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The German mezzo-soprano, Ulrike Helzel, studied voice at the Musikhochschule Leipzig with Professor Christa Kern-Pöschel. She has been successful in a number of singing contests including the Dvorak-Contest in Karlovy Vary 1990, was awarded by the Richard Wagner Foundation and received the Handel-Award of Halle (1995).
Ulrike Helzel became a member of the Halle Opera (1993-96) where she appeared as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Angelina in La Cenerentola, in several George Frideric Handel operas such as Giulio Cesare / Sesto, Orlando / Medoro and Semele / Ino and Ullmann's Kaiser Von Atlantis / Trommler. Since 1996 she is a member of the German Opera Berlin where she sang i.e. Cherubino in W.A. Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Dorabella in W.A. Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte, Hänsel in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Wellgunde in Rheingold and Götterdämmerung, Nancy in Flotow's Martha, Agnese in Bellini's Beatrice Di Tenda, Siébel in Charles Gounod's Faust, Fenena in Nabucco, Page Urban in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, Fuchs in Das Schlaue Füchslein and Orpheus in Orpheé Et Euridice. Successful guest appearances included Angelina in La Cenerentola at the Basle Theater, Donna Elvira in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni, Carmen in Georges Bizet's Carmen and Sméraldine in Die Liebe Zu Den Drei Orangen at the Berlin Comique Opera. The Halle Opera invited her for a new production of Georges Bizet's Carmen, the Brussels Opera for Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro and the Nederlandse Opera for Zauberflöte. In 2002 she made her debut at the Bavarian State Opera as Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel and was re-invited for W.A. Mozart's Zauberflöte and for Gymnasiast / Groom in a new production of Lulu.
Ulrike Helzel has sung many oratorios all over Europe, in Japan an the USA. Under the baton of Peter Schreier she sang J.S. Bach's B-Minor Mass (BWV 232) (Festival Sion) and St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244) in Munich. With Jiri Kout she sang L.v. Beethoven's 9th Symphonie and concert repertoire of Dmitri Shostakovich, under Christian Thielemann L.v. Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in Berlin, Bonn and Cologne. She was invited for W.A. Mozart's Requiem, The Prophets by K. Weill and Lidarti's Esther at the Festival Radio France Montpellier, for the role of Judith in Béla Bartók's Bluebeards Castle with the Nationaal Jeugd Orkest to Amsterdam, Berlin, Hannover, Frankfurt and Paris and for the Dresden Music Festival to sing Puck in Weber's Oberon.
Important future plans include: Invitations to the Bavarian State Opera, the Braunschweig Opera and the Berlin Comique Opera. At the Bayreuth Festival 2006 Ulrike Helzel will sing Wellgunde in Rheingold and Götterdämmerung and with the MDR Leipzig she will sing Andrea Chenier under Fabio Luisi. |
