Richard Strauss | Elektra
Tue, Jan. 24, 2023, 7.30 pm - 9.20 pm
Musikalische Leitung
Kent Nagano
General Music Director of Hamburg
Kent Nagano is considered one of the outstanding conductors for both operatic and orchestral repertoire. He has been General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Chief Conductor of the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg since September 2015. In addition, he is very committed as Artistic Director of the Wagner Readings with Concerto Köln and the Dresden Festival Orchestra, and as patron of the Herrenchiemsee Festival. In 2006 he was appointed Honorary Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, in 2019 of Concerto Köln and in 2021 of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
The 2022/23 season in Hamburg began for Kent Nagano with two open-air concerts at the Rathausmarkt. October at the Hamburg State Opera holds a new production of Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer in a staging by Michael Thalheimer. This will be followed by revivals of Beethoven's Fidelio, Wagner's Tannhäuser, Strauss' Elektra and Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann, as well as in January 2023 the premiere of the new production of Schostakowitsch’s Lady Macbeth von Mzensk in a production by Angelina Nikonova and in May 2023 the premiere of the new production of Salvatore Sciarrino's Venere e Adone in a production by George Delnon. With the Philharmonic State Orchestra, he will open the 2023 International Music Festival Hamburg with a new work by U.S. conductor Sean Shepard and Beethoven's Symphony No. 8. Furthermore, during the season he conducts concerts at the Elbphilharmonie with works by Brahms, Haydn and Mahler, among others, and again Jörg Widmann's oratorio ARCHE, which was premiered in 2017 as part of the opening festival of the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, with the Children's and Youth Choir of the Hamburg State Opera, the Alsterspatzen, the Audi Youth Choir Academy and renowned soloists.
Kent Nagano's past years in Hamburg include opera productions such as Les Troyens, Lulu, the world premiere of Stilles Meer and German premiere of Lessons in Love and Violence, the "Philharmonische Akademie" at St. Michaelis, open-air concerts at the Rathausmarkt and the world premiere of Pascal Dusapin's work Waves for organ and orchestra at the Elbphilharmonie. Orchestral tours with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg in the past years have taken Kent Nagano to Japan, Spain and South America.
As a much sought-after guest conductor, Kent Nagano has worked with the world's leading international orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique Radio France, the Orchestre de l’Opéra national in Paris, the Chicago and Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Wiener Symphoniker. Special projects were the productions of Wagner's Das Rheingold with Concerto Köln and the Bernstein opera A
quiet place at the Paris Opera.
His operatic work has included Dusapin‘s Il viaggio, dante at the Festival d‘Aix-en-Provence, Hindemith's Cardillac and Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites at the Opéra National de Paris and Henze’s The Bassarids and the premiere of Saariaho's L’amour de loin at the Salzburg Festival. Other world premieres he has conducted include Bernstein's A White House Cantata and the operas Alice in Wonderland by Unsuk Chin, Three Sisters by Peter Eötvös and The Death of Klinghoffer and El Niño by John Adams.
Appearances in 2022/23 include the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Vienna Musikverein, the Philharmonie in Paris and the Isarphilharmonie in Munich, among others. In addition, Kent Nagano will conduct the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester in Berlin and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal.
A highlight of Kent Nagano's collaboration with the OSM as Music Director from 2006 to 2020 included the inauguration of the orchestra’s new concert hall La Maison Symphonique in September 2011, performances of the complete cycles of Beethoven and Mahler symphonies, Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, concert versions of Wagner's Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde and Das Rheingold, Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au Bücher, and Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise. Tours have taken Nagano and the orchestra to Canada including the Northern Territories, Japan, South Korea, Europe (latest 2019), South America and the USA. In July 2018, Kent Nagano conducted Krzysztof Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion with the OSM on the occasion of the Salzburg Festival opening concert.
His recordings with the OSM on Sony Classical/Analekta include Mahler’s Orchestral Songs with Christian Gerhaher in 2013 and a complete recording of all of Beethoven’s symphonies in 2015. Decca released a recording of the North American premiere of L'Aiglon, a rarely performed opera by Honegger and Ibert in 2016, conducted by Nagano in 2015. Further releases by Decca are Danse Macabre with works by Dukas, Saint-Saens, Ives and others in 2016 and a recording of Bernstein's A quiet place in 2018 on the occasion of the composer's 100th birthday. John Adams' Common tones in simple time & harmony (Decca) was released in 2019, the Lukas Passion by Penderecki (BIS) and works by Ginastera, Bernstein and Moussa (Analekta) in 2020.
At the Bayerische Staatsoper, where he was General Music Director from 2006 to 2013, Kent Nagano commissioned new operas such as Babylon by Jörg Widmann, Das Gehege by Wolfgang Rihm and Alice in Wonderland by Unsuk Chin. New productions included Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos and Die Frau ohne Schatten, Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites, Messiaen’s Saint François d'Assise, Berg’s Wozzeck, George Benjamin's Written on skin and Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Tours took Nagano and the Bavarian State Orchestra through Europe and Japan. In addition to Bruckner's Symphonies Nos. 4 and 7 (Sony), Kent Nagano has released several opera performances with the Bavarian State Orchestra on DVD: Unsuk Chin's opera Alice in Wonderland (2008) and Mussorgsky's Chowanschtschina (2009) with unitel classica/medici arts, Dialogue des Carmélites with Bel Air Classiques (2011) and Lohengrin (2010) with Decca.
