full acting cast at Thalia Theater Hamburg, and Die Fledermaus in Baden, Switzerland, alongside actor Robert Hunger-Bühler. Next season, she continues this exploration as Neddain a new production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci at Oper Leipzig, created in collaboration with the Leipziger Ballett and bringing opera, dance and theatre together in a shared stage language.

Solen is distinguished by her versatility, linguistic ease and strong stage presence. She speaks French, English and German fluently and is equally at home performing in Italian and Russian.