Michalis Heliotis
Soloist, Tenor
He was born in Athens in 1929 and died in 1990. He studied voice at the Greek National Conservatoire under Marika Kalfopoulou, Eleni Nikolaidou and Georgia Georgilopoulou, graduating in 1957. He continued his training in Vienna under Elisabeth Radó and in Zagreb under Fritz Luntcer. He debuted at the GNO in 1956 as Sou-Chong [The Land of Smiles/ Das Land des Lächelns], while up until 1967 he also appeared in Zagreb and West Germany theaters. During the period 1956-1985 he appeared in approximately ninety GNO productions and/or revivals, including many premieres. He sang starring and supporting roles in 30 operas, such as: Ferrando [Thus do they all/Così fan tutte], Tamino [The Magic Flute/Die Zauberflöte], Don Ottavio [Don Giovanni], Count Almaviva [The barber of Seville/Il barbiere di Siviglia], Hoffmann [The Tales of Hoffman/Les Contes d’Hoffmann], Erik [The flying Dutchman/Der Fliegende Holländer], Alfredo Germont [The fallen woman/La traviata], Fenton [Falstaff], Basilio [The Marriage of Figaro/Le nozze di Figaro], Holy Fool [Boris Godunov] (Odeon of Herodes Atticus, 1969, 1972), Pong [Turandot] (Odeon of Herodes Atticus, 1969), etc. He also sang leading and supporting roles in seven operettas: The merry Widow [Die Lustige Witwe], Beautiful Helen [La Belle Hélène], The Land of Smiles [Das Land des Lächelns], Frederica, House of the three girls [Das Dreimädelhaus], Paganini and The Bat [Die Fledermaus]. He sang a similar repertoire in his appearances outside of Greece, which include the Dubrovnik Festival. He was awarded the Athens Festival Honorary Diploma (1996) and the Golden Medal of the Italian Art Institute for the Rossini Year. He recorded excerpts from operettas by Theophrastos Sakkellaridis and Nikos Hatziapostolou. // Last update of the biography: December 2015 - The list of productions below is continually updated.