Stéphanie Houtzeel

Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Houtzeel is a versatile singer with a repertory stretching from the early Baroque to music of the present day. She is a longtime ensemble member of the Vienna State Opera. Houtzeel was born in Kassel, Germany, on November 14, 1965, but grew up in the U.S., near Boston. Houtzeel attended Middlebury College in Vermont, studying political science and French, but then switched to voice and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and at the Juilliard School in New York. At Juilliard, she was the inaugural recipient of the school's Vocal Arts Debut Award. Other boosts to her growing career came with a prize at the International Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition and a nod as one of the top up-and-coming singers from Germany's Opernwelt magazine. That honor came after Houtzeel's performance as the Komponist in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, and she has gone on to sing that role in major opera houses in Vienna, Tokyo, and Tel Aviv, among others. Houtzeel made her recording debut in 2001 on the Raumklang label with the album Händel: Italienische Liebeskantaten und Kammermusik. She has consistently been identified with the music of Handel as well. Houtzeel's repertory, however, is large, and she has sung many roles in a variety of opera houses. She has had roles ranging from Monteverdi to György Ligeti at such houses as the Semperoper in Dresden, the New York City Opera, and the Royal Danish Opera. Houtzeel is an accomplished Mozart singer, and at the Staatsoper in Vienna, where she joined the permanent ensemble in 2010, she sang the role of Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte. She has found other roles in Vienna beyond the Staatsoper stage, including that of Miranda in the Vienna premiere of Thomas Adès' The Tempest. Houtzeel is in demand in concert music as well, appearing with a varied set of top orchestras that includes the Vienna Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Collegium Vocale Gent. In 2019, she sang the title role in Handel's Ariodante at the Vienna State Opera under conductor Christoph Rousset and his historical performance group Les Talens Lyriques, garnering critical praise. Houtzeel has been heard on various opera recordings, and she released the solo recital Nostalgia in 2016 on the Capriccio label. In 2022, she was heard with the Orchester Wiener Akademie on the album Liszt: Legends of the Saints, Vol. 1, in the Cantantibus organis, S. 7.
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