Another very important period in Nagano’s career was his time as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 2000-2006. He performed Schönberg’s Moses und Aron with the orchestra (in collaboration with Los Angeles Opera), and took them to the Salzburg Festival to perform both Zemlinsky’s Der König Kandaules and Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten as well as to the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden with Parsifal and Lohengrin in productions by Nikolaus Lehnhoff. Recordings with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin for Harmonia Mundi include repertoire as diverse as Bernstein’s Mass, Bruckner’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 6, Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberge, Wolf’s Mörike-Lieder, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Schönberg’s Die Jakobsleiter and Friede auf Erden, as well as Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 and Schönberg’s Variationen für Orchester Op. 31. In June 2006, at the end of his tenure with the orchestra, Kent Nagano was given the title Honorary Conductor by members of the orchestra, only the second recipient of this honour in their 60-year history. To this day he maintains a close friendship with the orchestra.
In October 2019, Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama expanded their joint recordings of Beethoven's works for piano and orchestra with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 0 E-flat Major WoO 4, a nearly unknown youthful work by the composer, and his Rondo for Piano and Orchestra WoO 6 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. The complete edition of Beethoven’s piano concerti was released on the Berlin Classics label.
Nagano has worked with labels such as BIS, Decca, Sony Classical, FARAO Classics and Analekta for many years, but he has also recorded CDs with Berlin Classics, Erato, Teldec, Pentatone, Deutsche Grammophon and Harmonia Mundi. He was awarded Grammys for his recordings of Busoni’s Doktor Faust with Opéra National de Lyon, Prokofjew’s Peter and the Wolf with the Russian National Orchestra and Saariaho’s L’amour de Loin with the Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin.
To celebrate Kent Nagano's 70th birthday in 2021, a 3-CD box set of works by Olivier Messiaen was released in October on the BR Klassik label. The release includes live recordings of the works Poèmes pour Mi, Chronochromie and La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ from concerts with Kent Nagano and the Symphonieorchester und Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, demonstrating Nagano's close familiarity with Messiaen's musical language in a special way.
In September 2021, Kent Nagano published his second book with Berlin Verlag. In "10 Lessons of my Life", he recalls ten very personal encounters in his life from which he learned important lessons, not only for his career. Among them are the Icelandic pop artist Björk, Frank Zappa, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez and the Nobel Prize winner in physics Donald Glaser.
In 2015 Kent Nagano published "Erwarten Sie Wunder!" also in Berlin Verlag, a passionate appeal for the relevance of classical music in today's world. In 2019 the book was published in English by the Canadian McGill-Queen's University Press under the title ″Classical Music - Expect the Unexpected" and in 2015 under "Sonnez, merveilles!" in French by Éditions du Boréal.
Born in California, Nagano maintains close connections with his home state and was Music Director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra from 1978-2009. His first major successes came with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1984, when Messiaen appointed him assistant to conductor Seiji Ozawa for the premiere of his opera Saint François d'Assise. Nagano’s success in America led to European appointments: Music Director of Opéra National de Lyon (1988-1998) and Music Director of the Hallé Orchestra (1991-2000). Kent Nagano became the first Music Director of Los Angeles Opera in 2003 having already held the position of Principal Conductor for two years.
Kent Nagano was awarded an honorary doctorate from McGill University in Montréal in 2005, an honorary doctorate from the Université de Montréal in 2006, and an honorary doctorate from San Francisco State University in 2018.
Find further information about Kent Nagano here.
photo: Claudia Höhne
Klytämnestra
Violeta Urmana
Mezzo-soprano
Birthplace:
Marijampole, Lithuania
Studies:
Piano at the Juozas-Gruodis Conservatory in Kaunas, piano and singing at the Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy in Vilnius
Master classes:
Master class at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich as well as Opernstudio of the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich
Prizes / Honors:
Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Singers (London), appointment as Austrian Kammersängerin (Vienna), Grand Duke Gedeminas of Lithuania (Lithuania), honorary degree of the Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy (Vilnius), Commendatore dell'Ordine della Stella d'Italia (Italy), et al.
Important parts:
Kundry (Parsifal), Eboli (Don Carlo), Amelia (Un ballo in maschera), Elisabetta (Don Carlo), Leonora (La forza del destino), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), Odabella (Attila), Aida (Aida), La Gioconda (La Gioconda), Medea (Medea), Tosca (Tosca), Norma (Norma), Iphigénie (Iphigénie en Tauride), Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos), Brünnhilde (Siegfried), Sieglinde (Die Walküre), Isolde (Tristan und Isolde), Azucena (Il trovatore), Mezzosoprano (Messa da Requiem), Jocaste (Oedipus rex), et al.
Stages:
Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Opéra national de Paris, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Arena di Verona as well as appearances at festivals such as Bayreuther Festspiele, Salzburger Festspiele, Festival d‘Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC Proms
Cooperation with conductors:
Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Bertrand de Billy, Pierre Boulez, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, James Conlon, James Levine, Jesús López Cobos, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Sir Simon Rattle, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Franz Welser-Möst, Christian Thielemann, et al.
