"... a magnificent Tosca, tall, gorgeous and blessed with an enormous voice she uses with total intelligence and musicality...
her Vissi d'Arte aria stopped the show. For her curtain call, the audience simply rose to its feet and began shouting..."
Hugh Fraser - The Spectator

Lisa Houben, soprano

Born in Washington D.C. to Dutch parents, the soprano Lisa Houben studied music in Milano, Montreal, The Hague and Washington with, amongst others, Todd Duncan, Rodolfo Celletti, Magda Olivero and Carlo Bergonzi. She began her international career with Tosca. Since then, her performances of Fidelio, Tosca, Manon Lescaut, Lady Macbeth, Aïda, Madama Butterfly... brought her to the Opera of Rome, Palermo’s Teatro Massimo, La Fenice in Venice, Opera of Bordeaux, Opera of Lyon, Brussels’s La Monnaie, Nuremberg's Staatstheater, Vienna’s Volksoper, Strasburg's Opéra du Rhin, Luxemburg’s Grand Théâtre, Opera of Flanders,… Her wide range of repertoire also includes Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco, Abigaïlle (Nabucco), Feldmarshallin (Rosenkavalier), Elisabetta (Don Carlo), Leonora (La forza del destino), Adriana Lecouvreur, Suor Angelica and Giorgietta (Il Trittico), Marguerite (Gounod’s Faust), Maddalena (Andrea Chenier), Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana), Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), Contessa (Nozze di Figaro), Cherubini’s Médée, as well as some splendid rarities such as Schumann’s Genoveva, Kalman’s Gräfin Mariza, Samuel Barber’s Vanessa (French Premiere), Leoncavallo’s Zaza (world premiere recording), … In the contemporary repertoire, she sang the world premiere of Giorgio Batistelli’s Richard III (Lady Ann) at the Opera of Flanders, the title role of the world premiere of Anton Coppola's Turandot in Florida. The soprano also starred in Gerard Mortier’s production Sentimenti at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam and at the Singel in Antwerp.

In the concert repertoire, Mrs Houben sang to great acclaim in prestigious international concert halls, such as Washington’s Constitution Hall, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, Rotterdam’s Doelen, Hong Kong Cultural Center, … Recently she performed Cavalleria Rusticana (Santuzza) at the Berliner Philharmoniker with the Berliner Symphoniker. She has also been invited several times at Carnegie Hall where she performed Italian gala concerts and Dvorak’s Te Deum. Amongst others, she sang Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Fauré’s Requiem… and some rare scores such as Peter Benoît’s De Schelde and Persiani’s Ines de Castro. Mrs Houben also interpreted Maurice Ravel’s Shéhérazade conducted by Alain Lombard and Chausson’s Poème de l’Amour et de la Mer conducted by Michel Plasson. She also performed in Mahler’s 4^th Symphony at the Teatro filarmonico of Verona, and in various gala concerts, amongst others with Jose Carreras and Andrea Bocelli at the Sala Paolo VI in the Vatican, at the St Petersburg Philharmonia with Ramon Vargas and at the Festival di Pasqua in the Basilica Sant’Andrea della Valle in Rome.

Her discography to date includes the world-premiere recordings of Leoncavallo’s Zaza and Persiani’s Ines de Castro for Bon Giovanni and Domenico Monleone’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Il Mistero for Myto Records. She recorded a CD of rare and inedited Italian Ave Maria’s and a CD of special italian “romanze” with pianist Daniel Blumenthal, and a CD of Italian verismo rarities, “Vieni amor mio”. Her last album has just been released with the complete songs and melodies of Alfredo Catalani for Opera Discovery.

Highlight of upcoming engagements:

Dvorak’s Te Deum – Carnegie Hall, New York

Madama Butterfly – Los Angeles Mission Opera

Recital – Marbella, Spain

Benefit recital for Mother’s at risk with pianist Daniel Blumenthal – Brussels

Tosca – Los Angeles Mission Opera

Gala Concert Perpignan Symphonic Orchestra – Perpignan, Narbonne

Gala Concert in Avignon