Eva-Maria Westbroek

Eva-Maria Westbroek made her opera debut at the Aldeburgh Festival as Mère Marie in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites and sang Puccini's Tosca in Latvia and The Netherlands. After having had some doubts about her abilities to become a successful professional singer, she refound her pleasure and self-esteem as a singing waitress in an Amsterdam restaurant.[2] She auditioned anew and was offered the role of Elisabetta in Verdi's Don Carlos at the Komische Oper Berlin. Having heard and seen her, Harry Kupfer asked her to sing Chrysothemis in his production of Strauss's Elektra. For this role Eva-Maria Westbroek was mentioned as candidate for the title "Sängerin des Jahres 2001" in the opera magazine Opernwelt. In this period she also sang Tosca in Novi Sad, Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, Lisa in Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame in Coburg and Gerhilde and Gutrune in Wagner's Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, after which she was offered a position in the ensemble.

Stuttgart period 2001-2006

From 2001 till 2006 Eva-Maria Westbroek took part in the ensemble of the Staatsoper Stuttgart. Here she received acclaim with her performances as Carlotta in Schreker's Die Gezeichneten, Tosca, Emilia Marty in Janáček's Věc Makropulos and Desdemona in Verdi's Otello. Other roles she performed in Stuttgart are Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Giulietta in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Marie in Smetana's Die Verkaufte Braut and La Duchessa di Parma in Busoni's Doktor Faust. In 2006 she was given the title Kammersängerin der Staatsoper Stuttgart.

During her Stuttgart period Eva-Maria Westbroek also appeared in various other theatres. In 2002 she performed Julietta in Martinů's Julietta at the Bregenzer Festspiele, a performance which is available on CD. She sang Chrysothemis in Tokio under Charles Dutoit. In 2003 she debuted at the Salzburger Festspiele as Agave in a concert performance of Egon Wellesz’ Die Bakchantinnen. At the Semperoper in Dresden Eva-Maria Westbroek appeared as Chryosthemis and Ariadne in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. In 2004 Eva-Maria Westbroek debuted at L’Opéra de la Bastille in Paris as Madame Lidoine in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites and in 2005 she was successful there as Chrysothemis under Christoph von Dohnányi. At the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Eva-Maria Westbroek gave concert performances as Ariadne, Maddalena in Giordano's Andrea Chénier, Marguerite in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust under Valery Gergiev and, the role which Eva-Maria considered her dream role, Minnie in Puccini's La fanciulla del West.

2006 - present

In June 2006 Eva-Maria Westbroek made her debut at De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam as Katerina Izmajlova in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Mariss Jansons. For this performance she won the first prize from the Dutch VSCD Classical Music in the category "most impressive individual artistic achievement". With this role she also made her debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London in November 2006. Both performances were broadcast on television and the Amsterdam production is also available on DVD.

In June 2007 Eva-Maria Westbroek performed the role of Sieglinde under Sir Simon Rattle at the festival of Aix-en-Provence. This production was also performed in 2008 at the Salzburg Easter Festival and is available on DVD. She also appeared as Sieglinde at Covent Garden and at the Bayreuther Festspiele in the summer of 2008 under Christian Thielemann. At La Monnaie in Brussels she debuted as Leonora in Verdi's La forza del destino. This performance was followed by her debut at the National Theatre Munich as Chrysothemis. In October 2008 she made her debut as Hanna Glawari in Lehár's Die Lustige Witwe in the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. In 2008 she returned to Covent Garden as Minnie [4]. Eva-Maria Westbroek returned to La Bastille in Paris for two role debuts in 2008: Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser and Kaiserin in Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten and in January 2009 she also sang there Katerina Izmajlova in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. In Paris she was awarded the prestigious Grand Prix Antoine Livio of the Presse Musicale Internationale [5]. Other performances in 2009 thus far have included Amelia in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera in Frankfurt and Jenůfa in Munich. Currently, Miss Westbroek is performing her favourite role, Minnie, at De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam.

Personal life

Eva-Maria Westbroek is one of three daughters of the emeritus professor in geology Peter Westbroek. She is married to tenor Frank van Aken.