Benjamin Britten | Peter Grimes
Sun, Feb. 11, 2024, 6.00 pm - 9.00 pm
Musikalische Leitung
Kent Nagano
General Music Director of Hamburg
Kent Nagano is considered one of today’s outstanding conductors for both operatic and orchestral repertoire. Since September 2015, he has been General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg. In addition, he is committed as Artistic Director of the Ring project “The Wagner Cycles” of Dresdner Musikfestspiele with Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln, and as patron of the Herrenchiemsee Festival. 2023 he was appointed Honorary Conductor of the Philharmonic State Orchestra, in 2021 of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, in 2019 of the Concerto Köln, and in 2006 of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
The 2023/2024 season in Hamburg begins with four concerts, performing with the Philharmonische Akademie at the Laeiszhalle, then with the Philharmonic State Orchestra at the Rathausmarkt Open Air and the Elbphilharmonie. This will be followed by a series of opera productions at the State Opera in September and October, with a premiere of Mussorgski’s Boris Godunow in a production by Frank Castorf and a premiere of Strauss’s Salome in a production by Dmitri Tcherniakov, as well as performances of Sciarrino’s Venere e Adone and Britten’s Peter Grimes. Furthermore, as in every season Nagano will conduct symphonic concerts with the Philharmonic State Orchestra at the Elbphilharmonie, including the New Year’s performance.
His past years in Hamburg include opera productions such as Les Troyens, Lulu, Lady Macbeth von Mzensk, 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 have taken Kent Nagano to Japan, Spain and South America.
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 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 conducted by Nagano 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.
The 2023/24 season will see Kent Nagano make a wide variety of appearances at the Maison symphonique in Montréal, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Konzerthalle in Bamberg and the Kulturpalast in Dresden. In addition, he will conduct the Orchestre de l'Opera de Lyon and lead a new production of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre by Krzysztof Warlikowski at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.
Under the artistic direction of Kent Nagano and the Intendant of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele Jan Vogler, Wagner's "Ring Tetralogy" will be performed in the artistic context of the period in which it was composed, based on the latest findings of research into Wagner and performance practice, and integrated into an extensive supporting program as part of the multi-year project "The Wagner Cycles" of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele from 2023 to 2026. The prelude was the performance of "Das Rheingold" at the Dresden Music Festival in 2023 and the tour to Cologne, Ravello and Lucerne under the musical direction of Kent Nagano. With "Die Walküre," the second work in the epochal narrative will follow in 2024.
Highlights 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), Latin America and the USA. In July 2018, Kent Nagano conducted Krzysztof Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion with the OSM at 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 as well as 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 work from the composer’s youth, 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 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. He has worked with labels such as BIS, Decca, Sony Classical, FARAO Classics and Analekta for many years, and has also recorded CDs with Berlin Classics, Erato, Teldec, Pentatone, Deutsche Grammophon and Harmonia Mundi.
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 his concerts with 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 deeply personal encounters from which he learned important lessons, not only for his career but for his life more broadly. Among those experiences are encounters with 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 released 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. Since 2017, Kent Nagano has been a "Compagnon" of the "Ordre des arts et des lettres" of Québec and in the fall of 2023, Kent Nagano was also awarded the title of "Chevalier" in the "Ordre des art et des lettres" of France. In February 2024, Kent Nagano was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the Federal President.
Find further information about Kent Nagano here.
photo: Claudia Höhne
Chor
Eberhard Friedrich
Choir Director
Birthplace:
Darmstadt, Germany
Studies:
Studies with Helmuth Rilling in Frankfurt am Main
Prizes:
Under his direction, the Bayreuther Festspielchor was awarded the International Opera Award for Best Choir of the Year in 2014. Under his direction, the choir of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden was named Choir of the Year in 2004 and received the European Cultural Award (2009). Eberhard Friedrich also received a Grammy for his recording of "Tannhäuser" at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden with Daniel Barenboim (2003)
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Choir director of the Hamburg State Opera since 2013/14
Career stages:
Choir director of the Festspielchor / Bayreuther Festspiele (since 2000), choir director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (1998 to 2013), assistant at the Bayreuther Festspiele (since 1993), choir director at the Theater der Stadt Koblenz (1986 to 1991) as well as at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden (1991 to 1998)
Cooperation with choirs:
MDR-Rundfunkchor, Amsterdam Opera Choir, Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, Philharmonischer Chor Prag, Chor des Niederländischen Rundfunks, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Rias Kammerchor, Bayerischer Rundfunkchor, Chöre des Westminster Choir College, et al.
