MEDIA

EDUCATION

Originally from Belgium, the young mezzo-soprano/contralto Lotte Verstaen, began her musical education at the music academy of her hometown Tielt with soprano Catherine Vandevelde. In September 2019, she obtained the Master’s degree of Singing with the highest distinction at the LUCA School of Arts/Campus Lemmens in Louvain (also with Catherine Vandevelde). Subsequently she followed master classes with Maarten Koningsberger, Yann Beuron, Karine Deshayes, Daniela Musca, Roger Vignoles, Audrey Hyland, Rosemary Joshua, Alexander Vassiliev, Lisette Oropesa and George Ure.

whilst completing her vocal and musical eduction at LUCA, Lotte Verstaen was admitted to the MM Academy of the ROH La Monnaie in Brussels, which she joined in 2015. As a member of this Academy she repeatedly took part in concert projects under the baton of renowned conductors such as : Thomas Rösner, Mikhail Tatarnikov, Antonello Manacorda, Evelino Pidò, Andrea Marcon and Hartmut Haenchen. It also gave her the opportunity to take part in the ENOA-LAB's production A song for the moon. An opera for children by Mathilde Wantenaar and directed by Béatrice Lachaussé, produced at La Monnaie. Being upgraded MM Academy Soloist she was asked to cover complete roles such as : s : Bellangère in La mort de Tintagiles and Sœur de Palomide 3 in Alladine et Palomides from the production Le Silence des ombres by composer-conductor Benjamin Attahir, (season 2019/2020). The more she interpreted the role of Marcellina in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the workshop Trilogia Mozart Da Ponte organised by La Monnaie in cooperation with the directors Jean-Philippe Clarac and Olivier Deloeuil (Le Lab) and conductor James Southall. Praised for her achievements Lotte Verstaen was called MM Academy Laureate.

RECENT ENGAGEMENTS

Due to the protective measures against corona, her eagerly awaited role debut as Ursule in a new production of Berlioz' Béatrice et Bénédict led by Maestro François-Xavier Roth at the Opera House of Cologne, didn’t happen. The good news is that the artist meanwhile joined the Opera studio of Cologne where she was cast in La Traviata (Annina), Rigoletto (Un Paggio), Nozze di Figaro (Cherubino) and in « Götterdämmerung » (1. Norn & Flosshilde) the pinnacle of the by Cologne produced « Ring for children ».

The current season will see the artist appear in Cologne in the world premiere of « Schnittstellen », as Flosshilde, 1. Norn & Schwerleite in the complete  « Ring für Kinder », 1. Drossel in Die Vögel (Braunfels), 3rd Wood sprite in Rusalka, Ariel in The Tempest  (Purcell) and as 2nd Lady in Mozart's Magic flute. Her postponed debut as Ursule took eventually place on April 30, 2022.

November 2021 Lotte Verstaen made her debut at Flanders Opera as Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos. Further more she appeared at Concertgebouw Amsterdam as Feklusa in Kat'a Kabanova, under the baton of Karina Canellakis alongsside the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Hiversum.

Amongst her future role debuts : Une jeune Galiléenne and Marie-Madeleine in La Vierge by Jules Massenet at the Klangvokal Musikfestival Dortmund, Olga in Eugen Onegin at La Monnaie (2022/2023) and Madamigella Dangeville in Adriana Lecouvreur at Opéra royal de Wallonie Liège (also her house debut). Upon invitation of the Flanders Festival (Ghent) the artist will perform Berlioz' "Les nuits d'été" together with pianist Peter Jeurissen (Sept. 11, 2022).

OTHER REPERTOIRE

Paquette in Candide (Bernstein) under Patrick Leterme at Flagey Brussels (Festival Musiq’3), Louvain-la-Neuve (Festival du Brabant Wallon), Liège (Opéra Royal de Wallonie), Charleroi (Palais des Beaux Arts), Saint-Hubert and La Louvière ; Third Lady in Mozart's Magic Flute with Casco Phil led by Dionysis Grammenos ; Dinah in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti under Ivan Meylemans ; Sorceress and Spirit in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas under Filip Martens and Mme de la Haltière in Massenet's Cendrillon. The more she covered the role of Dorabella (Così fan tutte) at the Brussel's Mozart Festival. She was supposed to debut as Baba in Menotti’s « The Medium », but again the coronavirus threw a spanner in the works.  

In concert she appeared as a soloist in J.S. Bach's Johannes Passion conducted now by Bart Naessens. and then again by Peter Ledaine (with Ensemble Orlandus and Baroque Consort Euterpe) ; Haendels Messiah led by Dirk De Nef ; Mahlers Rückert-Lieder arranged for voice and string orchestra led by Marc Tooten and Saint-Saëns’ « Christmas oratorio » under Filip Martens. Lotte has also a strong affinity with contemporary and 20th-century classical composers such as Jeroen D’hoe next to Frank Martin (1890-1974) of whom she interpreted the cycle «Quatre Sonnets à Cassandre ».  

COMPETITIONS

In 2019 Lotte Verstaen reached the semi-finals of the 38th International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in Villach in July 2019 and won the Third Prize at the 52nd International Singing Competition of Toulouse in September 2019. During the final round she was accompanied by the Orchestre National du Capitole under the baton of Pierre Dumoussaud at Capitole of Toulouse. The artist is also laureate of the competitions : ‘Solisten aan Zee’ (2013) and was finalist in the Belgian finale of the competition Voix Nouvelles, edition 2017.

Cv-update : Season 2022-2023, September 2022. Please contact the agency to get the most recent update of Lotte Verstaen's biographical details.