Born Maria Riccarda Schmid in
Wattwil, she studied with Hedwig Vonlanthen in Solothurn, with
Elisabeth Glauser at the
Musikhochschule Bern, and with at the
Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. She appeared as Rossinis
La Cenerentola on a tour with the
Orchestre National de Lille. She was a regular guest at the
Stadttheater Bern, where she performed roles such as Kassandra in
Aribert Reimann's
Troades, Fenena in Verdi's
Nabucco, Enrichetta in Bellini's
I puritani, Olga in
Tri Sestri by Péter Eötvös, Idamante in Mozart's
Idomeneo, Cesare in Handel's
Giulio Cesare, and the title role in Bizet's
Carmen. She sang leading roles by Handel also at festivals, the title role of
Rinaldo at the
Lucerne Festival, the title role of
Amadigi di Gaula at the
Handel Festival Halle and the
Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, Sesto in
Giulio Cesare at the Festival de Beaune, Medea in
Teseo in Halle, and Dejanira in
Hercules in Potsdam. Several of these performances were recorded. Wesseling received international attention in 2006, when she stepped in at the
Paris Opera for the title role of Gluck's
Iphigénie en Tauride, staged by
Krzysztof Warlikowski and conducted by
Marc Minkowski. She was Iphigénie again in 2011 also at the
Teatro Real in Madrid, now conducted by
Thomas Hengelbrock. She appeared as Orpheus in
Orfeo ed Euridice, staged by
Pina Bausch and conducted by Hengelbrock, which was broadcast live by
arte and recorded for DVD, and presented not only in Paris but also the
Greek theatre in Epidauros,
Lincoln Center in New York, and the Teatro Real. Wesseling appeared in Madrid also as Ottavia in Monteverdi's
L’incoronazione di Poppea, conducted by
Sylvain Cambreling. At the
Ruhrtriennale 2015, she was Fricka in
Das Rheingold under the batton of Teodor Currentzis. Since she created the title role in the world premiere of the opera "Annas Maske" by David Philip Hefti, sang Herodias in the Serebrennikow production of "Salome" at Staatsoper Stuttgart, debuted as Amneris in Aida and Klytämnestra in "Elektra". In contemporary opera, she performed the title role in the premiere of Henze's
Phaedra at the
Staatsoper Berlin, repeated at
La Monnaie in Brussels and in the
Barbican Centre, also Pélérin in Kaija Saariaho's ''
L'Amour de loin at the Finnish National Opera, Irma in Le Balcon'' by
Péter Eötvös in Bordeaux, and Malaspina in Salvatore Sciarrino's
Luci mie traditrici in Lyon. She appeared in
Claude Vivier's
Wo bist Du, Licht at the Ruhrtriennale, and as the Queen in Heinz Holliger's
Schneewittchen, staged by
Achim Freyer at Theater Basel. In January 2018, Maria Riccarda Wesseling has presented her first production as stage director with a very successful staging of "The rape of Lucretia" at the Dutch National Opera Academy. In 2020 she staged "The merry widow" at Theater Nordhausen. == Discography ==