Wiltrud Maria Gödde

Wiltrud Maria Gödde was born in Duisburg. As a young student at the Folkwang University of the Arts, she first obtained a qualification in piano teaching; she then continued her studies, also at the Folkwang University, in solo singing, graduating with the Artistic Maturity Examination. She worked as a piano teacher at the Lower Rhine Music School in Duisburg until 1994, when she joined the opera choir at the Musiktheater im Revier as a soprano. As part of her work with the choir, Wiltrud Maria Gödde also regularly takes on smaller solo roles, including as a bridesmaid in *The Marriage of Figaro*, the Voice of Heaven in *Faust*, the Reporter in *Anything Goes*, the Secretary in the Schalke musical *Nullvier – niemand kommt an Gott vorbei* and the role of Greta Neff in *The Witches of Eastwick*, Laura Hildebrand in *Street Scene* and Riffka in *Anatevka*.
Under the pseudonym Maria Wigo, she writes poems and ballads and, in 2006, published her self-illustrated book *Hüter der Kostbarkeiten – Fantastische Liebesgedichte* (Guardians of Treasures – Fantastic Love Poems) with Geest-Verlag. As Maria Wigo, she also collaborated with a French composer to create the song ‘Now you come home to see me’.