American full-lyric soprano Julia Stuart has just completed her second season as a member of the Opernstudio at Oper Frankfurt.

 

During the 2025/2026 season, she appeared as Niece 2 in Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes (Keith Warner, director; Thomas Guggeis, conductor), Katja in Mieczysław Weinberg’s Die Passagierin (Ansel Weber; Leo Hussain), and Lady-in-Waiting in Verdi’s Macbeth (R.B. Schlather; Giacomo Sagripanti).

 

In the 2026/2027 season, she returns to Oper Frankfurt as a guest artist to make her role debuts as Liù in Puccini’s Turandot (Andrea Breth; Simone di Felice), and Gerhilde in Wagner’s Die Walküre (Vera Nemirova; Thomas Guggeis). She is also the recipient of the Richard-Wagner Stipendium awarded through Oper Frankfurt and will attend the Bayreuth Festival in 2026.

 

In her first season at Oper Frankfurt, Ms. Stuart made four role debuts: High Priestess in Verdi’s Aida (Lydia Steiner; Giuseppe Mentuccia), The Shadow of the Virgin in Albéric Magnard’s Guercœur (David Hermann; Marie Jacquot), Clotilde in Bellini’s Norma (Christof Loy; Giuliano Carella), and a Blumenmädchen in Wagner’s Parsifal (Brigitte Fassbaender; Thomas Guggeis). She performed in a Liederabend curated under the guidance of Brigitte Fassbaender at Oper Frankfurt and performed in a series of concerts with her Opernstudio colleagues, presenting repertoire from Così fan tutte, Un ballo in maschera, Tosca, Ariadne auf Naxos, Alcina, Anna Bolena, Romeo et Juliette and Le Nozze di Figaro.

 

Prior to joining Oper Frankfurt, Ms. Stuart was a Festival Artist at Opera Saratoga, where she made her role debut as  Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte under the baton of Ryan McAdams and in a production directed by Gisela Cárdenas. Her performance received widespread critical acclaim. The Berkshire Eagle described her as “the sparkling find of Opera Saratoga’s season,” praising her “pure, powerful Fiordiligi,” while Times Union called her “the standout” of the production, highlighting her interpretation of “Per pietà, ben mio, perdona.”

 

A graduate of The Juilliard School, Ms. Stuart earned a Graduate Diploma in Opera Studies from the Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts in 2023, where she was awarded the Novick Career Grant. At Juilliard, she sang Ma Zegner in Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up (Mary Birnbaum; Steven Osgood). Opera News praised her for deploying “the weight of her multi-timbered soprano” in the role, while Parterre Box described her voice as possessing a “seemingly limitless supply of raw and electrifying vocal power.” Additional Juilliard appearances included her Alice Tully Hall recital debut, scenes from La Bohème, and covering the role of Frau Fluth in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor. She was also awarded First Prize in the New York District of the NATS Competition.

 

Additional training includes SongFest’s Professional Program, where she worked with Frederica von Stade, Jake Heggie, and Graham Johnson, and Classic Lyric Arts in Novafeltria, Italy. Ms. Stuart holds a Master of Music degree from the Mannes School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree from UCLA, where she appeared as Lillian Russell in Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All and participated in productions of Cendrillon, Così fan tutte, and I due Figaro.

 

Ms. Stuart has participated in masterclasses with distinguished artists including Neil Shicoff, Diana Soviero, Edith Wiens, Brigitte Fassbaender, Frederica von Stade, Barbara Bonney, Graham Johnson, Lisette Oropesa, Steven Blier and Željko Lučić. In addition to her vocal training, she studied ballet and contemporary dance in California and continues her acting studies with Mary Birnbaum and Broadway actor Nic Rouleau.