Swedish mezzo-soprano CHARLOTTE HELLEKANT (Maria Aegyptiaca) enjoys a career equally successful in opera and concert. Her wide operatic repertoire includes the Baroque – she is internationally well known for her unique interpretation of Handel roles – and the Classical; she has extensive French repertoire and moving on, through Richard Strauss and Janác?ek, she is also highly praised for her strong stage presence and expressive abilities as an interpreter of contemporary roles.

Over the years, Hellekant has appeared widely on the opera stage on both sides of the Atlantic, working in houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, Opéra National de Paris, De Nederlandse Opera, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, La Monnaie, and Festival Aix en Provence, among others. Some of her most recent roles include Charlotte (Werther) with Deutsche Oper Berlin, Carmen with Royal Swedish Opera, Ino (Semele) at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Marguérite (La damnation de Faust) at the Salzburg Festival, and Giulio Cesare under Marc Minkowski for the Zurich Opera.

Charlotte Hellekant has recently interpreted one of the leading roles in the hugely successful Matsukaze, a new commission by Toshio Hosokawa co-produced in association with Sasha Waltz & Guests by La Monnaie, Teatr Wielki, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, and Staatsoper unter den Linden. The successful collaboration with Hosokawa brought another new commission this season, Monodrama, which will feature the Ensemble Lucilin and will be performed in Brussels, Luxembourg, and Amsterdam. In past seasons, Hellekant has performed opera and concert works by various contemporary composers, such as György Ligeti, Luciano Berio, Erik Bergmans, Hans-Jürgan von Bose, Samuel Barber, John Corigliano, and Jake Heggie.

Alongside operatic engagements, Charlotte Hellekant is also a highly acclaimed and versatile concert performer. Recognized as a fine exponent of Mahler, she is featured in the Mahler BBC documentary, Great Composers, with the late Sir Georg Solti.

Hellekant has worked with many notable conductors and orchestras, including Christoph von Dohnányi and the Philharmonia Orchestra at the BBC Proms, Christoph Eschenbach and the NDR Orchester, Paavo Järvi with Orchestre de Paris and RSO Frankfurt, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia, Kent Nagano, Mariss Jansons, and Jukka-Pekka Saraste.

Charlotte Hellekant portrays Kate Julian in Britten’s Owen Wingrave in a recording conducted by Kent Nagano and filmed for Channel 4 TV. She appears on several recordings, including Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with Blomstedt and the San Francisco Symphony (Decca), Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre with Salonen (Sony), Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Messiah with Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre (DG), Grieg’s Peer Gynt with Paavo Järvi (Virgin Classics), Nystroem’s Sinfonia del Mare and Songs by the Sea with Svetlanov and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Musica Sveciae), and a further collection of Nystroem songs recorded with Anders Kilström for Daphne records.

In the current season Charlotte Hellekant makes her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, which she also sings with the Orquesta Nacional de España. Operatic projects include Erik XIV by Mikko Heiniö with Turku Opera and Hosokawa’s new Monodrama.