photo: Enrico Nawrath
Peter Grimes
Gregory Kunde
Tenor
Birthplace:
Illinois, USA
Studies:
Choral conducting and Vocal performance at Illinois State University
Prizes:
‘Male Singer of the Year’ at the 2016 International Opera Awards
Important parts:
Otello (Otello), Radamès (Aida), Calaf (Turandot), Jean de Leyden (Le prophète), Don Carlo (Don Carlos), Samson (Samson et Delila), Don José (Carmen), Andrea Chénier (Andrea Chénier), Renato des Grieux (Manon Lescaut), Don Alvaro (La forza del destino), Peter Grimes (Peter Grimes), Pollione (Norma), Aschenbach (Death in Venice), Cellini (Benvenuto Cellini), Faust (La damnation de Faust), Enée (Les Troyens), Captain Vere (Billy Budd), Poliuto (Poliuto), Roberto Devereux (Roberto Devereux), Alceste (Admète), Faust (Faust), La Juíve (Eléazar), Des Grieux (Manon), Werther (Werther), Raoul (Les Huguenots), Robert (Robert le diable), Tito Vespasiano (La clemenza di Tito), Idomeneo (Idomeneo), Cavaradossi (Tosca), Dick Johnson (La fanciulla del West), Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Rodrigo (La donna del lago), Leicester (Elizabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra), Pirro (Ermione), Arnold (Guillaume Tell), Argirio (Tancredi), Antenore (Zelmira), Riccardo/Gustav V (Un ballo in Maschera), Rodolfo (Luisa Miller), Manrico (Il Trovatore), Arrigo (I vespiri Siciliani), Henrí (Les vêpres Siciliennes), Florestan (Fidelio), Canio (Pagliacci), Luigi (Il Tabarro), Bacchus (Ariadne auf Naxos)
Stages:
Grand Teatre del Liceu, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Staatsoper Hamburg, LA Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège, Metropolitan Opera, Opéra national de Paris, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro Real, Dallas Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia, Teatro La Fenice, BBC Proms, Cincinnati May Festival, Concertgebouw Amsterdam
Cooperations with directors:
Mario Pontiggia, William Friedkin, Davide Garattini Raimondi, Olivier Py, Willy Decker, Uwe Eric Laufenberg, Hugo De Ana, Keith Warner, Emilio López, Davide Livermore, Franco Zeffirelli, Bepi Morassi, Chiara Muti, Darko Tresnjak, Robert Wilson, Otto Schenk, Alfonso Romero Mora, Edward Berkeley, Andrei Serban, Allex Aguilera, Fabio Cherstich, Nicolas Joël, Amélie Niermeyer, Julia Burbach, Franc Aleu, Susana Gómez, Paco Azorín, Stefano Mazzonis di Pralafera
Cooperations with conductors:
Zubin Mehta, Sir Antonio Pappano, Charles Dutoit, Ramón Tebar, Gianandrea Noseda, Massimo Zanetti, Enrique Mazzola, Daniele Callegari, Christopher Franklin, Daniela Musca, Nicola Luisotti, Mark Wigglesworth, Pietro Rizzo, Emmanuel Villaume, Jordi Bernàcer, Daniel Oren, Andrea Battistoni, Francesco Ivan Ciampa, Sesto Quatrini, Donato Renzetti, Mark Elder, Frédéric Chaslin, Marco Armiliato, Miquel Ortega, Bertrand de Billy, Valerio Galli, Sergio Alapont, Adam Fischer, Josep Pons, Jacques Lacombe, Paolo Arrivabeni
Find further information about Gregory Kunde here.
