Heike Gierhardt

Heike Gierhardt was born in Frankfurt am Main and studied at the city’s University of Music and Performing Arts from 1984 to 1987. In 1986, she won first prize at both national and regional levels in the V.d.M.K. Berlin singing competition and was subsequently offered a permanent contract at the National Theatre in Mannheim (1987–1990), where she initially sang in the light lyric register.
From 1990 to 1992, she appeared regularly as a guest artist at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, including in the role of Frau Fluth in *The Merry Wives of Windsor*. In 1992, she was appointed to a permanent post at the Aalto Theatre in Essen, where, in the years that followed, she sang not only the major Mozart roles of Pamina in *The Magic Flute*, Konstanze in *The Abduction from the Seraglio* and Donna Anna in *Don Giovanni*, she also sang Antonia in *The Tales of Hoffmann* and Marie in *The Bartered Bride*. In *The Ring of the Nibelung*, she appeared as Freia in *Das Rheingold*, as Helmwige in *Die Walküre*, and as the Third Norn and Gutrune in *Die Götterdämmerung*. Under the baton of Stefan Soltez, she appeared and sang the roles of the Empress in *Die Frau ohne Schatten*, Michaela in *Carmen*, Countess Almaviva in *The Marriage of Figaro* and Madame Lidoine in *Dialogues des Carmélites* between 1997 and 1999.
In November 2000, she made her debut at the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona with the creative team of Andreas Homoki (director) and Peter Schneider (conductor) as the Empress in *Die Frau ohne Schatten*. This production was a huge success and marked the beginning of an ongoing collaboration with the Liceu: in 2001 as Irene in Richard Wagner’s *Rienzi* under the musical direction of Sebastian Weigle; in 2002, under Antoni Ros Marba, she made her role debut as Leonore in *Fidelio*, a production that was also staged in Santiago de Compostela; in November 2002 as Ariadne in *Ariadne auf Naxos*, directed by Uwe Eric Laufenberg and conducted by Friedrich Haider.
A guest engagement took her to the Teatro Real in Madrid in 2003 as Helmwige in *Die Walküre*, directed by Willy Decker and conducted by Peter Schneider. The Ring of the Nibelung then took her back to the Gran Teatro del Liceu, where, in a production directed by Harry Kupfer and conducted by Bertrand de Billy, she once again sang the roles of Freia in Das Rheingold and Helmwige in Die Walküre. In 2004, she went on to sing the Third Norn and Gutrune in *Götterdämmerung* as part of this cycle.
In 2005, she appeared as the Third Norn in the highly acclaimed co-production between the Národní divadlo in Prague and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein for the world premiere of *Der Ring des Nibelungen* in Prague. During the 2006–2008 season, she was a member of the ensemble at the National Theatre in Mannheim. Numerous guest appearances have taken her to the Berlin State Opera, the Saxon State Opera in Dresden, the Hamburg State Opera and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. Since the 2013/2014 season, she has been engaged as a prompter at the Musiktheater im Revier.