Rebecca Nelsen
soprano
© Stefan Panfili
Rebecca Nelsen is stepping in to sing Hanna Glawari in the last performance of The Merry Widow in Frankfurt this season, a role she recently sang for the first time, with great success, at the Volksoper in Vienna, where she is a member of the ensemble. She also sang it at Oper Dortmund (house debut) this season. Other engagements have taken her to the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Opéra Monte-Carlo, Aalto Theater in Essen, the Semperoper in Dresden, Cologne Opera, Angers-Nantes Opéra, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Garsington Opera, the Bregenz Festival and Munich Biennale, the Glyndebourne Festival, Malmö Opera and the Grand Théâtre de Genève. This singer from Texas' repertoire since joining the ensemble in Vienna has included Violetta (La traviata), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Frauke Beeke Hansen (Das Gespenst von Canterville / The Canterville Ghost), Adele (Die Fledermaus), Gilda (Rigoletto), Eurydike (Orpheus in der Unterwelt), Fiona MacClaren (Brigadoon), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Clara (Porgy and Bess), Rosina (Der Barbier von Sevilla), Laura (Der Bettelstudent / The Beggar Student), Valencienne (The Merry Widow), Annina Giró (Vivaldi – The Fifth Season), Corilla (Viva la Mamma), Marzinah (Kismet) and Marilyn Monroe in Gavin Bryars’ Marilyn Forever. She sang Berg's Lulu for the first time at Oper Leipzig on 2018, on a European tour with the London Philharmonia. After studying at the University for Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna on a Fulbright scholarship Rebecca Nelsen embarked on her career performing at the Neue (new) Oper in Vienna, where she recently sang Wolfgang Rihm's Proserpina. After joining the ensemble at the Staatstheater in Braunschweig in 2007 she sang roles including Gilda, Musetta, Blonde, Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Gräfin Stasi (Die Csárdásfürstin), Cardillac's Daughter (Cardillac), Eurilla (Orlando Paladino) and Ippolito (Fedra). Recent concert work has included appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Bochum Symphony Orchestra.