Find further information about Violeta Urmana here.
photo: Ivan Balderramo
Elektra
Elena Pankratova
Soprano
Birthplace:
Yekaterinburg, Russia
Studies:
Diploma with distinction as an opera singer and vocal teacher, R.-Korsakov State Conservatory in Saint Petersburg
Awards:
CASTA DIVA Opera Prize in the category "Best Singer of the Year" 2018 for KUNDRY in Bayreuth and FÄRBERIN at the SO Berlin
Important roles:
Turandot (Turandot), Dyer (Die Frau ohne Scha\en), Ortrud (Lohengrin), Kundry (Parsifal), Tosca (Tosca), Brünnhilde (Siegfried), Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana), Leonore (Fidelio), Sieglinde (Walküre), Venus (Tannhäuser), et al.
Stages:
Salzburg Easter Festival, Bayreuth Festival, Bavarian State Opera Munich, Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, Vienna State Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, La Scala Milan, Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, De Nationale Opera and Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Royal Danish Opera Copenhagen, San Carlo di Napoli, La Monnaie Brussels, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Opéra de Lyon, Deutsche Oper Berlin, NHK and Bunka Kaikan Tokyo, Semperoper Dresden, Arena di Verona, Opéra Bastille Paris, Teatro Real Madrid, Mariinsky Theatre St. Petersburg, Metropolitan Opera New York, et al.
Cooperation with directors:
Krzysztof Warlikowski, Stefan Herheim, Robert Wilson, Yannis Kokkos, Claus Guth, Willy Decker, Romeo Castellucci, Carlus Padrissa, Andreas Homoki, Olivier Py, Uwe Eric Laufenberg, Yuval Sharon, Tim Albery, Jossi Wieler, Damiano Michieltto, Paul Curran, et al.
Cooperation with conductors:
Zubin Mehta, Kirill Petrenko, Christian Thielemann, Vladimir Jurowski, Pinchas Steinberg, Semyon Bychkov, Peter Schneider, Valery Gergiev, Hartmut Haenchen, Donald Runnicles, Sebastian Weigle, Kent Nagano, Ulf Schirmer, Gustavo Dudamel, Kazushi Ono, Alain Altinoglu, et al.
photo: Vitaly Zapryagaev
Chrysothemis
Johanni van Oostrum
Aegisth
John Daszak
John Daszaks musikalische Laufbahn begann mit einem Gesangsstudium an der Guildhall School of Music and Drama, das er am Royal Northern College of Music und an der Accademia D´Arte Lirica in Italien fortsetzte. Sein Bühnendebüt gab der Tenor an der Englischen Nationaloper als Steva in »Jenufa«. Sein Repertoire umfasst unter anderem die Partien Don José (»Carmen«), Grigori und Dimitri (»Boris Godunow«), Achilles (»König Priam«), Skuratov (»From the House of the Death«), Ismaele (»Nabucco«), Max (»Der Freischütz«), Pierre (»War and Peace«), Gustavus III (»Un Ballo in Maschera«), Elemer (»Arabella«), Zinovy (»Lady Macbeth von Mzensk«), Adolar (»Euryanthe«), Yannakos (»Griechische Passion«), Boris (»Katia Kabanova«) und Mattho (»Salammbo«). An der Welsh National Opera sang er unter anderem die Titelpartie in Peter Grimes. Bei den Uraufführungen der Werke »From Morning to Midnight« und »Thyeste« war er außerdem zu erleben. Mit der Partie des Governor und Vanderdendur (»Candide«) gastierte er am Châtelet in Paris, als Loge (»Das Rheingold«) am Palau de les Arts in Valencia und als Captain Vere (»Billy Budd«), Alwa (»Lulu«), Aron (»Moses und Aron«), Fürst Wassilij Golitzyn (»Chowanschtschina«) und als Mephistopheles (»Dr. Faust«) an der Bayerischen Staatsoper in München. Weitere Engagements führten ihn an die großen Opernhäuser in Amsterdam, London, Paris, Mailand, Berlin, Düsseldorf und zu den Festspielen in Bregenz, Glyndebourne und Spoleto. Mit der Partie des Gustav Aschenbach in »Death in Venice« debütiert er im Februar 2010 an der Hamburgischen Staatsoper.
photo: Robert Workman
Orest
Lauri Vasar
Baritone
Birthplace:
Talinn, Estonia
Studies:
Tallinn Music Academy, postgraduate studies at the Mozarteum Salzburg
Prizes:
Nomination "Faust Prize" (2011), Eberhard Waechter Medal (Vienna State Opera 2006)
Important parts:
Al Kasim (L’Upupa), Minotauros (Phaedra), Mephistopheles (Faust-Bal), Il Prigioniero (Il Prigioniero ), Billy Budd (Billy Budd), Schaklowitij (Chowanschtschina), Jakob Lenz (Jakob Lenz), Marcello (La Bohème), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Belcore (L’Elisir d’Amore), ll Conte di Almaviva und Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Jeletzki (Pique Dame), Escamillo (Carmen), Lescaut (Manon Lescaut), Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Förster (Das Schlaue Füchslein), Graf von Gloster (Lear), Eugen Onegin (Eugen Onegin), Olivier (Capriccio), Platon Kusmitsch Kowaljow (Die Nase), Amfortas (Parsifal), Wolfram/Biterolf (Tannhäuser), Gunther (Götterdämmerung)
Stages:
Teatro Real Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Teatro alla Scala Mailand, Opéra national de Paris, Royal Opera House London, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie Brüssel, Teatro San Carlo Neapel, Theater an der Wien, Oper Frankfurt, Staatsoper Berlin, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Opernhaus Zürich, Landestheater Linz, Staatsoper Hannover, Barbican Hall London, Salzburger Festspiele, Opéra de Lyon, Müpa Budapest
Cooperations with directors:
Robert Carsen, Stefan Herheim, Jürgen Flimm, Calixto Bieto, Christopher Alden, Peter Stein, Christoph Loy, Álex Ollé, Vincent Boussard, Simon Stone, Dmitri Tschernjakov, et al.
