Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Così fan tutte
Musikalische Leitung
Alexander Joel
Conductor
Birthplace:
London, United Kingdom
Studies:
Piano studies at the Academy of Music, conducting studies at the Vienna Conservatory of Music
Prizes:
European Conducting Competition in Spoleto (1996)
Repertoire:
Il Trovatore, Il Trittico, Tosca, Rigoletto, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Carmen, Luisa Miller, La bohème, La Traviata, Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly, Macbeth, Faust, Salome, Lohengrin, Rosenkavalier, Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, et al.
Career stages:
First Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (2001 to 2007)
Generalmusikdirektor of the Staatstheater and Staatsorchester Braunschweig (2007 to 2014)
Stages:
Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Volksoper Wien, Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Malmö Opera, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Opéra National de Lyon, Opéra national de Lorraine, Welsh National Opera, English National Opera, Staatsoper Hamburg, Dutch National Opera, Royal Danish Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden, Bayerische Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Semper Oper Dresden, Finnish national Opera, New National Theatre in Toyko, Staatstheater and Staatsorchester Braunschweig, et al.
Cooperation with orchestras:
WDR Rundfunkorchester, Duisburger Philharmoniker, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Montpellier, Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano, BBC Philharmonic, RSO Wien, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, et al.
More about Alexander Joel
photo: Julia Wesley
Chorleitung
Christian Günther
Associate Chorus Master
Birthplace:
Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Studies:
Conducting at University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, conducting lessons with Neeme Järvi, Jorma Panula and Gianluigi Gelmetti
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Assistant Chorus Master at Hamburg State Opera since the 2019/20 season
Career stages:
Assistant of the Chorus Master at Hamburg State Opera (2008-2019), regular guest appearances at NDR-Chorus (since 2018), Guest Chorus Master at Zürich Opera House (2018), Assistant of Eberhard Friedrich with the Chorus of the Bayreuth Festival (2017), Guest engagements at Music Festival Bremen, at Festival der Projektgruppe Neue Musik Bremen as well as at Oh Ton-Ensemble Oldenburg, Leader of the Ensemble “Atelier Neue Musik”, Lectureship at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen (since 2007), Associate Chorus Master and Leader of the children's chorus at Theater Bremen (2002-2007), 2nd Capellmeister at Theater Bremen (2005-2007), Conductor of the Ensemble “piano possible” Munich (1996-2007), Guest répétiteur at Stuttgart State Theater, Theater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich and at the Biennale in Munich
Cooperation with choruses:
Chorus of Hamburg State Opera, NDR Chorus, Children's chorus of Theater Bremen, et al.
Fiordiligi
Jennifer Davis
Soprano
Origin:
Cahir in Ireland
Studies:
Alumna of the Jetter Parker Young Artist Programme at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Important parts:
Jenufa (title role), Elsa von Brabant (Lohengrin), Armida (title role), Marguerite (Faust), Freia (Das Rheingold), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), et al.
Stages:
Deutsche Oper Berlin, Royal Opera House; Covent Garden, Irish National Opera, English National Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Wiener Staatsoper, Wexford Festival, Aix-en-Provence Festival, et al.
Cooperations with conductors:
James Conlon, Jakub Hrusa, Andris Nelsons, Christian Thielemann, Keri-Lynn Wilson, Elaine Kelly, Martyn Brabbins
More about Jennifer Davis
photo: Marshall Light
Dorabella
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)
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Ensemble member of the Hamburg State Opera since the 2019/20 season
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.
More about Jana Kurucová
photo: Martina Cyman
Guglielmo
Kartal Karagedik
Baritone
Birthplace:
Izmir, Turkey
Studies:
Singing in Izmir at the University of Istanbul, among others with Alper Kazancioglu and Prof. Güzin Gürel
Master classes:
With Giorgio Zancanaro, Paolo Ballarin, Barbara Frittoli, Luciana Serra and Alfonso Antoniozzi.
Prizes:
First Prize at the Debut Competition (2012), Third Prize and Critics' Award at the Ottavio Ziino Concorso Lirico Internazionale in Rome (2011), Second Prize at the Leyla Gencer Competition in Istanbul (2010), Second Prize at the Beniamino Gigli Competition in Rome (2009), "Best Male Singer" at the International Duchi d'Acquaviva Competition in Atri (2008), "Special Mention Prize" at the International Opera Competition in Como (2008), third prize at the Ferruccio Tagliavini Competition in Graz (2007), first prize at the Güzin Gürel Foundation Lieder Competition in Istanbul (2007)
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Ensemble member of the Hamburg State Opera since 2015/16
Important parts:
Renato (Un ballo in maschera), Rodrigo (Don Carlo), Germont (La Traviata), Simon Boccanegra (Simon Boccanegra), Onegin (Eugeny Onegin), Lescaut (Manon Lescaut), Marcello (La Bohème), Sharpless (Madama butterfly), Sonora (La Fanciulla del West), (Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Duca D'alba (Duca D'alba), Belcore (L'Elisir d'Amore), Riccardo (I Puritani), Il Conte d'Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Carlo Gérard (Andrea Chénier), Mischonnet (Adriana Lecouvreur), Dandini (La Cenerentola), Poeta ( Il Turco in Italia), Chorébe (Les Troyens), Escamillo (Carmen), Valentin (Faust), Ford (Falstaff), Malatesta (Don Pasquale), et al.