Orford
Jennifer Holloway
Soprano
Origin:
USA
Studies:
University of Georgia, Manhattan School of Music
Prizes:
Outstanding Alumni Award of University of Georgia (2012)
Important parts:
Salome (Salome), Senta (Der fliegende Holländer), Chrysothemis (Elektra), Sieglinde (Walküre), Grete (Der ferne Klang), Leonore (Fidelio), Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes), Cassandre (Les Troyens), et al.
Stages:
Wiener Staatsoper, Oper Frankfurt, Bayerische Staatsoper, Oper Leipzig, Staatsoper Hamburg, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Teatro Colón, Semperoper Dresden, Teatro Real, Los Angeles Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos Lissabon, ABAO Bilbao, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Bard Music Festival, Atlanta Opera, Canadian Opera Toronto, Santa Fe Opera, New National Theatre Tokyo, The Israeli Opera Tel-Aviv-Yafo, et al.
Cooperation with directors:
Willy Decker, Michael Shell, Alberto Fassini, Robert Carsen, Lydia Steier, Damiano Michieletto, Laurent Pelly, Christopher Alden, Graham Vick, Francisco Negrin, Richard Jones, Francesca Zambello, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Stephen Lawless, et al.
Cooperation with conductors:
Philippe Jordan, Kent Nagano, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Corrado Rovaris, Omer Meir Wellber, Daniel Oren, John Fiore, Sebastian Weigle, Florian Erdl, Lorin Maazel, Lawrence Foster, Frederic Chaslin, Gustavo Dudamel, Leonard Slatkin, Bertrand de Billy, Kazushi Ono, Vladimir Jurowski, Eun Sun Kim, Sir Richard Armstrong, Jaap van Zweden, Emmanuelle Haïm, Jesus Lopez Cobos, Herve Niquet, et al.
Find further information about Jennifer Holloway here.
photo: Arielle Doneson
Balstrode
Iain Paterson
Baritone
Birthplace:
Glasgow, England
Studies:
Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama with Neilson Taylor
Important parts:
Wotan/Wanderer (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Holländer (Der fliegende Holländer), Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde), Amfortas (Parsifal), Gunther (Götterdämmerung), Jochanaan (Salome), Orest (Elektra), Förster (Das schlaue Füchslein), Balstrode (Peter Grimes), et al.
Stages:
Opéra de Paris, Staatsoper Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Wiener Staatsoper, Bavarian State Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, Lyric Opera Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Oper Leipzig, Semperoper Dresden, the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Oper Frankfurt, et al.
Cooperations with directors:
Lydia Steier, Stefan Herheim, Calixto Bieito, Katharina Wagner, et al.
Cooperations with conductors:
Daniel Barenboim, James Levine, Christian Thielemann, Simone Young, Sir Antonio Pappano, Andris Nelsons, Philippe Jordan, Sir Simon Rattle, Donald Runnicles, Kent Nagano, Christoph von Dohnányi, Vasily Petrenko, Gianandrea Noseda, Edward Gardner, Sir Mark Elder, et al.
Auntie
Clare Presland
Mezzo-Soprano
Origin:
Irish, British
Studies:
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Prizes:
Susan Chilcott Award 2014
Important parts:
Hermia (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw), Komponist (Ariadne auf Naxos), Varvara (Katya Kabanova), Carmen, (Carmen), Aksinya, Sonyetka (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk), Marie, Margret (Wozzeck), Countess Susanna (Il segreto di Susanna), Kitchen Boy (Rusalka), Page (Salome), Mrs Lovett (Sweeney Todd), et al.
Stages:
Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Opéra de Lille, Théatre des Champs Elysées, Opéra de Lyon, English National Opera, Irish National Opera, Aldeburgh Festival, Copenhagen Festival, Hyogo Performing Arts Center, Musikfest Bremen, Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Prom, Barbican, Royal Festival Hall et al.
