She studied music at the universities of Stuttgart, Mannheim and Indiana and she has won the Mozart Singing Competition in Salzburg and the Queen Sonja International Music Competition.

After a sensational stage debut as Ilia in Idomeneo at the Garsington Opera in 1996, she very quickly established herself as a Mozart specialist in all of the international centres of the music world, with guest appearances at the Royal Opera House in London, the New York Metropolitan, the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg and Aix-en-Provence festivals, the Palais Garnier in Paris and in Dubai and Tokyo, among other venues.

She won huge international recognition with her acclaimed vocal and dramatic performance as Elsa at the Bayreuth Festival in 1999.

Her German repertoire includes Sieglinde, Elisabeth from Tannhäuser, Weber's Agathe and Euryanthe, Beethoven's Leonore and several roles in Strauss's operas, such as Chrysothemis, Marschallin and Ariadne.

The roles of Katya Kabanova at the Berlin Lindenoper in 2005 and Marschallin at Hamburg State Opera in 2007 were a great personal success for her.

Her moving interpretation of Ursula in Hindemith's Mathis der Maler at the Opéra Bastille in Paris in 2010 won her the acclaim of the audience and the critics alike.

As a concert performer and a singer of lieder, Melanie Diener is highly regarded by many renowned conductors for her remarkable combination of great musicality, sensitivity and creative power.

She is increasingly focusing on contemporary compositions and even delights audiences as a jazz singer. She works regularly with the most prestigious orchestras, conductors and directors throughout Europe, the USA and Japan.