Following a successful career as a baritone he made his debut as a tenor in 1992 singing Brighella in Ariadne auf Naxos for Garsington Opera.
Among her performances were title roles in the operas Turandot, Ariadne auf Naxos and Carmen, and "Maria" in Wozzeck.
Tscherne gave his debut on the opera stage in 2003 in Venice in a new production of Ariadne auf Naxos by the Teatro la Fenice.
She created the roles of Blanchefleur in Kienzl's opera Der Kuhreigen (1911), Ariadne in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos (1912), the Empress in his Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919), and Marie/Marietta in Korngold's Die tote Stadt (1920), which was also the role in which she debuted at the Metropolitan Opera on November 19, 1921.
He also directed famous theatrical opera like Il marito disperato by Cimarosa and Fidelio by Beethoven for the San Carlo Opera House in Naples and Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky at the Teatro São Carlos in Lisbon, where in 2003 he also staged Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss.
Naxos Records | Naxos | Ariadne auf Naxos | Auf Wiedersehen, Pet | Ariadne | Melissa Auf der Maur | Auf der Maur | Nick Auf der Maur | Naxos (Sicily) | Frisch Auf Göppingen | Wieck auf dem Darß | Bergen auf Rügen | Auf der Maur (album) | Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140 | Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme | Wachet auf | Titian's ''Bacchus and Ariadne'' | St. Valentin auf der Haide | ''Richard Mayr im Kostüm des Ochs auf Lerchenau'' - A 1927 portrait of Mayr by Anton Faistauer | Reflektionen auf's Sterben | Naxos (island) | Hugo Graf von und zu Lerchenfeld auf Köfering und Schönberg | Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226 | Daedalus (Ariadne) | Conversations-Lexikon mit vorzüglicher Rücksicht auf die gegenwärtigen Zeiten | Burgruine Hohenburg auf Rosenberg | Born auf dem Darß | Bacchus and Ariadne | Autograph of Bach's motet ''Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226 | ''Auf der Lichtung'' in Bielefeld |
In Berlin she continued to expand her repertoire with leading roles in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte, Verdi's Aida, Puccini's Tosca, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Wagner's Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, and Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos and Der Rosenkavalier.
A singer of considerable warmth, musicality and sincerity, Watson was also greatly admired as Ariadne, the Countess in Capriccio, and especially as Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes, of which she left a memorable recording, conducted by Benjamin Britten himself.
In opera she sang some of the most demanding roles in the coloratura Fach, e.g. Zerbinetta in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, Violetta in Verdi's La traviata, Zaide in Mozart's Zaide and the already mentioned Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute.
There are a number of recordings of Reining: her Arabella (Salzburg, 1947, under Karl Böhm), Daphne (Vienna, 1944, Böhm), Ariadne (Vienna, 1944, Böhm), Eva in Die Meistersinger (Vienna, 1937, Toscanini), Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier (Salzburg, 1949, George Szell; Salzburg, 1953, Clemens Krauss; Vienna, 1954 (Studio), Erich Kleiber; Vienna, 1955, Knappertsbusch) are all on disc.
His recordings include Die Meistersinger (with Claire Watson, 1963), Die Frau ohne Schatten (1963), Siegfried (conducted by Herbert von Karajan, 1968–69), Ariadne auf Naxos (conducted by Karl Böhm, 1969) and, from Bayreuth, Parsifal (with Irene Dalis as Kundry, led by Hans Knappertsbusch, 1962) and Lohengrin (with Anja Silja and Astrid Varnay, 1962).
At the New York City Opera, Caldwell staged Der junge Lord and Ariadne auf Naxos (with Carol Neblett), both in 1973.
MacWatters sang at the New York City Opera from 1946 to 1951, in The Pirates of Penzance (as Mabel, conducted by Julius Rudel), Rigoletto (as Gilda, with Giuseppe Valdengo and Luigi Infantino), Il barbiere di Siviglia (as Rosina, opposite Enzo Mascherini), The Old Maid and the Thief (as Laetitia, with Marie Powers), Le nozze di Figaro (as Susanna), Les contes d'Hoffmann (as Olympia), and Ariadne auf Naxos (as Zerbinetta).