The Dutch-American soprano Lisa Karen Houben began her international career with Tosca. Since then, her performances of Fidelio, Tosca, Manon Lescaut and Aïda brought her to Rome’s Teatro Manzoni, Palermo’s Teatro Massimo, La Fenice in Venice, Brussels’s La Monnaie, Vienna’s Volksoper, Luxemburg’s Grand Théâtre, Opera of Flanders, Royal Opera of Liège, …
Her wide range of repertoire also includes Feldmarshallin (Rosenkavalier), Elisabetta (Don Carlo), Leonora (La forza del destino), Adriana Lecouvreur, Suor Angelica and Giorgietta (Il Trittico), Marguerite (Gounod’s Faust), Maddalena (Andrea Chenier), Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana), Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), Contessa (Nozze di Figaro), Cherubini’s Médée, as well as some splendid rarities such as Schumann’s Genoveva, Kalman’s Gräfin Mariza, Samuel Barber’s Vanessa (French Premiere), Leoncavallo’s Zaza (world premiere recording), …
In the contemporary repertoire, she sang the world premiere of Giorgio Batistelli’s Richard III (Lady Ann) at the Opera of Flanders and the creation for France in 2009 (Opéra du Rhin, Strasbourg). The soprano also starred in Gerard Mortier’s production Sentimenti at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam and at the Singel in Antwerp. At Opéra royal deWallonie she appeared as Maddalena (Andrea Chenier) and as Miss Jessel (The turn of the screw, B. Britten).
Recent engagements included : Lady MacBeth (Verdi) and “La Reine Marguerite” (Yvonne, by Boesmans) at La Monnaie (season 2009/2010). Besides she toured with the National Orchestra of Belgium (led by Theodor Guschlbauer) and sangin concert with the Symphonic Orchestra of the Flanders Opera. Other recent highlights included her debut at Staatstheater Nürnberg, also with the part of Lady Macbeth (Verdi).
Amongst her upcoming engagements (season 2011/2012) : "Miss Jessel" (Turn of the Screw) at the operahouse of Rouen, "Ghita" (Der Zwerg/Zemlinksy) at the Opera House of Lyon and again "Lady Macbeth" (Verdi) this time at the Opera House of Bordeaux.
In the concert repertoire, Mrs Houben made her debut with Jose Carreras at the Vatican (for the FAO benefit). She then sang to great acclaim in prestigious international concert halls, such as Washington’s Constitution Hall, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, Rotterdam’s Doelen, Hong Kong Cultural Center, … She is also regularly invited at Carnegie Hall where she recently performed an Italian gala concert. Amongst others, she sang Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Fauré’s Requiem… and some rare scores such as Peter Benoît’s De Schelde and Persiani’s Ines de Castro. More recently, Mrs Houben interpreted Maurice Ravel’s Shéhérazade conducted by Alain Lombard and Chausson’s Poème de l’Amour et de la Mer conducted by Michel Plasson.
Her discography to date includes the world-premiere recordings of Leoncavallo’s Zaza and Persiani’s Ines de Castro for Bon Giovanni and Domenico Monlenone’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Il Mistero for Myto Records. She recorded a CD of rare and inedited Italian Ave Maria’s.
Cv-update: season 2011/2012 |
