Following her Salzburg Festival debut in Orff’s De temporum fine comoedia in summer 2022, the Dutch contralto Helen Rasker made her debuts as Andronico in Vivaldi’s Il Giustino at the Berlin State Opera, as Clover the Mare in the world premiere of Alexander Raskatov’s Animal Farm at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, and as Gluck’s Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice) at the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. In concert she appeared with Ensemble Modern, B’Rock Orchestra, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.
Recent engagements have also included a return to the Aix-en-Provence Festival for the world premiere of Sami Odeh-Tamimi’s The Arab Apocalypse in Pierre Audi’s production, Caldara’s oratorio Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in Berlin, Freiburg, Paris, Madrid and Moscow, the Grandmother, the Old Lady and the Finn Woman in Hans Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queen at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg and in a concert performance under Kent Nagano at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and the central role in the world premiere of Sivan Eldar’s Like Flesh at the Opéra de Lille, with ensuing performances in Montpellier and Nancy. She has also returned to the Concertgebouw as Grandmother Buryja in a concert performance of Jenůfa. In 2019 she sang in George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill with Ensemble Modern conducted by the composer, both at London’s Wigmore Hall and at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie.
Her busy schedule as a concert singer has recently included performances of Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Les Musiciens du Louvre, Mahler’s Eighth Symphony and Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.