Cooperations with directors:
Deborah Warner, Richard Jones, Calixto Bieito, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Claus Guth, Robert Carsen, Laurent Pelly, Antony McDonald, Carrie Cracknell, Peter Konwitschny, Simon McBurney, Netia Jones, Amy lane et al.
Cooperations with conductors:
Edward Gardner, Mark Wigglesworth, Thomas Adès, Josep Pons, Kazushi Ono, Ryan Wigglesworth, Alexander Soddy, Jérémie Rhorer, Sian Edwards, Gianluca Marciano, Yutaka Sado, et al.
Find further information about Clare Presland here.
First Niece
Na'ama Shulman
Soprano
Birthplace:
Israel
Studies:
Bachelor (with honors) and Master of Music in Classical Singing at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance
Prizes:
Second Prize at the International Opera Competition in Jerusalem (2018), First Prize at the Charles Schneider Competition (2017), First Prize at the Tavor-Fintz Memorial Competition (2016)
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Member of the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera from 2018/19 till 2019/20
Important parts:
Adina (L'elisir d'amore), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Musetta (La bohème), Clorinda (La Cenerentola), Despina (Così fan tutte), Servilia (La clemena di Tito), Najade (Ariadne auf Naxos), Belinda (Dido and Aeneas), Juliette (Die tote Stadt), Berta (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Diana (Orpheus in der Unterwelt), Bacchis (La belle Hélène), 2. Niece (Peter Grimes), Lidochka (Moscow, Tscherjomuschki), et al.
Stages:
Staatsoper Hamburg, Theater Magdeburg, Staatstheater Mainz, The Jerusalem Opera, Piccolo Opera Festival Friuli Venezia Giulia, Jerusalem Theatre, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, et al.
Cooperation with directors:
Kirill Serebrennikov, Vera Nemirova, Olivia Fuchs, Stephen Lawless, Karen Stone, Igor Pison, Mirella Weingarten, Ulrich Wiggers, Shirit Lee Weiss, Anna Bernreitner, Eva Buchmann, Monica Waitzfelder, Ari Teperberg, et al.
Cooperation with conductors:
Kent Nagano, Paolo Carignani, Nathan Brock, Ricardo Minasi, Roland Kluttig, Christoph Gedschold, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Matteo Beltrami, Anna Skryleva, Svetoslav Borisov, Sebastiano Rolli, Pablo Mielgo, Paolo Spadaro, et al.
Cooperation with orchestras:
Magdeburgische Philharmonie, Ramat Gan Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Simfònica De Les Illes Balears, Ashdod Symphony Orchestra, Israel NK Orchestra, Concerto Hamburg, et al.
Find further information about Na'ama Shulman here.
Second Niece
Claire Gascoin
Mezzosoprano
Birthplace:
France
Studies:
Bachelor’s degree at the Musikhochschule Leipzig, Master’s degree at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna,
Prizes:
Kammeroper Rheinsberg (2015), Brahms competition (2014) Clara-
Schumann competition (2014), owner of a scholarship of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes
Master classes:
Claudia Visca, Krassimira Stoyanova
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Member of the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera since the 2022/2023 season
Important parts:
Ottone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Carmen (Carmen), Testo (Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda), Aschenputtel (Cenerentola), Annina (Romilda e Costanza), et al.
Stages:
Staatstheater Cottbus, Oper Krakau, Opéra de Lyon, Royal Opera House Muscat, Opera de Tenerife, et al.
Cooperations with directors:
Michael Sturminger, et al.
Cooperations with conductors:
Stéphane Fuget, Antonino Fogliani, et al.
Find further information about Claire Gascoin here.
photo: Jörn Kipping
Boles
Florian Panzieri
Tenor
Birthplace:
Paris, France
Studies:
History and Politics, University of Warwick
Singing, Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Member of the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera since the 2022/2023 season
Important parts:
Peter Quint (The Turn of the Screw), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Primo Pastore (Orfeo), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Berthold (Scoring a Century), Erasmus (Silvesternacht), 1. und 3. Vorarbeiter (Lady Macbeth von Mzensk), Un Venditore di Canzonette (Il trittico), et al.
