Wilma Driessen

Wilma Driessen (born Wilhelmina Jacoba Driessen, December 6, 1938) is a Dutch opera singer. Her voice is that of a coloratura soprano. She is known for her versatility and extraordinary vocal expression. She is the widow of Richard E. Gerritsen, artisan of Oud Campen and Soelekerke, who died in 2016 at the age of 81. She has a son Marco R. Gerritsen.

Child prodigy

Dutch born soprano Wilma Driessen started performing as a child prodigy at the age of only seven. At the age of fourteen she gave her first radio recital, with songs by Max Reger and Johannes Brahms. At the age of ten she started her study singing and music at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Later she studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.

Career

In 1959, at the age of 20, she made her debut as Lakmé in the Opera Lakmé by Léo Delibes in the Vlaamse Opera in Ghent and in the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège. After which she made her Dutch debut at the De Nederlandse Opera (DNO), in Amsterdam as Leïla in Les pêcheurs de perles by Georges Bizet. After her Dutch debut she was engaged at The Dutch Opera as the first coloratura soprano.

The following years she sang all main parts of her kind of voice at the great Opera Houses of Europe. Later in her career she added to her repertoire classical operetta and musical. She made much furor as Gilda in the opera Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi, Olympia in the opera Les contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach and Adele in the operetta Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss Jr..

Her extensive opera, operetta and musical repertoire consists of more than 70 leading roles. She was a frequently asked guest at many festivals and television programs. She has worked - among others - with Igor Stravinsky, Carlo Maria Giulini, Roberto Benzi, Bruno Maderna, Robert Stolz, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Rudolf Schock and Arnold van Mill. Several gramophone records and CDs from her were recorded.

Versatility

In addition to her singing career she was one of the first Dutch classical singers who regularly performed with singers and artists from the popular genre. The many television and radio broadcasts makes this versatile singer very popular with a broad audience. Her impressive professional career spans a period of more than 50 years.

Honours
  • Laureate International Vocal Competition ´s-Hertogenbosch (1959)
  • Laureate Concorso Lirico Internazionale Voci Verdiane di Busseto (1963)
  • Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau (1990)

External
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