Cooperations with conductors:
Dennis Russell Davies, Marc Albrecht, Bertrand de Billy, Sebastian Weigle, Michael Boder, Kirill Petrenko, Fabio Luisi, Jesús López-Cobos, Adam Fischer, Peter Schneider, Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev, Simone Young, Daniel Barenboim, et al.
Find further information about Lauri Vasar here.
photo: Kaupo Kikkas
Pfleger des Orest
Chao Deng
Bass-baritone
Birthplace:
Tianjin, China
Studies:
Vocal studies in Tianjin, China; diploma in voice at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg with Cheryl Studer; master studies with Christian Elsner and in the Lied class of Gerold Huber and opera studio at the Hochschule für Musik Weimar with Prof. Dr. Michail Lanskoi; master class exam at the Hochschule für Musik Dresden with KS Prof. Matthias Henneberg.
Master classes:
With Liang Li, Michaelis Doukakis, John Norris, KS Camilla Nylund, KS Helen Donath, KS Brigitte Fassbaender, Sonja Prina, Alberto Triola, Catherine Foster, Georg Zeppenfeld, Juliane Banse, Roberto Scandiuzzi, KS Deborah Polaski.
Awards:
Prize for Opera Singing of the Concerto Foundation Würzburg (2015), Prize Winner of the International Singing Competition of the Chamber Opera Schloss Rheinsberg (2014), Scholarship Holder of the Richard Wagner Association Bayreuth Festival (2014), et al.
Relation to the State Opera:
Ensemble member of the Hamburg State Opera since the 2020/21 season.
Important roles:
Peter (Hänsel und Gretel), Häuptling Abendwind (Chief Evening Wind), Ramfis (Aida), Gianni Schicchi/Betto di Signa (Gianni Schicchi), Papageno/Sprecher /2. Geharnischte (Die Zauberflöte), Frank (Die Fledermaus), Don Fernando (Fidelio), Schaunard (La Bohème), Mr. Fluth (The Merry Wives of Windsor), Kilian/Ottokar (Der Freischütz), Buonafede (Il mondo della luna), Förster (Das schlaue Füchslein), Le Duc (Romeo et Juliette), Angelotti (Tosca), Colas (Bastien et Bastienne), Priamus (Les Troyens), Antonio (Le nozze di Figaro), Marullo/Ceprano (Rigoletto), Zuniga (Carmen), De Retz (Les Huguenots), Lord Syndham (Zar und Zimmermann), Spielmann (Königskinder), Journalist (Lulu), Osias, High Priest (Judith), et al.
Stages:
Hamburg State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Dresden Semper Opera, German Opera on the Rhine, Dresden Philharmonic, Braunschweig State Theater, German National Theater Weimar, Dresden State Operetta, Erfurt Theater, Weimarhalle, Saar Music Festival, Shanghai Opera House, et al.
Collaboration with directors:
Peter Konwitschny, Lydia Steier, Barrie Kosky, Mariame Clément,Yona Kim, Manfred Weiß, Sabine Hartmannshenn, Hasko Weber, Anette Leistenschneider, Guy Montavon, Andrea Moses, et al.
Collaboration with conductors:
Kent Nagano, Sebastian Weigle, Stefano Ranzani, John Fiore, Stefan Soltész, Xu Zhong, Daniele Callegari, Speranza Scappucci, Giampaolo Bisanti, Ivan Repušić, Riccardo Minasi, Giacomo Sagripanti, Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, Thomas Leo Cadenbach, Moritz Gnann, Felix Krieger, Christoph Gedschold, Kristiina Poska, Tomáš Netopil, Antonino Fogliani, Omer Meir Wellber, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Stefan Lano, Martin Hoff, Georg Fritzsch, et al.
Find further information about Chao Deng here.
photo: Martina Cyman
Vertraute
Luminita Andrei
Soprano
Origin:
Romania
Studies:
Voice at the George Enescu State Conservatory in Bucharest, at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main (2012)
Awards:
Theaterpreis Hamburg - Rolf Mares (2016), Prize at the international Magda Olivero Concorso in Milan (2012)
Important roles:
Manon (Manon), Adina (L'Elisir d'Amore), Gilda (Rigoletto), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute), Susanna (Figaro's Wedding), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Violetta (La Traviata), Juliet (Roméo and Juliet), Giuseppina Strepponi (Verdi and the Lady with Notes), Luisa (Luisa Miller), Magda (La Rondine), Pamina (The Magic Flute), The Woman without a Shadow (Servant), Elektra (Familiar), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), et al.
Stages:
Bad Homburg Festival, Allee Theater, Kammerphilharmonie Graubünden, et al.