Stages:
Garsington Opera, Reggio Emilia Teatro Valli, The Merry Opera, British Youth Opera, Royal Opera House London, Staatsoper Hamburg, et al.
Cooperations with directors:
Paul Curran, John Caird, Keith Warner, Fabio Condemi, Axel Ranisch, Mart Van Berckel, et al.
Cooperations with conductors:
Kent Negano, Giampaolo Bisanti, Francesco Bossaglia, Ivan Repusic, et al.
Find further information about Florian Panzieri here.
photo: Benjamin Reason
Swallow
Joshua Bloom
Bass
Bass Joshua Bloom is a citizen of Australia, the United States of America, and Great Britain, and has sung principal roles with San Francisco Opera, the Royal Opera House – Covent Garden, Wiener Staatsoper, English National Opera, Oper Köln, LA Opera, Opera Australia, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, Garsington Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Badisches Staatstheater, Irish National Opera and New Israeli Opera, among others.
He has also appeared on the concert stage with the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, all of the major London orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, the Auckland Philharmonia and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group as well as the Melbourne, Queensland, Adelaide and Western Australian Symphonies.
In the 2021/22 season, Bloom will return to Opera Köln as Ratefreund in a new production of Die Vögel, and Vodnik in their acclaimed production of Rusalka. He returns to the New Israeli Opera as both Ramfis and the King in Aida. Future plans include a house debut at Opera National de Paris as Henry Kissinger in Adams’ Nixon in China, in a new production conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Bloom will also perform Rambo in The Death of Klinghoffer at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, in a concert performance conducted by John Adams. He will make house debuts with Opera de Lille, and in Rouen, and will return to San Francisco to work with Philharmonia Baroque.
Highlights of recent seasons include performances of The Garden by Richard Ayres, the opera written for him for solo Bass, Orchestra, and Electronics, both in the premiere with the London Sinfonietta and Asko Schoenberg and at New Days Opera in Ostrava; Tutor in Rossini Le Comte Ory with Garsington Opera for Cal McCrystal’s new production; Méphistophélès in Berlioz Le Damnation de Faust, with Edward Gardner at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Hunding in Wagner Die Walküre with Graeme Jenkins in Lisbon; The Ghost of Old Hamlet/Gravedigger in a new production of Brett Dean’s acclaimed Hamlet; Faraone in Rossini’s virtuosic Mosè in Egitto for Oper Köln; Swallow in Britten Peter Grimes for the International Enescu Festival; Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with English National Opera in the iconic Robert Carsen production; title role in Bartok Bluebeard’s Castle, in a new production by Enda Walsh; a house debut at the Royal Opera House in the world premiere production of Gerald Barry Alice’s Adventures Underground, followed quickly by Richard Jones’ new production of La Clemenza di Tito; and Kaspar in Der Freischütz in the International Hyogo Festival of the Performing Arts, Japan.
Joshua appears on NMC’s Grammy nominated recording of Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest, conducted by Thomas Adès; the New York Philharmonic’s live recording of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, conducted by Alan Gilbert; The Metropolitan Opera’s HD Broadcast of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, conducted by Fabio Luisi; the Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall broadcast of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, and the LSO Live recording of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande both conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.
Joshua was born in Australia to musician parents and studied cello and double-bass as well as being a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne. He went on to study History at the University of Melbourne and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.
His professional debut in opera was in an OzOpera touring production of The Barber of Seville, after which he joined the Young Artist Programme of Opera Australia in Sydney, and later the Merola and Adler Fellowship Programmes at the San Francisco Opera.
photo: OWL Artist Management
Mrs. Sedley
Rosie Aldridge
Mezzosoprano
Birthplace:
Hertfordshire United Kingdom
Studies:
Royal College of Music
Important parts:
Kostenichka (Jenufa) Die Knusperhexe (Hänsel und Gretel), Baba the Turk (The Rake’s Progress), Kabanicha (Katya Kabanova), Mrs Sedley (Peter Grimes), Mad Marget (Wozzeck), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), Annina (Der Rosenkavalier), Gertrude (Hamlet)
Stages:
Wiener Staatsoper, Opèra national de Paris, Canadian Opera Company, Glyndebourne Festival, The Royal Opera House, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Komische Oper Berlin, Teatro Real Madrid, Gran Teatroedel Liceu Barcelona, Opéra national de Lorraine, English National Opera, et al.
