Lenneke Ruiten

Her career
I cannot imagine my life without music. I want to sing; I want to share the beauty of music with everyone”. The Dutch soprano, Lenneke Ruiten, performed in public for the very first time in 1992. She was 14 years old and sang in her secondary school choir’s annual concert: music by Verdi, Brahms and, even then, Mozart. That was when she discovered she wanted to become a singer. When she was 18, Lenneke Ruiten started taking lessons from Maria Rondel, later completing her studies at The Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. She went on to study opera at the Bayerische Theaterakademie, exploring the art of Lieder singing with Helmut Deutsch at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. Lenneke specialised in German Lieder at the Austrian Franz Schubert Institut, studying with Robert Holl, Hans Hotter and Walter Berry, and in French Lieder at the Académie musicale de Villecroze with Elly Ameling and Rudolf Jansen. Meinard Kraak has been her coach since 2000.
In 2002, Lenneke Ruiten won first prize in the International Vocal Competition in ’s-Hertogenbosch. She also won the Press prize, Audience prize, the prize for the best Dutch participant and the Young Jury prize. It was Lenneke’s big breakthrough and, after that, her career really took off.
Lenneke Ruiten has sung some splendid opera roles at both major venues and prestigious festivals. She played Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro in the Prinzregententheater in Munich and Gabriel in the world premiere of the opera ‘Adam in ballingschap’ with De Nederlandse Opera during the Holland Festival. Lenneke excelled at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival as Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and in 2009 she made her debut at Le Festival d’Opéra Baroque de Beaune, as Despina in Così fan Tutte and as Armida in the opera Rinaldo. In 2010, Lenneke Ruiten is to perform the role of Pamina in Die Zauberflöte van Mozart with the Opéra de Lausanne and, a year later, she returns to Lausanne as Almirena in Rinaldo.
In the concert hall, too, Lenneke Ruiten has built up quite a reputation, giving concerts in, for example, the Tonhalle in Zürich, the Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and The National Concert Hall in Dublin. Lenneke has sung in the St Matthew Passion with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. With the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, she performed Mozart’s ‘Exsultate, Jubilate’. In 2010, there are solo appearances during an international tour with the conductor John Eliot Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists.

About Mozart
The Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was Lenneke Ruiten’s very first introduction to classical music. Her flute teacher at the music school noticed Lenneke’s avid enthusiasm for classical music and gave her a cassette of the Requiem to listen to at home. Lenneke: “I thought it was wonderful and listened to it hundreds of times. From then on, I was a regular visitor to the library where I naturally looked for the music of Mozart, but also for Bach, Debussy, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.” The film Amadeus, about Mozart’s life, also made an indelible impression. “I saw the film in a music lesson at my secondary school. It contains so much – moving scenes, compelling music, tragedy and exciting opera stories. Mozart is theatre through and through!” Lenneke has already sung the principal role in five of this composer’s operas. “Everything I sing by Mozart feels just right for my voice; I never have to struggle in any way. That feels very special. No doubt his acquaintances and the notions of that period imposed certain limitations on him. Despite (or perhaps because of) that, his music is free, creative, expressive, unpredictable and profound. I think that’s ingenious, as well as being a lesson for living. Mozart is my best source of inspiration.”

About the CD
This CD contains a motet and seven concert arias. Lenneke has chosen arias that are all theatrical, but also very diverse. ‘Ah, lo previdi!’, for example, is dramatic and melancholic while ‘Ah, se in ciel, benigne stelle’ is real coloratura: rapid and spectacular. The differences between the young and the old Mozart can be heard clearly as well. His early arias have a simple structure while his later works are more chromatic and complex. However, all his works are brilliant, authentic, credible and perfectly structured. There is a purity about both the arias and the character roles – nothing artificial about them at all. Lenneke Ruiten is proud of the result: “It was wonderful to be able to work with the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra and the conductor Ed Spanjaard. Recording such beautiful music with the world’s best musicians is a dream come true! During the recording period, a creative process unfolded; we had the freedom and the opportunity to be creative, to take risks. In this wonderful atmosphere, a mutual understanding developed. No stress, just pleasure. And you can hear that on the CD!”

Johan Kloosterboer
English translation: Christine Davies

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