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The Austrian coloratura soprano, Heidi Manser, completed a preparatory course for vocal studies at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts under Professor Helga Wagner, before she began her solo voice training for concert and opera at the Vienna Conservatory under and Hilda de Groote. In addition, she had private singing lessons with KS Gottfried Hornik, Colleen Holmes and KS Edith Lienbacher, attended master-classes with KS Gundula Janowitz, KS Ernst Haefliger and KS Professor Walter Berry, and was a prize-winner of the 2000 Nico Dostal International Singing Competition.
Operetta has held a special place in the Heidi Manser’s repertoire, since the time when she toured Europe with Heinz Hellberg and the Operettenbühne Wien, first as Hannerl in Schubert’s Dreimädler-Haus, and then as Nené in Kreisler’s Sissy. In the course of her career she has sung such diverse roles as Meisterin in Lehár’s Peter und Paul im Schlaraffenland (Lübecker Komödien-Theater), Sora in Millöcker’s Gasperone (Düsseldorfer Operette), Adele in Die Fledermaus (Hamburger Kammeroper), Pauline in Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne (Herbsttage Blindenmarkt), Lisa in Gräfin Mariza (Operettenfestspiele Murau), Christel von der Post in Der Vogelhändler and again Nené, this time at the Stadttheater Baden, where she also appeared in Fred Raymond’s operetta Saison in Salzburg as Erika. Recently she performed the roles of Franziska Cagliari and Gräfin in Wiener Blut (City Opera Szczecin Poland, Parktheater Augsburg), and Catarina Cornarini in Offenbach’s Le pont des soupirs. Upcoming projects Valencienne in Die lustige Witwe at the Kongresszentrum Zürich.
“The optimally-trained Heidi Manser with her pliant and creamy soprano… was compelling.” These words were imparted by the magazine Das Opernglas to Heidi Manser for her portrayal of Lorette in Der Vampyr by Peter Joseph von Lindpaintner (Opernbühne Bad Aibling). Further appearances in operatic rarities were the roles of Röschen in Hieronymus Knicker by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Hannchen in Lortzing’s Die Opernprobe (both at Opernbühne Bad Aibling), Carolina in Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto and Sofia in Rossini’s Signor Bruschino (both Sommeroper Schärding). In the summer of 2011 she made her debut at the renowned Austrian festival Carinthischer Sommer in Götter & Söhne, a program with four Opéras-minute by Darius Milhaud, and in the fall she was heard as Serpina in Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s La serva padrona at Schloss Hof (Austria).
In classical repertooire, Heidi Manser has enjoyed numerous successes as Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Anna in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Oscar in Un ballo in maschera, Marie in The bartered Bride, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and above all, Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which she sang at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, among other venues. Also very active in contemporary opera productions, the eclectic artist has been seen in Philippe Boesmans’ Wintermärchen (Neue Oper Wien), Anthony Davis’ Tania (Musikwerkstatt Wien), Gerhard Schedl’s Triptychon and Herbert Willi’s Schlafes Bruder (both with Neue Oper Wien).
Heidi Manser also has amassed experience on concert stages throughout Europe, including song recitals in venues such as the Schubertiade, and a concert performance of Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro at the Wiener Konzerthaus. In Germany she appeared in the Musikhalle Hamburg with the KlassikPhilharmonie under Walter Gehlert, and she sang an acclaimed Robert Stolz Gala with the Lübecker Sommeroperette. She has sung in concert with diverse orchestras, such as the Donauphilharmonie Wien, the Junge Philharmonie, the Bochumer Symphoniker, and most recently she was the soprano soloist in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra. |
