Biography
Erika Miklósa was an athlete as a teenager but was forced to give up competing due to an accident and she took up singing as a new pastime. Barely three years later, by the time she was 19, she had become the youngest contracted singer ever at the Hungarian State Opera House.
In 1992 Júlia Hamari invited her to her concert "Master and Future" in Brussels. This was her first appearance abroad. In the same year the opportunity arose for her to sing the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in Mannheim. In later years the role became her trade mark. Thereafter her international career made a rapid ascent.
In 1996 she went abroad as she wished to study. She trained on scholarships first at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and then at La Scala in Milan.Until 1999 she was a member of the Hungarian State Opera House, where she sang a series of soprano roles.
Erika Miklósa has played the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte on all the world's major stages from London to Paris, from Munich to New York. Her extraordinary voice has conquered the world and with a mass of international invitations and three hundred performances behind her she has become the most sought after singer in the world for this role. Since 2004 she has had a continuous contract with the New York Metropolitan Opera House. Besides opera, she gladly makes excursions into musical and operetta, and has been in the main role at countless exclusive gala concerts.
Her home has always been in Hungary, in a small village in the Bakony hills. She has never thought of leaving the country and always longs to return home. She has a real need for Hungarian air and Hungarian soil. To this day she has no formal qualification from the Academy of Music having taught herself on stage, yet she has engagements until February 2011.
"I've made my own career, but at heart I've remained a sportswoman. Every performance is like a race which I have to win or at least do my very best in," Erika says about herself.
Her main roles are:
Opera
Bellini: I Capuleti e Montecchi - Giulietta
Delibes: Lakmé - Lakmé
Donizetti: Lammermoori Lucia - Lucia
Donizetti: Don Pasquale - Norina
Donizetti: L'Elisir D'Amore - Adina
Mozart: Die Zauberflöte - Königin der Nacht
Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail - Konstanze
Offenbach: Les Comtes d'Hoffmann - Olympia
Rossini: Le Comte Ory - Adele
J.Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Adele
R.Strauss: Arabella - Fiakermilli
Verdi: Rigoletto - Gilda
Verdi: Un ballo in maschera - Oscar
Operetta
E.Kálmán: Die Bayadere - Odette
Musical
Bernstein: West Side Story - Maria
Awards:
Pro Opera Lyrica - Opera singer of the year in Hungary (1993)
International Mozart Singing Comeptition - first prize (1993)
Europe Cultura Award for the role of Königin der Nacht, Zurich (1991)
Merit of Hungarian Republic (1998)
Franz Liszt Artist Award (2006)
Recordings:
Rainbow (2000)
Alternadiva (2003)
In Starlight (2003)
Free Sky - pop album (2006)
Impression - Concert arias (2006)
The Mozart Album, Deutsche Gramofon (2006)
Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, Deutsche Gramofon (2007)
Bernstein: West Side Story, Sony Music (2009)