Elza van den Heever returns to the Opéra national de Paris to star as Sieglinde in Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre, presented at the Opéra Bastille as part of the company’s landmark Der Ring des Nibelungen Festival.
The engagement marks a celebrated return to the Paris stage for van den Heever, who previously captivated Bastille audiences in the title role of Julia in Gaspare Spontini’s La Vestale. An internationally acclaimed Wagnerian interpreter, van den Heever portrayed Sieglinde at the Bayreuth Festival this past July. The soprano has also sung the role at the Opéra national de Paris, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Her depiction of the Wälsung sister has drawn universal critical praise, hailed as “rapturous and devastatingly sorrowful” (Financial Times), with DrehPunktKultur declaring she sings the role “as if it had been composed for her and no other soprano.”
Under the baton of Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado and directed by Calixto Bieito, van den Heever stars opposite tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac as her twin brother and lover, Siegmund. The production features baritone Christopher Maltman as Wotan, soprano Tamara Wilson as his rebellious daughter Brünnhilde, mezzo-soprano Eve-Maud Hubeaux as Fricka, and bass Günther Groissböck as Hunding, performing alongside the Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris.