Author:
No.6/2023
of opera charm magazineINTRODUCTION
We are pleased to have Nikola Hillebrand on our name of rubric in the new edition of OPERA Charm Magazine. The German soprano has an exciting summer full of engagements, including a tour of Haydn’s Creation in Switzerland and Germany, Mozart’s Il re pastore at the Salzburg Festspiele, and the opening concert at the Grafenedd Festival. In an interview by Alice Lechner, Nikola talks about her love for Lied, what advice she would give her younger self, the important of connecting with the audience, and many others.
BIOGRAPHY
German soprano Nikola Hillebrand continues to receive critical acclaim for her radiant voice and elegant timbre, her lightness of touch and polished technique as well as her authentic, charming stage presence and highly nuanced interpretations. While still in the early stages of her career, the young soprano has already appeared in leading opera and concert houses such as the Bavarian State Opera, Glyndebourne Festival and Vienna’s Musikverein. After joining the ensemble of the Semperoper Dresden in autumn 2020, Nikola Hillebrand appears in the current and upcoming season as Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Musetta (La Bohème), Zdenka (Arabella), Sophie (Rosenkavalier), Ännchen (Der Freischütz), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) and Adele (Die Fledermaus). The latter role she also performed alongside Jonas Kaufmann as Eisenstein at the Semperoper's New Year's Eve concert in 2018. Other highlights from last season include Zdenka in Richard Strauss' Arabella at the Theater Bonn and concert performances of Johann Strauss’ Fledermaus with the Orchestre national de Lyon. In the role of Zdenka she also celebrated an outstanding debut at the Opernhaus Zürich. In December 2022 Nikola Hillebrand was highly acclaimed for her debuts as Pamina and Adele at the Staatsoper Hamburg. In January 2024 she will go on to make her debut as Cunigonde in Bernstein’s Candide at the Theater an der Wien. To date, Nikola Hillebrand has worked with conductors such as Adam Fischer, Fabien Gabel, Stephan Gottfried, Manfred Honeck, René Jacobs, Václav Luks, Andis Nelsons, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Raphaël Pichon, Markus Poschner, Jérémie Rohrer, Alexander Soddy, Robin Ticchiati and Franz Welser-Möst. Concert tours have taken the young soprano to Vienna’s Musikverein, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Laeizshalle in Hamburg, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Mozartwoche in Salzburg, the Musikfest in Bremen, and overseas to South Korea, Egypt and Oman. Alongside her opera and concert activities Nikola Hillebrand is a passionate Lied singer and was awarded first prize at the international song competition "Das Lied 2019" in Heidelberg (with a jury chaired by Thomas Quasthoff). She most recently celebrated her recital debuts at the Heidelberger Frühling Festival, the Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence, at Leeds-Lieder, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the Pierre-Boulez-Saal in Berlin, Wigmore Hall in London, the Essen Philharmonie, as well as at the International Hugo-Wolf Academy in Stuttgart. In the upcoming season, Nikola Hillebrand be performing Lieder at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, at the Brucknerhaus in Linz, and together with Patricia Nolz in a duo recital at the Vienna Konzerthaus. After finishing her studies in Munich, Nikola was engaged by the Nationaltheater Mannheim. As a member of the ensemble, she appeared in roles such as Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Despina (Così fan tutte), Gilda (Rigoletto), Norina (Don Pasquale) and Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte). There, she also celebrated notable success with her interpretation of the title role in Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea.
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INTERVIEW
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Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.
Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.
Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.
She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.
Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.
Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.
Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.
His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.
During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.
He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.
Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.
She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.
She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.
Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.
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