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The Austrian Mezzo-soprano, Erika Wien, studied singing at the Vienna Music Academy with Hans Duhan, Josef Witt and Wolfgang Steinbrück, and introduction to Lieder singing with Erik Werba.
Erika Wien began her stage career with an engagement the Vienna Volksoper from 1952 to 1953, and continued it at the Theatre of Bremen (1953-1959) and at Deutschen Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf-Duisburg (1959-1964). From 1964 to 1980 she was active at the Opera House of Zürich. She appeared also at the Deutsche Opera and the State Opera of Berlin, at the State Operas of Vienna, Munich, Hamburg and Stuttgart, at the Opera Houses of Frankfurt a.M., Hannover, Cologne, Nürnberg, Wiesbaden and Wuppertal. She made guest appearances also at the Holland Festival, at Maggio Musicale Florenz, in Brussels and Bordeaux, in Lyon and Marseille, at the Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, at the Grand Opéra Paris, at the opera Houses of San Diego and San Francisco, in Nantes, Rouen and Toulouse, in Turin and Genova.
Erika Wien's repertoire for the stage culminated in roles such as title role in Carmen, Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Azucena in the Il Trovatore, Amneris in Aida, Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlo, Ulrica in Un Ballo in maschera, Quickly in Falstaff, Mary in Fliegenden Holländer, Ortrud in Lohengrin, Erda and Fricka in Der Ring des Nibelungen, Brangaene in Tristan, Venus in Tannhäuser, Orpheus in Orpheus by Gluck, Marina in Boris Godunow, The Old Gräfin in Pique Dame by Tchaikovsky, Milada in Dalibor by Smetana, Hexe in Rusalka by Dvorák, Klytämnestra in Elektra by R. Strauss and Marie in Wozzeck by Alban Berg. At the Opera House of Zurich she participated in the premieres of the operas Madame Bovary by H. Sutermeister (May 1967), and Ein Engel kommt nach Babylon by Rudolf Kelterborn (June 1977).
Erika Wien had also great success as concert and oratorio soloist (in works of J.S. Bach, L.v. Beethoven and Johannes Brahms) as well as in Lieder recitals. She appeared as a concert singer in Germany and in Switzerland, in Vienna, Madrid, Granada and Paris.
Recordings: on Saga she sings in the operas Rigoletto (as Maddalena) and Nabucco (as Fenena) by Verdi; also on Amade. |