Cooperations with directors:
Dmitri Tcherniakov, Deborah Warner, Barrie Kosky, Richard Jones, Sir David McVicar, David Alden, Axel Ranisch, Calixto Bieito, Tim Sheader
Cooperations with conductors:
Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Mark Elder, Semyon Bychkov, Alexander Soddy, Ivor Bolton, Nicholas Carter, Cornelius Meister, Placido Domingo, Kirill Petrenko, John Wilson
Find further information about Rosie Aldridge here.
Reverend Adams
Jürgen Sacher
Tenor
Birthplace:
Augsburg, Germany
Studies:
Church music and music education at the Leopold-Mozart Konservatorium in Augsburg, vocal studies with Leonore Kirschstein
Prizes:
Scholarship of the Richard Wagner Verband, Promotion Prize of the Hamburgische Staatsoper, appointment as Hamburger Kammersänger (2017)
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Ensemble member of the Staatsoper Hamburg since 1991/92
Important parts:
Mime (Siegfried), Mime/Loge (Das Rheingold), Herodes (Salome), Knusperhexe (Hänsel und Gretel), Hauptmann/Andres (Wozzeck), Monostatos/1. Geharnischter (Die Zauberflöte), Maler/Prinz/Marquis/Kammerdiener (Lulu), Dr. Cajus (Falstaff), Tichon (Katja Kabanova), Truffaldino (Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen), Valzacchi (Der Rosenkavalier), David (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Junger Mann (Moses und Aron), Steuermann (Der fliegende Holländer), Peter Iwanow (Zar und Zimmermann), Pedrillo (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Walther von der Vogelweide (Tannhäuser), Goro (Madame Butterfly), Graf Elemer (Arabella), Raoul de St. Brioche (Die lustige Witwe), Novagerio (Palestrina), Orontes (Flavius Bertaridus), Asasello (Der Meister und Margarita), Tanzmeister (Ariadne auf Naxos), Graf von Kent (Lear), Reverend Adams (Peter Grimes), L´Aumonier (Dialogues des Carmélites), Aegisth (Elektra), Fedotik (Tri Sestri), Sylvester von Schaumburg (Mathis der Maler), et al.
Stages:
Hamburgische Staatsoper, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, La Monnaie, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Königliche Oper von Kopenhagen, Teatro alla Scala, Salzburger Festspiele, Theater an der Wien, Budapester Staatsoper, Theatro Municipal de São Paulo, Wagner Festival Budapest, Theater Dortmund, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Staatsoper Budapest, et al.
Cooperation with directors:
Harry Kupfer, Willy Decker, Claus Guth, Mario Martone, Achim Freyer, Géza M. Tóth, Livia Sabag, Roger Vontobel, Stefan Herheim, Karoline Gruber, Vincent Boussard, Jochen Biganzoli, et al.
Cooperation with conductors:
Adam Fischer, Bertrand de Billy, Claudio Abbado, Kent Nagano, Semyon Bychkov, Horst Stein, Christian Thielemann, Ingo Metzmacher, Michael Boder, Kirill Petrenko, Simone Young, Daniel Barenboim, et al.
photo: Martina Cyman
Ned Keene
Nicholas Mogg
Baritone
Birthplace:
Manchester, United Kingdom
Studies:
International Opera Studio, Hamburg State Opera; National Opera Studio, London; Royal Academy of Music, London; Clare College, University Cambridge
Masterclass:
with Sir Simon Keenlyside, Christian Gerhaher, Malcolm Martineau, Brigitte Fassbaender, Gerald Finley, Sir Thomas Allen
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Ensemble member of the Hamburg State Opera since the 2022/23 season
Was Member of the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera from 2019/20 to 2022/23
Prizes:
Royal Over-Seas League Singers’ Section; Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks Award
Roles:
Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Ned Keene (Peter Grimes), Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Dandini (La Cenerentola), Steward (Flight), Herr Peachum (Die Dreigroschenoper), Melisso (Alcina), Jupiter (Orphée aux Enfers), et al.
