About this Artist
CHARLOTTE HELLEKANT’s vocal expressiveness and strong stage presence are just two qualities which have helped her build a career which is equally successful on the opera stage and the concert platform, and in repertoire ranging from the baroque to contemporary classics.
Hellekant has appeared on stage on both sides of the Atlantic, notably at The Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de Paris, and Glyndebourne Festival. Recent lyric roles include Charlotte (Werther) with Deutsche Oper Berlin and Carmen with Royal Swedish Opera; her outstanding Handel interpretations include Ino (Semele) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Cornelia (Giulio Cesare) under Marc Minkowski for Opernhaus Zürich. She sang Marguérite in La Fura dels Baus’ spectacular production of La damnation de Faust at the Salzburger Festspiele under Sylvain Cambreling, and in concert she has sung the role of Judith in Duke Bluebeard’s Castle at the Bergen Festival under Edward Gardner.
Recently Hellekant has inspired some of the world’s leading composers to write especially for her, including Toshio Hosokawa, who created the role of Murasame for her in his acclaimed Matsukaze. Subsequently, Hosokawa wrote his monodrama The Raven for her, which she premièred in Brussels, Luxembourg, Amsterdam, and Paris with Ensemble Lucilin. Hellekant also received particular acclaim for her tour de force performance as Sweden’s schizophrenic King Erik XIV – a role also created for her – in Mikko Heiniö’s eponymous opera.
This season Hellekant joins Sasha Waltz & Guests in a major new staging of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo under Pablo Heras-Casado, which premiered at Dutch National Opera, followed by performances at the Grand Théâtre du Luxembourg, Bergen International Festival, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, and Berlin’s Staatsoper im Schiller. She also takes The Raven on tour in Japan and performs Philippe Boesmans’ Au monde at the Opéra Comique, Paris. On the concert platform Hellekant joins the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León for Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 under Lionel Bringuier, and she performs Luciano Berio’s Calmo with the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group under Gustavo Dudamel.
In concert Charlotte Hellekant is a regular guest with many notable conductors and orchestras, including Christoph von Dohnányi at the BBC Proms, Christoph Eschenbach and the NDR Sinfonieorchester, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra, Mariss Jansons and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, and Jukka-Pekka Saraste and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.