Collaboration with directors:
Birgit Scherzer, Alfonso Romero Mora, Ini Gerath, Roman Hovenbitzer, et al.
Collaboration with conductors:
Ettore Prandi, Martynas Stakionis, Kent Nagano, et al.
Schleppträgerin
Olivia Boen
Soprano
Birthplace:
Chicago, USA
Studies:
Opera Course at Guildhall School of Music and Drama (2021), Master of Music with Distinction at Guildhall School of Music and Drama (2019), Bachelor of Music in Voice from Oberlin Conservatory of Music (2017)
Prizes:
Finalist Guildhall Gold Medal Prize (2021), Awarded English Song Prize from London Song Festival (2019), Third Place Hurn Court Singing Competition (2019), First Place Musicians Club of Women Lynne Cooper Harvey Foundation Award (2018), Awarded Frank Huntington Beebe Fund for Musicians Grant (2018), First Place Tuesday Musical Competition (2017)
Master classes:
Renée Fleming, Roderick Williams, Thomas Hampson, Eric Owens, Helmut Deutsch, Marilyn Horne, Thomas Quasthoff, Dame Felicity Lott, Kamal Khan, Kate Royal
Important parts:
Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Susanna (Il Segreto di Susanna), Queen Mother (The Little Green Swallow), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) [cover], Alcina (Alcina), Romilda (Serse), Thérèse (Les Mamelles de Tirésias), Die Stimme des Falken (Die Frau ohne Schatten),Anna (Nabucco), Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Musetta (La Bohéme), et al.
Stages:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Wigmore Hall, Oxford Lieder Festival, Verbier Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Barbican Centre, Nevill Holt Opera, London Song Festival, Ravinia Festival, Internationale Meistersinger Akademie, Samling Institute, et al.
Cooperations with directors:
Martin Lloyd-Evans, Lee Blakeley, Stephen Medcalf, et al.
Cooperations with conductors:
Sir Andrew Davis, Valery Gergiev, Dominic Wheeler, Stanislav Kochanovsky, et al.
Find further information about Olivia Boen here.
photo: Jörn Kipping
Junger Diener
Seungwoo Simon Yang
Tenor
Birthplace:
Gwangyang, South Korea
Studies:
Singing at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg with Prof. Carolyn Grace James
Master class:
Nicola Martinucci, Seoul in Korea 2016
Prizes:
1st Prize Elise Meyer Competition (2020), 1st Prize of the Mozart Singing Competition (2020), Special Prize and 2nd Prize of the Maritim Music Award (2019), 2nd Prize of the Maritim Music Award (2018), 1st Prize of the Korean Singing Competition (2015), 1st Prize of the Korea Talent Award (2015), 1st Prize of the Ehwa & Kyunghyang Competition (2014), 1st Prize Shin Young-Ok Voice Competition (2014), 1st Prize of the Shinhan Music Award (2014)
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Member of the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera since the 2020/21 season
Important parts:
Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Pilade (Oreste), Nemorino (L'Elisir d'amore), Rodolfo (La Bohème), et al.
Stages:
Korea, Belgien, Bergedorf Musiktage, Elbphilharmonie, Laeiszhalle
Cooperation with directors:
Guy Montavon
photo: Jörn Kipping
Alter Diener
Hubert Kowalczyk
Basso
Birthplace:
Radom, Poland
Studies:
Young Talents Development Programme - Opera Academy in Warsaw (from 2016 to 2019), Instituto Superiore di Studi Musicali Pietro Mascagani in Livorno with Prof. Graziano Polidori (2017/18), Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" Berlin with Prof. Martin Bruns
Master class:
Lioba Braun, Helmut Deutsch, Brigitte Fassbaender, Tomasz Konieczny, Bogdan Makal, Olga Pasiecznik, Eytan Pessen, Rudolf Piernay, Matthias Rexroth, et al.
Important parts:
Bartolo (Le nozze di Figaro), Collatinus (The Rape of Lucretia), Haly (L‘italiana in Algeri), Hauptmann, Saretzki (Eugen Onegin), Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), Pistola (Falstaff), Zuniga (Carmen), et al.
Stages:
Bregenzer Festspiele, Teatr Wielki – Opera Narodowa Warschau, Deutsche Oper Berlin
Cooperation with directors:
Calixto Bieito, David Bösch, Andrzej Chyra, Brigitte Fassbaender, Dmitri Tcherniakov
Cooperation with conductors:
Giampaolo Bisanti, Jonathan Brandani, Daniele Callegari, Paolo Carignani, Michał Klauza, Axel Kober, Volker Krafft, Carlo Montanaro, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Kent Nagano, Sébastien Rouland, Robin Ticciati, Keri-Lynn Wilson
photo: Martina Cyman
Aufseherin
Brigitte Hahn
Soprano
Birthplace:
Duisburg, Germany
Studies:
Studies at the Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf
Important parts:
Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Königin der Nacht (Die Zauberflöte), Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Elettra (Idomeneo), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), Norma (Norma), Maria Stuarda (Maria Stuarda), Violetta (La Traviata), Gilda (Rigoletto), Leonora (Il trovatore), Desdemona (Otello), Elisabetta (Don Carlo), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), Amelia (Un ballo in maschera), Leonora (La forza del destino), Mimi (La Bohème) Tosca (Tosca), Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly), Manon Lescaut (Manon Lescaut), Liù und Turandot (Turandot), Elisabeth (Tannhäuser), Elsa (Lohengrin), Senta (Der fliegende Holländer), Isolde (Tristan und Isolde), Brünnhilde (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Gräfin Madeleine (Capriccio), Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier), Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos), Leonore (Fidelio), Mutter (Hänsel und Gretel), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Tatjana (Eugen Onegin), Gertraud (Der Traumgörge), Tschang Haitang (Der Kreidekreis), Anna Maurrant (Street Scene), Madame Lidoine (Dialogues des Carmélites), Fremde Fürstin (Rusalka), Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes), Helena (A Midsummer Nights Dream), Roxane (Król Roger), Olympia/Antonia/Giulietta (Les contes d'Hoffmann), Armgard (Die Rheinnixen), Alice (Robert le Diable), Wally (La Wally), et al.