Stages:
Hamburg State Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Wigmore Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Het Concertgebouw, Festival Aix, Elbphilharmonie, Theater Lübeck
Cooperation with directors:
Keith Warner, Herbert Fritsch, Tim Albery, Orpha Phelan, Richard Jones
Cooperation with conductors:
Robin Ticciati, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Ton Koopman, Sir Roger Norrington, Yoel Gamzou, Francesco Ivan Ciampa, Alan Gilbert, Kent Nagano
photo: linden.shots
Hobson
Liam James Karai
Bass-Baritone
Birthplace:
Hongkong, China
Studies:
MMUS & PGDip - Royal Northern College of Music, taught by Quentin Hayes
BSC – University of Leicester
Master class:
Olga Peretyatko (2022 Hamburg)
Piotr Beczała (2022 Salzburg Festspiele)
John Tomlinson (2022 RNCM)
Ann Murray (2022 RNCM)
Graham Vick (2021 RNCM)
Christopher Purves (2021 RNCM)
Prizes:
Sir John Tomlinson Scholarship (RNCM)
Andrew Lloyd Webber Scholarship (RNCM)
Frederic Cox Award (RNCM)
RNCM Silver Medal
Joaninha Trust Award Competition
Pomerance Prize (University of Leicester)
St Cecilia Opera Prize (Leicester festival of music & dramatic art)
Winner of the Opera solo Award (Leicester festival of music & dramatic art)
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Member of the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera since the 2022/2023 season
Important parts:
Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Leporello/Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Alidoro (Cenerentola), Escamillo (Carmen), Colline (La bohème)
Stages:
Salzburg Festspiele, Staatsoper Hamburg, English National Opera, Opera Holland Park, RNCM
Cooperation with directors:
Christof Loy, Angelina Nikonova, Victoria Newlyn, Sam Brown, Stuart Barker, Jonathan Cocker
Cooperation with conductors:
Kent Negano, Franz Welser-Möst, Peter Whelan, Adrian Kelly, Peter Robinson, Nicholas Kok, Paul Jenkins
Find further information about Liam James Karai here.
photo: Jörn Kipping
Orchester
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg
Orchestra
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, Adam Fischer 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 and since June 2023 also its honorary conductor. 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 toured South America, followed by concert tours to Spain and Japan in 2019, and in the spring of 2023, the Philharmonic State Orchestra made its debut at New York's Carnegie Hall under his direction, which was acclaimed by audiences and the press. 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 by ECM, for which Widmann received the OPUS KLASSIK as Composer of the Year 2019, and ARCHE was performed again in 2023 to great acclaim.
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
Chor
Chor der Hamburgischen Staatsoper
The chorus members appear on stage at the Hamburg State Opera in a different role almost every night. From one day to the next, they might be sailors, pilgrims or conspirators, then courtiers, hunters, the deranged or the imprisoned. In the role of crusaders in I Lombardi alla prima Crociata they travel to Jerusalem, other nights they are invited to Madama Butterfly's marriage or acclaim Prince Igor. The ladies and gentlemen of the opera chorus demonstrate their artistic prowess, their flexibility, and their love of the stage in every performance.
With a membership around 70, the chorus of the Hamburg State Opera has been one of the world’s best opera choruses for many years. The varied repertoire – almost always in the original language – is multifaceted and includes baroque operas and dramatic operas, major works by Verdi and Wagner as well as contemporary pieces. At the start of the 2013/14 season, Eberhard Friedrich took over the post of Chorus Master.
photo: Niklas Marc Heinecke
