Donna Ellen

Donna Ellen (born in Fergus , Ontario , Canada) is an opera singer with a soprano voice . She has been a member of the Vienna State Opera ensemble since 2008 .

life and work

Donna Ellen is the daughter of a Serb and a German who emigrated to Canada . She has two sisters and a brother who works in Hollywood as a special effects supervisor. The mother, a mezzo-soprano, sang in an operetta troupe in Krefeld before emigrating and took care of the musical education of her children. Donna Ellen had her first appearance at the age of 6 years with the Brahms song Good evening, good night , but then learned the game on the trombone . After high school, she studied trombone and singing at Wilfrid Laurier University . For two seasons she was a member of the Canada Opera Piccola , directed by Léopold Simoneau and Pierrette Alarie . In 1986 she sang Lucy in Menotti's The Telephone at the Vancouver Expo and was recorded at the Zurich Opera Studio . A grant from the Canada Council and the proceeds from two benefit concerts in her hometown made her stay there possible. She completed master classes with Elly Ameling and Helmuth Rilling .

In 1987, on the recommendation of Ioan Holender , she was engaged at the Landestheater Linz , where she stayed for eleven seasons. There she took on a number of Mozart roles - Queen of the Night, Blonde and Zerlina - but also Adele, Nanetta and Gretel in Engelbert Humperdinck's fairy tale opera, as well as the willow rod in the world premiere of Balduin Sulzer's Proteus , a technically extremely difficult coloratura role that she garnered great approval from the public and the press. From 1998 the singer worked as a freelance artist and undertook several tours with the Johann Strauss Ensemble , led by the violinist Alfred Pfleger , to Iran, Armenia, China, Japan, Greece, Slovenia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, among others. In 2001 she made a guest appearance at the Bad Ischl Operetta Festival as Electress in the Bird Trader . There she met the chamber singer Renate Holm , with whom she has been rehearsing all new roles ever since.

At the Stuttgart State Opera she took on the role of companion in Luigi Nono's Intolleranza in 1960 , and at the Grand Théâtre de Genève the protagonist in Luciano Berio's Un re in ascolto . In 2003 she made her debut at the Vienna State Opera (as a helmet weighing in Valkyrie ), 2004 at the Vienna Volksoper (First in the Mozart roles lady and Donna Anna), 2005 at the Theater Lübeck (as Claire in the maids of Peter Bengtson ). From 2006 to 2008 she appeared at the Komische Oper Berlin as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (staged by Peter Konwitschny ) and as Rosalinde in der Fledermaus (staged by Harry Kupfer ). In 2007 she took on the role of Kitty Hart in Dead Man Walking by Terrence McNally and Jake Heggie at Theater an der Wien .

She has been firmly committed to the Vienna State Opera since 2008 and is one of the pillars of the ensemble in the so-called second subject. The statistics (as of December 2017) show 48 appearances as Annina in La traviata , 24 performances as card opener in Arabella , 23 as Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro and 16 as Marcellina in Barbiere di Siviglia . She was the eagle owl in Hans Werner Henze's Pollicino and the owl in Janáček's Smart Fox and appears regularly in operas for children, for example in Aladin and the Magic Lamp or Pünktchen and Anton .

The artist has also sung a number of classical music concerts, including at the Wiener Musikverein and the Wiener Konzerthaus .

Donna Ellen was married to the choirmaster and conductor Ernst Dunshirn († 2020), with whom she has two daughters.

Web links

• Donna Ellen , official website
• Donna Ellen's appearances at the Vienna State Opera
• Donna Ellen at Operabase (engagements and dates)
• The new marker , interview with the singer ( you have to be in tune with your house )