Stages:
permanent engagements at the Landestheater Coburg, then at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, residency contract with the Hamburg State Opera; Staatsoper Hannover, Semperoper Dresden, Wiener Staatsoper, Opéra de Bastille Paris, Teatro alla Scala Milano, Bayerische Staatsoper München, Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Opernhaus Zürich, Oper Stuttgart, Opernhaus Chemnitz, Teatro Verdi Trieste
Cooperations with directors:
Robert Carsen, Graham Vick, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Barry Kosky, Olivier Tambosi, Christof Nel, Nicolas Brieger, Götz Friedrich, Sven-Eric Bechtolf, Peter Konwitschny, Johannes Schaaf, Francesca Zambello, Philipp Himmelmann, Christine Mielitz, Frank Hilbrich, Ingo Kerkhof, Dietrich Hilsdorf, et al.
Cooperations with conductors:
Ingo Metzmacher, Kent Nagano, Armin Jordan, Peter Schneider, Hartmut Haenchen, Jacek Kasprzyk, Ivan Repusic, Junjo Mena, Marc Minkowski, Fabio Luisi, Adam Fischer, Giuliano Carella, Stefano Ranzani, Marco Armiliato, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Philippe Jordan, Ivor Bolton, Marek Janowski, et al.
Find further information about Brigitte Hahn here.
photo: Iris Klöpper
Erste Magd
Renate Spingler
Mezzo-soprano
Birthplace:
Kempten, Germany
Studies:
Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Munich
Master class:
with Prof. Reri Grist
Prizes:
Honored by the Hamburg Senate with the title of “Hamburger Kammersängerin” (2017)
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Ensemble member of the Hamburg State Opera since 1986/87
Important parts:
Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier), Margret (Wozzeck), Sdena (Das Fest im Meer), Gräfin Helfenstein/Üppigkeit (Mathis der Maler), Sigrune/Rossweiße/Wellgunde (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Herodias (Salome), Adelaide (Arabella), Flora (La Traviata), Larina (Eugen Onegin), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Prinz Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Lœna (La belle Hélène), Brigitta (Die tote Stadt), Mary (Der fliegende Holländer), Geneviève (Pelléas et Mélisande), Mère Jeanne de l’Enfant-Jésus (Dialogues des Carmélites), Circe (I.th.Ak.A.), Gräfin Geschwitz (Lulu), Mercédès (Carmen), Hippolyta (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Marthe Schwerdtlein (Faust), Lola/Mama Lucia (Cavalleria Rusticana), Ottavia (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), 2. Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Tisbe (La Cenerentola), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Tebaldo (Don Carlos), Emilia (Otello), Gaea (Daphne), Hänsel/Hexe (Hänsel und Gretel), Miss Baggott (Der kleine Schornsteinfeger), Auntie (Peter Grimes), Die böse Königin (Schneewittchen), et al.
Stages:
Hamburgische Staatsoper, Oper Frankfurt, Semperoper Dresden, Theater Bonn, Oper Leipzig, Theater Bremen, La Monnaie, Oper Köln, Königliche Oper Kopenhagen, Prinzregententheater München, Theater an der Wien, Theatro Municipale de Sao Paulo, Gran Teatre del Liceu, et al.
Cooperation with directors:
Ruth Berghaus, Willy Decker, Gian-Carlo di Monaco, Dieter Dorn, Adolf Dresen, August Everding, Jürgen Flimm, Achim Freyer, Ramin Gray, Caroline Gruber, Claus Guth, Hans Hollmann, Andreas Homoki, Günter Krämer, Harry Kupfer, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Juri Ljubimov, Marco Aturo Marelli, Christian Pade, Simon Philips, Ernst-Theo Richter, Nils-Peter Rudolf, Johannes Schaaf, Sir Peter Ustinov, Christoph von Bernuth, Robert Wilson, et al.
Cooperation with conductors:
Gerd Albrecht, Marc Albrecht, Marco Armiliato, Gary Bertini, Michael Boder, Nathan Brock, Semyon Bychkov, Giuliano Carella, Bertrand de Billy, Jaqcues Delaôte, Alessandro di Marci, Peter Eötvös, Alfred Eschwé, Lawrence Foster, Michael Halasz, Eliahu Inbal, René Jacobs, Günter Jena, Alexander Joel, Karen Kamensek, Paul Kildea, Bernhard Klee, Jun Märkl, Cornelius Meister, Ingo Metzmacher, Kent Nagano, Garcia Navarro, Giuseppe Patané, Christoph Prick, Wolfgang Rennert, Donald Runnicles, Michael Schønwandt, Peter Schreier, Klauspeter Seibel, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Leonard Slatkin, Alexander Soddy, Stefan Soltesz, Marcello Viotti, Sebastian Weigle, Bruno Weil, Simone Young, Lothar Zagrosek, Hans Zender, et al.
