“Blessed with a plush, dramatic voice capable of formidable power and dazzling high notes …” (Associated Press)

South African-born Elza van den Heever is one of the world’s most important lyric-dramatic sopranos.

She opens the season 2024-25 as Leonore (Fidelio) at Lyric Opera Chicago. The Metropolitan Opera presents the soprano als Empress (Frau ohne Schatten) and as Salome in two of her signature roles. She will make her debut at La Scala Milano as Sieglinde (Walküre) under the baton of Christian Thielemann and appear as Elettra (Idomeneo) at the San Francisco Opera under Eun Sun Kim. She returns to the role of Elsa von Brabant (Lohengrin) at Bayreuther Festspiele, under Christian Thielemann. Concert engagements include a Strauss concert with the Metropolitan Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin at Carnegie Hall New York.

Outstanding engagements in recent seasons include the Empress under Christian Thielemann at the Vienna State Opera; her role debut as Elisabeth (Tannhäuser) at the MET; Chrysothemis (Elektra) under Kirill Petrenko at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival and in concert at the Philharmonie Berlin; her role debut as Sieglinde (Walküre) with the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Julia in Spontini’s La Vestale in a new production staged by Lydia Steier with Bertrand de Billy conducting.