LISA
GASTEEN AO - Soprano
Lisa
Gasteen
was born in
Brisbane
. In 1982 she won the
Australian Regional Finals of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions and in
1984 she was awarded the Covent Garden Scholarship.
In the same year she sang in the Queen's 60th Birthday Gala at
the Royal Opera House.
She made her
operatic debut in 1985 with the Lyric Opera of Queensland (now Opera
Queensland) as the High Priestess (Aida)
followed by Desdemona (Otello).
She has been a regular guest artist with Opera Australia and
her many roles with the company include Miss Jessel (The
Turn of the Screw), Madame
Lidoine (Dialogues of the
Carmelites), Ortlinde (Die
Walküre), Leonora (Il
trovatore, La forza del
destino and Fidelio),
Elsa (Lohengrin), Donna Elvira & Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Aida,
Elisabetta (Don Carlo),
Elisabeth (Tannhäuser)
and Amelia (Ballo in Maschera). For Victoria State
Opera she has sung Elisabetta, Elisabeth, Desdemona, Aida and Leonora
(Il trovatore).
After
winning the 1991 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition,
Lisa Gasteen
was invited to sing Donna Anna in
Prague
with Sir Charles Mackerras. Then
followed her British debut in 1992 as Leonora in Scottish Opera's new
production of Il trovatore.
Subsequently she was invited to perform in Europe and the
United States
with companies including Welsh National Opera, Deutsche Oper/Berlin,
Staatsoper/Berlin, Scottish Opera and with the opera companies of
Strasbourg
,
Stuttgart
,
Zurich
,
Dallas
and
Washington
. She made her debut at
the Metropolitan Opera,
New York
in 1997 as Aida. She has
also performed in these houses roles including Leonora (Il
Trovatore with Rizzi, La
Forza del Destino, Fidelio),
Amelia (Un ballo in maschera),
Madeleine de Coigny (Andrea Chenier), Aida (with Mehta),
Tosca, Ariadne auf
Naxos
and Chrysothemis (Elektra).
She made her role debut as Die Kaiserin (Die
Frau ohne Schatten) under
Simone Young at the 1996 Melbourne International Festival.
Recent
seasons have seen
Lisa Gasteen
return to the Staatsoper/Berlin to perform Chrysothemis, Brünnhilde (Siegfried) in Stuttgart, Leonora (Fidelio), her role debut as Isolde (Tristan und Isolde) for Opera Australia, for which she was the
recipient of a Helpmann Award, Brünnhilde at the Meiningen Festival
in her first complete Ring Cycle, making her Australia's first Brünnhilde
for some sixty years, her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden as Isolde under Bernard Haitink, Chrysothemis at the Staatsoper/Berlin
and further performances of Brünnhilde (Siegfried)
in Stuttgart.
Engagements
in 2003 included three major role debuts - Marta (Tiefland)
with the Vienna Philharmonic, the title role in Elektra at the Royal Opera House and Salome for Opera Australia as well as Ariadne auf
Naxos
with the Staatsoper/Berlin. In
2004, she made her role debut as Senta in Der
fliegende Holländer with Opera Australia, performed Sieglinde (Die
Walküre) at the Metropolitan Opera, Elektra in concert with the
Cleveland Orchestra, Isolde in Stuttgart Opera's new production of Tristan
und Isolde and Brünnhilde in State Opera of South Australia's new
production of the Ring under Asher Fisch, for which she received
another Helpmann Award. 2005
engagements included Brünnhilde in the Ring Cycle for the Vienna
Staatsoper (making her house debut) under Simone Young and for the
Royal Opera House in the company's new production under Antonio
Pappano, as well as Isolde for Opera Bastille/Paris.
In
Australia
she performed Isolde for the Queensland Music Festival and she was
honoured with a third Helpmann Award for this performance.
2006 included a return to the Royal Opera House to perform Brünnhilde
and Elektra at Tanglewood Festival.
More
recently she made her role debut as Faerberin in Die
Frau ohne Schatten in Hamburg, performed Fidelio in Seville, Brünnhilde (Die Walküre) at the Metropolitan
Opera, further performances of Brünnhilde in the Ring Cycle at the Royal Opera House
and concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Tasmanian, West
Australian and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras. Future engagements
include Leonora (Fidelio)
for OA, a return to
Hamburg
for Brünnhilde (Die Walküre), concerts in
Iceland
and with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra under Paul Daniel.
Lisa
Gasteen
's concert repertoire includes
Rossini’s Stabat Mater,
Mendelssohn’s Elijah,
Janacek's Glagolitic Mass,
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
and Verdi’s Requiem with
orchestras including the Tasmanian,
Queensland
and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra,
BBC Welsh Symphony, in
Budapest
, Göteborg, in Durham Cathedral, with the Florida Philharmonic
Orchestra and for the Melbourne International Festival, Sydney
Festival and Bergen Festival.
Lisa
Gasteen
was awarded the Opera
Foundation's 1999 Bayreuth Scholarship.
In 2002, she was the recipient of the Myer Foundation's
Individual Performer Award and in 2004 was the arts category winner of
the Bulletin Magazine’s Smart 100 series.
In 2006 she was made an Officer in the Order of
Australia
.
CD's include “
Lisa Gasteen
- Singer of the World”, a collection of Italian arias on the
Walsingham label, Marta in
Tiefland for OEHMS Classics, Brünnhilde in
Stuttgart Opera's production of Siegfried
for EuroArts/arte edition (DVD and CD), and Brünnhilde in SOSA’s Ring Cycle
for Melba Recordings.
Further details: Jenifer Eddy Artists Management
EAM
info@jeam.com.au