Find further information about Renate Spingler here.
photo: Jörn Kipping
Zweite Magd
Kady Evanyshyn
Mezzo-Soprano
Studies:
Bachelor and Master of Music at The Juilliard School in New York
Master classes:
with Emmanuel Villaume at The Juilliard School (live-streamed, 2017), with Margo Garrett and John Churchwell at Music Academy of the West (2019)
Prizes:
Encouragement award, Gerda Lissner Lieder/Song Competition (2017/18), John Erskine Prize of The Juilliard School (2017), Tudor Bowl at Winnipeg Music Festival (2015)
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Member of the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera since season 2019/20
Important parts:
Annio (La clemenza di Tito), Celia (La fedeltà premiata), Narciso (Agrippina), Second Woman (Dido and Aeneas), La Tasse Chinoise (L’enfant et les sortilèges), Frau Reich/Meg Page (Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor), Phèdre (Hippolyte et Aricie), Claire (Cold Mountain)
Song:
World premiere of “Drei Grabschriften” (Stefano Gervasoni), performances of “Animus II” (Druckman), “Folk Songs” (Berio) and “Liebeslieder Walzer” (Brahms), Competitor in the 2019 Wigmore Hall/Independent Opera Song Competition
Cooperation with directors:
Edward Berkeley, Mary Birnbaum, James Darrah, John Giampietro, Stephen Wadsworth
Cooperation with conductors:
William Christie, Jane Glover, Jeffrey Milarsky, Teddy Poll, Avi Stein, Stephen Stubbs
Find further information about Kady Evanyshyn here.
photo: Tamara Sophie Grieß
Dritte Magd
Jana Kurucová
Mezzosoprano
Birthplace:
Kežmarok, Slovakia
Education / Studies:
Classical singing at the Konzervatórium J. L. Bellu in Banska Bystrica, in Bratislava as well as at the Musikhochschule in Graz, opera studio of the Bayerische Staatsoper (season 2005/2006), ensemble member of the Theater Heidelberg (2006 to 2009), ensemble member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin ( 2009 to 2018)
Important parts:
Niklausse/Muse (Les contes d‘Hoffmann), Prinz Orlovsky (Die Fledermaus), Isolier (Le comte Ory), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Marta (Faust), Carmen (Carmen), Elisabetta (Maria Stuarda), Romeo (I capuleti e i Montecchi), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Meg Page (Falstaff), Fuchs (Das schlaue Füchslein), Maffio Orsini (Lucrezia Borgia), Melisande (Pelléas et Mélisande), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Mercedes (Carmen), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Fenena (Nabucco), Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Idamante (Idomeneo), Sesto (La clemenza di tito), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Ramiro (La finta giardiniera), Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte), et al.
Stages:
Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Nationaltheater Prag, Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Oper Peking, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Oper Oslo, Semperoper Dresden, Bayerische Staatsoper, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, New National Theater Tokyo, Musikfestival Klangvokal in Dortmund, Banská Bystrica, Festival Svátky hudby v Praze, Filharmonie Reduta in Bratislava, Bratislava Nationaltheater, et al.
Cooperation with directors:
Laurent Pelly, David Alden, Robert Borgmann, Philipp Himmelmann, Katharina Thalbach, David Herrmann, Roland Schwab, Philipp Stölzl, Christof Loy, Kirsten Harms, Andreas Homoki, et al.
Cooperation with conductors:
Pedro Halffter, Enrique Mazzola, Michele Mariotti, Ido Arad, Donald Runnicles, Daniel Cohen, Stefan Soltesz, Fabio Luisi, Zubin, Mehta, Alessandro de Marchi, Jacques Lacombe, Omer Meir Wellber, Carlo Rizzi, Ivan Repusic, Moritz Gnann, Jonathan Darlington, Marco Letonja, Francesco Ivan Ciampa, Giacomo Sagripanti, Constantin Trinks, Yves Abel, Ottavio Dantone, Matteo Beltrami, Jonathan Nott, et al.
Find further information about Jana Kurucová here.
photo: Martina Cyman
Vierte Magd
Florence Losseau
Fünfte Magd
Hellen Kwon
Soprano
Birthplace:
Seoul, South Korea
Studies:
Hochschule für Musik Köln with Dietger Jacob (1979-1984)
Prizes:
First prize in the Novara International Singing Competition (1984), winner of the Dr. Wilhelm Oberdörffer Preis (1987), Rolf-Mares-Preis in the category “Exceptional Performances of an Actresses” for her interpretation of “Frau” in Wolfgang Rihm’s “Das Gehege” (2010), Grammy Award Nomination for the recording of Walter von Braunfels’ “Die Vögel” conducted by Lothar Zagrosek, honored with the title of “Hamburger Kammersängerin” by the Hamburg Senate (2011), “Order of Civil” by the Korean Government for exceptional artistic achievements (2013), “Star of Ewha” Prize (2018)
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Ensemble member of the Hamburg State Opera since 1987/88
Important parts:
The Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte), Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Zdenka (Arabella), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Blonde/Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Donna Anna/Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Despina/Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Elettra (Idomeneo), Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito), Musetta/Mimì (La Bohème), Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly), Liú (Turandot), Violetta Valéry (La Traviata), Gilda (Rigoletto), Oscar (Un Ballo in Maschera), Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Micaëla (Carmen), Norina (Don Pasquale), Adina (L’Elisir d’Amore), Adele/Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Agathe (Der Freischütz), Senta (Der fliegende Holländer), Minni (La Fanciulla del West), Frau (Das Gehege), Salome/Herodias (Salome), Chrysothemis (Elektra), et al.
