Erika Miklósa, coloratura soprano

The Hungarian soprano Erika Miklósa began her career as an athlete. Having suffered a sport injury at the age of 16, she turned to her other love, the Arts. At the age of 19 she became the youngest contracted singer ever in the history of the Hungarian State Opera, where she would stay eight years.

Her studies took her to the Franz Liszt Conservatory in Szeged, to the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia (Penn.), and to the Teatro alla Scala, Milano.

She gave her international debut as a guest of Júlia Hamari in an opera concert at the Theâtre De La Monnaie, Brussels. Her first international contract was for the role of the Queen of the Night in Mozart's "Magic Flute", at the Mannheim Opera; she would sing that part more than 400 times.

Deutsche Grammophon recorded this opera, conducted by Claudio Abbado, with Miklósa singing the Queen of the Night. Her interpretation of the aria Der Hölle Rache was chosen as one of the best Mozart recordings by Deutsche Grammophon. She was also singing this role in the first live HDTV broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera New York; the recording also was published on DVD later. Julie Taymor directed, with James Levine conducting.

She has worked with the great conductors of the world, such as Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, James Levine, Sir Charles Mackerras, Marc Minkowski, Lamberto Gardelli, Thomas Hengelbrock, Asher Fisch, Julius Rubel, Zubin Mehta, Franz Welser Möst, Ádám Fischer, Kent Nagano, and Stefan Soltesz.

On stage she partnered with Placido Domingo, José Carreras, Juan Pons, Leo Nucci, Ruggero Raimondi, Jonas Kaufman, Rolando Villazón, Ramon Vargas, René Pape, Josef Calleja, and Thomas Hampson, to name just a few, in just about all the prominent venues and festivals of the world:

Metropolitan Opera New York, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala Milano, Deutsche Oper und Komische Oper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper München, Semperoper Dresden, Volksoper Wien, Opera Bastille Paris, Teatro Real Madrid, Florence Opera, Zürich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Wiesbaden, Ruhr Triennale, Baden-Baden Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Ludwigsburg, Festival La Coruña, Genova, Cagliari, Reggio Emilia, Ferrara, Modena, Bologna, Salzburg, San Francisco.