During Oper Frankfurt’s 2011/12 season Elza van den Heever will sing her first Desdemona, in a new production of of Verdi’s Otello, and repeat her moving portrayal of Antonia in a revival of Hoffmanns Erzählungen/The Tales of Hoffmann. This young artist joined the ensemble in 2008/09 after making her triumphant European debut here as Giorgetta in Puccini’s Il trittico the previous season. Other roles for the company have included First Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Elisabeth de Valois in Don Carlo, Elsa von Brabant in Lohengrin, Anna Bolena (title role, in concert) and Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito. She is now one of the most sought after sopranos in the world and has received offers from theatres including the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Opéra National de Paris, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Theater an der Wien, the Dallas Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Metropolitan Opera in New York. She will soon be adding new roles to her repertoire, including the title role in Alcina, (in Bordeaux, where she has recently enjoyed great success as Elettra in Idomeneo, The Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos and Leonora in Il trovatore), Armida in Rinaldo (debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago), Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda and Hélène in Les vêpres siciliennes (Metropolitan Opera). Her first major role was Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), which she stepped in at short notice to sing in 2007 at San Francisco Opera, where she was a member of the Merole Program. This is a role she has sung in Frankfurt, Arizona and Santa Fe and with which she will make her debut at the Hamburg State Opera early in the 2011/12 season, in a new production directed by Doris Dörrie. She will also be taking part in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Herbert Blomstedt. Elza van den Heever won the 2008 International Wagner Competition in Seattle.