AnnaMaria Cardinalli
TUNDI Artist
2
About me.
AnnaMaria is enjoying a very Wagnerian year! Over 365 days, she has performed each of the contralto personages of the Ring, and at the time of this writing, she is a national finalist for the Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Memorial Award for vocal performance in professional opera. For her, participating in Wagner in Vermont’s historic 2025 complete cycle is the year’s crowning honor!
Having achieved winged-helmeted dreams beyond her wildest imagination, she has the inspiration and guidance of TUNDI’s amazing artists and leaders to thank. TUNDI takes a special interest in assisting and developing the rare voice types that Wagner’s music demands, and, in doing so, similarly nurtures the people and circumstances in which those voices tend to be packaged!
For instance, AnnaMaria’s journey to Wagner was far off the operatic path! A Navy veteran, her noted intelligence work in Iraq and Afghanistan exposed severe human rights abuses. Upon returning home, she took vows in the foundation of an emerging community continuing to combat those abuses by serving the homeless and exploited at www.StCatherinesMission.org, where she asks your prayers and support!
A proud student of Janice Pantazelos, AnnaMaria’s contralto has been praised for its "other-worldly" darkness and warmth. Some of her favorite roles include Gotterdammerung’s First Norn (Lincon Center & Wagner in Vermont), Das Rheingold’s Erda (covered and performed with Wagner in Vermont), Die Walkure’s Schwertleite (Dramatic Voices Midwest), Cavalleria Rusticana’s Mamma Lucia (Opera West), and Suor Angelica’s Zia Principessa (various companies worldwide).
Beyond opera, her portrayal of Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music earned the American Prize in Musical Theater, and she has appeared as a solo recitalist in venues from the Kennedy Center to international broadcast television. Additionally, as a guitarist, she tours nationally with the flamenco ensemble “El Duo Duende” and has over 15 albums to her credit. She is a recipient of Notre Dame’s prestigious Harvey Award for the Performing Arts.
Festival Resumé
2019
Tristan und Isolde
2022
Das Rheingold & Die Walküre
2023
Die Walküre & Siegfried
STRAUSS BREAK
Elektra, Salome, Ariadne & Others
2024
Das Rheingold & Götterdämmerung
Erste Norn, Erda (Cover)
2025
Der Ring des Nibelungen
2026
Tristan und Isolde, Der fliegende Holländer, Parsifal Act 2
“TUNDI is re-wilding Wagner, if you will, by detaching it from any sort of system-dependence and re-presenting it raw from its artists’ own hands and voices. TUNDI is succeeding in doing this on a scale so inspiring, and with lead artists of such a caliber, as to newly represent a forgotten possibility to the world.
One way that TUNDI does this that has impacted me directly is by remaining open and even welcoming to auditions from outside the traditional “pipeline” ...
In fact, when we first met, they reassured me of their perspective that contraltos suited to Wagner’s character roles weren’t going to come from most conservatory grads or anyone whose journey hadn’t involved a range of intense experiences. For them, the evidence of these facts wasn’t a deterrent. It actually encouraged them to interview me! Knowing this made my self-consciousness over my background and even over my war-damaged appearance and obvious disabilities fade dramatically.
Receiving acceptance, kindness, and even encouragement from artists like these at TUNDI, while at first almost a bit shocking, was re-enforced so regularly that I couldn’t help but eventually believe it was genuine. That belief is what has carried me along through this year and brought me opportunities that I would have never otherwise imagined on my path.” - CC
Götterdämmerung 2024: Angus Reid