ⓒ Antoine Saito / Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
"Certes, nous avons découvert une autre voix, celle de l’Allemande Nikola Hillebrand et elle était merveilleuse dans le 4e mouvement de Mahler, avec une articulation admirable du texte et une couleur vocale juste."
The German soprano Nikola Hillebrand is praised by the press for her bright, luminous voice, her noble timbre, sophisticated technique and her interpretation and heartfelt performances.
Still at the beginning of her career, she has already sung at the world's leading opera and concert halls such as the Bavarian State Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival and the Vienna Musikverein. Nikola was a member of the Semperoper Dresden from 2020 -2024, performing roles such as Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Musetta (La Bohème), Zdenka (Arabella), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Ännchen (Der Freischütz), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) and Adele (Die Fledermaus). She sang the latter in 2018 alongside Jonas Kaufmann as Eisenstein at the Semperoper's New Year's Eve concert. Other highlights of last season were Zdenka in Richard Strauss' Arabella at the Theater Bonn and concert performances of Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus with the Orchestre National in Lyon. She also celebrated an outstanding debut at the Opernhaus Zürich with the role of Zdenka. Nikola made her debut at the Staatsoper Hamburg in December 2022 as Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and as Adele in Strauss' Die Fledermaus. In January 2024, she made her debut as Kunigunde in Bernstein's Candide at the Theater an der Wien and in summer went on to perform her first Agathe in a new production of Weber's Freischütz at the Bregenz Festival.
Further Information
The German soprano Nikola Hillebrand is praised by the press for her bright, luminous voice, her noble timbre, sophisticated technique and her interpretation and heartfelt performances.
Still at the beginning of her career, she has already sung at the world's leading opera and concert halls such as the Bavarian State Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival and the Vienna Musikverein. Nikola was a member of the Semperoper Dresden from 2020 -2024, performing roles such as Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Musetta (La Bohème), Zdenka (Arabella), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Ännchen (Der Freischütz), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) and Adele (Die Fledermaus). She sang the latter in 2018 alongside Jonas Kaufmann as Eisenstein at the Semperoper's New Year's Eve concert. Other highlights of last season were Zdenka in Richard Strauss' Arabella at the Theater Bonn and concert performances of Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus with the Orchestre National in Lyon. She also celebrated an outstanding debut at the Opernhaus Zürich with the role of Zdenka. Nikola made her debut at the Staatsoper Hamburg in December 2022 as Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and as Adele in Strauss' Die Fledermaus. In January 2024, she made her debut as Kunigunde in Bernstein's Candide at the Theater an der Wien and in summer went on to perform her first Agathe in a new production of Weber's Freischütz at the Bregenz Festival.
Cast & Crew
DIRECTOR Lydia Steier
NARRATOR Vincent Glander
CUNEGONDE Nikola Hillebrand
MAXIMILIAN / TSAR IVAN James Newby
DR. PANGLOSS / MARTIN Ben McAteer
OLD LADY Helene Schneiderman
GRAND INQUISITOR / CAPTAIN / GOVERNOR / VANDERDENDUR / RAGOTSKI Mark Milhofer
BARON / DON ISSACHAR / INQUISITOR II / SEÑOR I / CHARLES EDWARD / CROOK Paul Knights
SEÑOR II / INQUISITOR III / HERMANN AUGUSTUS Arvid Assarsson
SULTAN ACHMET Benjamin Savoie
ARCHBISHOP / STANISLAUS Benjamin Heil
BARONESSE Pablo Delgado
BEAR-KEEPER Alessio Borsari*
COSMETIC MERCHANT Takanobu Kawazoe*
DOCTOR Tomasz Kufta*
JUNKMAN Zacharías Galaviz-Guerra*
ALCHEMIST Carl Kachouh*
CROUPIER Jörg Espenkott*
ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
Arnold Schoenberg Chor
*Arnold Schoenberg Chor ( MUSICAL DIRECTOR Erwin Ortner )
