Heidenreich was born Elke Helene Riegert in
Korbach and grew up in
Essen. She and her husband separated in 1995, but kept up literary collaboration, writing
Rudernde Hunde in 2002 and
Alte Liebe in 2010. Heidenreich is passionate about
opera. Her mother bought her a ticket for
Die Zauberflöte at the
Essen Opera in 1956 when she was age 13. She worked for the
Cologne Opera with managers
Günter Krämer, Christoph Dammann and
Uwe Eric Laufenberg, especially 12 years for the
Kinderoper (operas for children). In 2004, she produced a CD together with Christian Schullen, entitled
Oper! – Eine Liebeserklärung (Opera! – A declaration of love). When Laufenberg became manager at the
Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, she began a series of opera introductions, entitled
Passione, in 2014, presented in dialogue with an expert. She wrote the
libretto for the opera
Adriana by Marc-Aurel Floros, premiered at the
Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg in 2015. She called opera a "power plant of emotions" (
Gefühlskraftwerk), and wrote books on the topic, aiming at a broader interest in its culture. == Works ==