This April and May, Elza van den Heever returns to Oper Frankfurt, making her long-awaited role debut as Puccini’s titular ice queen, Turandot. It’s a welcome return to Frankfurt for the soprano, who has been a regular guest of the company and was a member of their ensemble from 2008 to 2013.
Van den Heever joins a fantastic cast, under the baton of Thomas Guggeis, featuring Alfred Kim as Calaf, Guanqun Yu as Liù, Liviu Holender as Ping, Magnus Dietrich as Pang, and Michael Porter as Pong. Andrea Breth’s new production is preceded by a newly composed prologue by Lucia Ronchetti, which conveys a premonition of the catastrophe that is about to unfold.
This January and February, Elza van den Heever joins the Staatsoper Berlin for Wagner’s Lohengrin, returning to Calixto Bieito’s dark, surreal production. She will bow as Elsa von Brabant, an innocent woman who is falsely accused of murdering her brother. The knight Lohengrin agrees to marry her on the condition that she never ask his name or origin, but manipulation and doubt, stoked by the sorceress Ortrud, drive Elsa to break her promise.
Van den Heever has previously bowed as Elsa at the Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper, Oper Frankfurt, and Opernhaus Zürich, and most recently at the Bayreuth Festival, where her performance was praised as “radiantly sung and acted” (Operawire) and “bold and searching, every phrase alive with intention” (Opera Scene).
She joins a fantastic cast of Wagnerians, under the baton of Simone Young. Eric Cutler sings the title role, with René Pape as Heinrich der Vogler, Wolfgang Koch as Friedrich of Telramund, and Anja Kampe as Ortrud.
This November, Elza van den Heever brings her “rapturous and devastatingly sorrowful” (Financial Times) Sieglinde in Wagner’s Die Walküre to audiences in Paris. Van den Heever has won rave reviews for her interpretation of this iconic role, with Dreh Punkt Kultur saying, “Elza van den Heever sang the role of Sieglinde as if it had been composed for her and no other soprano. She sang it with sovereignty, with beguiling ease in the use of her voice, naturally and eloquently in the quasi-speaking or quiet passages, and with reserves of volume and expressiveness that she used in the emotional turmoil.”
Die Walküre marks a triumphant return to Opéra Bastille for the soprano, who has previously bowed there in Così fan tutte (2011), Elektra (2022), Salome (2022), and La Vestale (2024). Van den Heever appears in Calixto Bieito’s production alongside Stanislas de Barbeyrac as Siegmund, Iain Paterson as Wotan, Günther Groissböck as Hunding, Tamara Wilson as Brünnhilde, and Eve-Maud Hubeaux as Fricka. Pablo Heras-Casado conducts.
On September 26 and 28, Elza van den Heever joins the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra for Anton Bruckner’s monumental choral-orchestral work, Te Deum.She has previously sung the Te Deum with the Philadelphia Orchestra, where she was complimented on her “stunning high pianissimos” (Bachtrack).
This program is part of a multi-year Bruckner cycle, beginning in 2018 and spearheaded by Rotterdam’s Chief Conductor, Lahav Shani. Shani will lead this concert from the podium, which also features Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony. Van den Heever will be joined onstage by mezzo-soprano Gerhild Romberger, tenor Daniel Behle, and bass-baritone Kostas Smoriginas.
This program marks a triumphant return to Rotterdam for van den Heever, who joined the orchestra last season for her highly anticipated role debut as Sieglinde in Wagner’s Die Walküre.
On August 23 and 24, Elza van den Heever appears at the Salzburg Festival, performing with the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The Vienna Philharmonic, a central presence at the festival each summer, will perform the Lohengrin Prelude to Act I, Siegfried Idyll, and Act I of Die Walküre, in which van den Heever sings the role of Sieglinde alongside Andreas Schager as Siegmund and Georg Zeppenfeld as Hunding.
Elza has quickly established herself as one of today’s most compelling Sieglindes. She made her role debut in concert with the Rotterdam Philharmonic in April 2024, conducted by Nézet-Séguin, and has since appeared in the role in Baden-Baden, Dortmund, and Paris. This past February, she made her hotly anticipated house debut in Die Walküre at Teatro alla Scala under Christian Thielemann, earning widespread acclaim. Bachtrack praised her “perfectly projected, velvety soprano” and “breathtaking performance,” while the Financial Times described her as “a rapturous and devastatingly sorrowful Sieglinde.”
The program will be broadcast on Ö1 on September 19.
Photo: Chris Gonz
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Elza van den Heever makes her much-anticipated Bayreuth Festival debut this summer as Elsa von Brabant in Lohengrin, one of Richard Wagner’s most iconic heroines. She stars in the revival of Yuval Sharon’s visually striking production, with designs by the celebrated artist duo Rosa Loy and Neo Rauch.
Elza’s debut at the Bayreuth Festival is a major milestone, taking place on the storied stage Wagner created in 1876 to present his works on his terms. With its long-standing traditions and singular focus on Wagner’s vision, Bayreuth remains one of the most important destinations for dramatic singers and devoted audiences alike.
Ms. van den Heever has previously sung Elsa at the Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper, Oper Frankfurt, and Opernhaus Zürich, earning praise for the beauty of her voice and the dramatic intensity of her interpretation. In a review of her Zürich performance, Bachtrack highlighted her “tremendous vocal range” and remarked on the way she “truly became a bride as the wedding gifts came in, as her dearest friends congratulated her.”
She joins a stellar cast that includes Piotr Beczała as Lohengrin, Mika Kares as Heinrich der Vogler, Ólafur Sigurdarson as Telramund, Miina-Liisa Värelä as Ortrud, and Michael Kupfer-Radecky as the King’s Herald. Christian Thielemann, a leading interpreter of Wagner’s music, conducts.
On June 14, 17, 20, 22, and 25, Elza van den Heever returns to San Francisco Opera for Mozart’s sweeping opera seria, Idomeneo. Van den Heever sings the complicated and unhinged Elettra, a role she has previously sung at The Metropolitan Opera and Oper Frankfurt.
Her performances of this vocally and dramatically challenging role have been widely lauded, with Broadway World remarking that “with one aria, Elza van den Heever steals The Met’s Idomeneo.” The Financial Times also praised her performance, saying, “Elza van den Heever lavishes broad bravado on the mean smirks of Elettra, and makes the quasi-devil sing like a quasi-goddess.”
Van den Heever joins an exceptional cast of accomplished Mozarteans in Lindy Hume’s new production. Matthew Polenzani sings the title role, alongside Daniela Mack as Idamante, Ying Fang as Ilia, and Alek Shrader as Arbace. Eun Sun Kim, San Francisco Opera’s Music Director, conducts.
On June 12, Elza van den Heever continues her celebrated Strauss journey this season as she joins The Met Orchestra for a special all-Richard Strauss concert led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Building on the extraordinary acclaim she earned earlier this season for her roles as Salome and the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten at The Metropolitan Opera, Ms. van den Heever brings her steely and expressive voice to a selection of Strauss’s orchestral songs featured in the program.
The concert also includes the evocative Der Rosenkavalier suite, which captures the elegance and intrigue of 18th-century Vienna. The evening concludes with Strauss’s monumental tone poem Ein Heldenleben (“A Hero’s Life”), a richly autobiographical work that weaves in themes from many of Strauss’s compositions.
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