Stages:
Hamburgische Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper, Bayreuther Festspiele, Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Oper Leipzig, Oper Stuttgart, Oper Köln, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Wiener Staatsoper, Wiener Festwochen, Salzburger Festspiele, Opernhaus Zürich, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Festival d‘Aix-en-Provence, Opéra Comique de Paris, Glyndebourne Festival, Den Norske Opera, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Teatro Filarmonico Verona, The Israeli Opera, Jerusalem Opera Festival, New National Theatere Tokio, Korean National Opera, et al.
Cooperation with directors:
Achim Freyer, Peter Konwitschny, Johannes Schaaf, Günther Krämer, Marco Marelli, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Peter Sellars, John Dew, Adolf Dresen, Nikolas Brieger, Johannes Erath, Claus Guth, et al.
Cooperation with conductors:
Giuseppe Sinopoli, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Horst Stein, Neville Marriner, Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Jeffrey Tate, Marcello Viotti, Simone Young, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Kent Nagano, Christian Thielemann, et al.
photo: Martina Cyman
Orchester
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg
The Philharmonic State Orchestra is Hamburg’s largest and oldest orchestra, looking back on many years of musical history. When the “Philharmonic Orchestra” and the “Orchestra of the Hamburg Municipal Theatre” merged in 1934, two tradition-steeped orchestras combined. Philharmonic concerts have been performed in Hamburg since 1828, artists such as Clara Schumann, Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms being regular guests of the Philharmonic Society. The history of the opera company goes back even further: Hamburg has been home to musical theatre since 1678, even if a regular opera or theatre orchestra was only formed later. To this day, the Philharmonic State Orchestra has embodied the sound of the Hansa City, a concert and opera orchestra in one.
During its long history, the orchestra encountered great artist personalities. Apart from composers of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, such as Telemann, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Mahler, Prokofiev and Stravinsky, since the 20th century chief conductors such as Karl Muck, Joseph Keilberth, Eugen Jochum, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Horst Stein, Aldo Ceccato, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gerd Albrecht, Ingo Metzmacher and Simone Young have shaped the orchestra’s sound. Renowned conductors of the pre-war era such as Otto Klemperer, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Karl Böhm and Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt gave brilliant performances, as did outstanding conductors of our times: suffice it to mention Christian Thielemann, Semyon Bychkov, Kirill Petrenko, Sir Neville Marriner, Valery Gergiev and Sir Roger Norrington.
Starting with the 2015/2016 season, Kent Nagano has taken on the position of Hamburg’s General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic State Orchestra and the Hamburg State Opera. In his first season Kent Nagano initiated a new project, the Philharmonic Academy, focusing on experimentation and chamber music. In 2016 Nagano and the Philharmonic undertook a successful three-week concert tour in South America, a tour of Spain followed in 2019. Since 2017 Kent Nagano and the Philharmonic State Orchestra have continued the traditional Philharmonic Concerts at the new Elbphilharmonie, for which they commissioned Jörg Widmann to compose the oratorio ARCHE, which was given its world premiere during the hall’s opening festivities. The concert recording has been released at ECM.
The Philharmonic State Orchestra offers approximately 35 concerts per season and performs more than 240 performances per year at the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier, making it Hamburg’s busiest orchestra. The stylistic bandwidth covered by the 140 musicians, ranging from historically informed performance practice to contemporary works and including concert, opera and ballet repertoire, is unique throughout Germany. Chamber Music has a long tradition at the Philharmonic State Orchestra: what began in 1929 with a concert series for chamber orchestra has been continued since 1968 by a series of chamber music only.
In 2008 Simone Young and the Philharmonic State Orchestra won the Brahms Award of the Schleswig-Holstein Brahms Society. The orchestra has recorded the complete Ring by Wagner as well as the complete symphonies of Johannes Brahms and Anton Bruckner – the latter in the rarely-performed original versions – as well as works by Mahler, Hindemith and Berg, and has released DVDs of opera and ballet productions by Hosokawa, Offenbach, Reimann, Auerbach, J.S. Bach, Puccini, Poulenc and Weber.
The members of the Philharmonic State Orchestra feel equally beholden to Hamburg’s musical tradition and responsible for the city’s artistic future. Since 1978 the musicians have been participating in education programmes in Hamburg’s schools. Today, the orchestra maintains a broad education programme, including school and kindergarten visits, patronage for music projects, introductory events for children and family concerts. The orchestra’s own academy prepares young musicians for their professional careers. The Philharmonic’s musicians thereby make an equally enjoyable and valuable contribution to tomorrow’s music education in the music metropolis of Hamburg.
photo: Foto: Felix Broede
