Petra Berger

Petra Berger, born Petronella Burger (Amstelveen, 23 October 1965), is a Dutch classical crossover singer, composer, and musical actress.

Petra Berger was born into a musical family, but did not pursue a musical career until later on in her life.

Berger earned her secondary school diploma in 1982 and landed a job at a computer firm job.

During an annual party of the computer firm, Berger formed a band with some colleagues to play music just for fun.

That evening, however, she realised that singing was what she really wanted to do.

In 1987, Petra Berger and her sister Lida decided to compete on the television program Soundmixshow presented by Henny Huisman, reaching the finals with the song "I Know Him So Well."

After this show, the sisters were offered a recording deal and, under the name of Chess, soon had a modest hit with the song "Never Change a Winning Team," composed by Jeroen Englebert.

They followed this song up with the singles "Make My Day" and "Promise Not to Tell."

That being said, Chess' successes had a negative effect on her sister Lida; Lida liked to sing, but did not feel comfortable with the widespread attention and scrutiny that came with fame.

For this reason, Lida quit Chess after several years.

Lida was replaced by another singer, Denise van der Hek.

In the early 1990s, Berger had a hit with Chess' cover of the song "I Dreamed a Dream" from the musical Les Misérables.

As a response to the widespread success of the song, Chess released a whole album of tunes from popular movies and shows: The Oscar Album (1992).

This album included a duet with René Froger.

Shortly after the release of this album, Berger decided she wanted to pursue musicals and split up with Van der Hek, marking the end of her time as a member of Chess.

Having ended her career as a member of Chess in 1992, Petra Berger shifted her focus to perfecting her musical theatre skills.

She took singing classes with a variety of different teachers, as well as piano, dance, and acting classes.

Her first musical audition was for Les Misérables. Unfortunately, Berger was eliminated in the final round of auditions.

Her second musical audition was for Cyrano de Bergerac: The Musical.

She was offered a lead role, but turned it down for unknown reasons.

She subsequently auditioned for Phantom of the Opera, but ultimately did not join the cast.

In late 1993, theatrical impresario Joop van den Ende Theatre Productions asked Berger to come audition for the role of Johanna in the musical Sweeney Todd.

She got the part, making Johanna her first lead role in a musical production.

Later, Berger got the part of Belle in the musical Beauty and the Beast in Germany and the part of Maria in The Sound of Music in 1995 in Belgium.

In the following years, she gave birth to two children, Boris (1997) and Babette (1999), together with her husband Jeroen Englebert.

Shortly afterwards, in 1999, Berger became a lead performer at a dinner show.

In 2000, Berger recorded some demos with producers Jeroen Englebert and Pim Koopman, one of which being the aria "O mio babbino caro" from Giacomo Puccini's opera Gianni Schicchi.

Upon hearing this demo, the Universal Music Group offered Berger a record deal as a solo artist.

In 2001, her first solo album Eternal Woman was released.

This album, produced by Jeroen Englebert and Pim Koopman, contained a fusion of classical and pop musical themes.

Each of the eleven songs on the album addresses the story and struggle of a legendary woman from world history:

Eternal Woman was successful in the Netherlands, but also received international acclaim: The album became popular in countries like Taiwan, Israel, Turkey as well.

During the Night of the Proms concert series of the 2002 season, Petra Berger gained a significant deal of national acclaim and fame.

In 2003, Berger's second studio album Mistress was released.

Complementing the thematic tenet of Eternal Woman, Mistress was wholly dedicated to famous mistresses and deceived wives from the past and present.

Mistress featured new compositions as well as adaptations of famous classical works.

In 2004, the duet "Every Time" (with the American singer Joshua Payne) and the Italian version ("Cerco Te") were added to the album.

Having developed a full repertoire of her own, Berger went on to tour Dutch theaters in 2004 for the first time in her solo career.

The tour performance revolved around her first two albums, Eternal Woman and Mistress. Berger personally developed the conceptual framework for the performance, while Bas Groenenberg was assigned as director and screenwriter.

Jeroen Englebert and Pim Koopman were assigned as producers for the performance.