Stages:
Hamburg State Opera, Opera Vlaanderen, Theater St. Gallen, Savonlinna Opera Festival, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Komische Oper Berlin, Theater Magdeburg, Theater Erfurt, Oper Leipzig, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Izmir State Opera, et al.
Cooperation with directors:
Georges Delnon, Stefan Herheim, Kirsten Harms, Herbert Fritsch, Michael Thalheimer, Guy Montavon, Carlos Wagner, Stefano Poda, Robert Carsen, et al.
Cooperation with conductors:
Kent Nagano, Stefano Ranzani, Ottavio Dantone, Eliahu Inbal, Roberto Rizzi-Brignoli, Christoph Prick, Valerio Galli, Andriy Yurkevych, Yves Abel, John Storgårds, Anthony Bramal, Ulf Schirmer, Manlio Benzi, Joana Mallwitz, Peter Feranec, Modesta Pitrenas, Francesco Ivan Ciampa, et al.
More about Kartal Karagedik
photo: Kartal Karagedik
Ferrando
Dovlet Nurgeldiyev
Tenor
Birthplace:
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
Studies:
Vocal studies at the Music College in Ashgabat, at the Turkmen National Conservatory, at the Conservatory Tilburg and at Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Member of the International Opera Studio (2008/9-2009/10)
Ensemble member since 2010/11
Important parts:
Dmitriy (Boris Godunov), Stewa (Jenufa), Tito (La Clemenza di Tito), Erik (Der fliegende Holländer), Fenton (Falstaff), Nemorino (L’Elisir d’Amore), Alfredo (La Traviata), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Vladimir (Prince Igor), Telemaco (Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria), Alfred (Die Fledermaus), Chevalier (Dialogues des Carmelites), Hylas (Les Troyens), Macduff (Macbeth), Ismaele (Nabucco), Cassio (Otello), Naraboth (Salome), Medoro (Orlando Paladino), Belfiore (La finta giardiniera), et al.
Stages:
Hamburgische Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper, Münchner Opernfestspiele, Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Oper Frankfurt, Ungarische Staatsoper, Polnische Staatsoper, Opéra National de Montpellier, Opéra de Rouen Normandie, Auditorium de Bordeaux, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Laeizhalle Hamburg, Prinzregententheater München, Santa Fe Opera(US), Gran Teatre del Liceu, Concertgebow Amsterdam, Palau del la Musica, Auditoriu Barcelona, Auditoriu Madrid,et al.
Cooperation with directors:
Hans Neuenfels, Marie-Eve Signeyrole, Renaud Doucet, Vincent Boussard, Jette Steckel, Willy Decker, Axel Ranisch, et al.
Cooperation with conductors:
Ivor Bolton, Kent Nagano, Bertrand de Billy, Keri Lynn Wilson, Philippe Auguin, Lothar Zagrosek, Michael Schonwandt, Stefan Soltesz, Henrik Nánási, Stefano Ranzani, Andrea Battistoni, Simone Young, et al.
photo: Jörn Kipping
Despina
Siobhan Stagg
Highlights in Siobhan Stagg’s 2017/18 season include Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden; Gilda (Rigoletto) for the Hamburgische Staatsoper; Najade (Ariadne auf Naxos) for her debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper and Pamina, Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Musetta (La bohème) and Contessa di Folleville (Il viaggio a Reims) for the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
A member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin since 2013/14, her roles in the house have so far included Pamina, Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Gilda, Marguerite de Valois (Les Huguenots) and Waldvogel and Woglinde in “The Ring Cycle” conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.
Elsewhere she has sung Cordelia in Aribert Reimann’s “Lear” for the Hamburgische Staatsoper; Blonde for the Hamburgische Staatsoper and the Dutch National Opera; Woglinde for the Deutsche Staatsoper, the title role in Luigi Rossi’s “Orpheus” for the Royal Opera and Morgana (Alcina) and Marzelline (Fidelio) for the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
Siobhan Stagg’s upcoming engagements include her U.S. debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the title role of “Cendrillon”, her debut for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande) in her debut for Australia’s Victorian Opera.
Highlights on the concert platform include Brahms’ “Ein Deutsches Requiem” (Berliner Philharmoniker/Christian Thielemann), Zemlinsky’s “Lyric Symphony” at the BBC Proms (BBC Symphony Orchestra/Simone Young), Haydn’s “Creation” (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis), Mozart arias with Rolando Villazon at the Salzburg Mozartwoche (Mozarteumorchester Salzburg/Kristiina Poska) and a tour of Australia with Roberto Alagna.
photo: Simon Pauly
Don Alfonso
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.
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.
More about Philharmonisches Staatsorchester 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
