Adler Fellow ELZA VAN DEN HEEVER (First Lady) made her San Francisco Opera debut last season as Donna Anna (Don Giovanni). She returns to the Company this season to create the role of Mary Custis Lee (Appomattox) and as a lady in waiting (Macbeth). The soprano participated in the Merola Opera Program in 2003 and 2004 singing the roles of Mrs. Nolan in Menotti’s The Medium and the Female Chorus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. Last year she sang Donna Anna at Lincoln Theatre in Napa Valley and gave a Schwabacher Debut Recital—both under the auspices of the San Francisco Opera Center. Van den Heever was a soloist in the world premiere of Manzanar: An American Story with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and performed Morton Feldman’s I Met Heine on the Rue Fürstenberg and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the San Francisco Symphony, both in Davies Hall and on tour in Luxembourg and Switzerland. Upcoming engagements include Giorgetta (Il Tabarro) at Frankfurt Opera and Elettra (Idomeneo) at Bordeaux Opera.