Götterdämmerung

Orchester und Chor der Tiroler Festspiele Erl

Musik wächst aus der Begeisterung eines über die Jahre zusammengewachsenen, motivierten und exzellent vorbereiteten Ensembles, das sich einen Ruf als eines der besten Wagnerorchester weltweit erarbeitet und die Tiroler Festspiele Erl international bekannt gemacht hat. 1999 formierte sich das Orchester der Tiroler Festspiele unter der Leitung von Gustav Kuhn, inzwischen spielen Musiker*innen aus 20 Nationen zusammen. Junge Spitzentalente, Musiker*innen aus großen internationalen Orchestern, Kammermusikspezialist*innen und Dozent*innen kommen so jährlich im Sommer und Winter, seit 2017 auch im Herbst und an Ostern im Rahmen der Tiroler Festspiele Erl zusammen. Zum Repertoire des Klangkörpers gehören neben den zehn großen Musikdramen Richard Wagners und Opern von Strauss, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi und Rossini auch die Symphonien Beethovens und viele weitere zentrale Werke des Konzertrepertoires sowie zeitgenössische Werke und Uraufführungen. Seit der Sommersaison 2022 ist Erik Nielsen Chefdirigent des Orchesters der Tiroler Festspiele Erl.

Erik
Nielsen

Erik Nielsen has been chief conductor of the Tyrol Festival Erl since 2022, where he conducts the entire "Ring des Nibelungen" and has already been on the podium for "Le postillon de Lonjumeau" and numerous concerts. Chief conductor of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra since 2015, he will complete his ninth and final season with the orchestra in 2024. From 2016 to 2018, Erik Nielsen was music director of the Theater Basel.

He also has a decade-long collaboration with the Frankfurt Opera. His most recent engagements include "Rusalka" and "Norma" at the Semperoper Dresden, "Salome" at the Zurich Opera House, the world premiere of Manfred Trojahn's "Eurydice - The Lovers Blind" at De Nationale Opera Amsterdam, "Peter Grimes," "Das Rheingold" and Křenek's "Karl V. " at the Bavarian State Opera, "Pelléas et Mélisande" at the Semperoper Dresden, "Peter Grimes" and Trojahn's "Orest" at the Zurich Opera House, "Billy Budd" and Lachenmann's "Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern" at the Frankfurt Opera, and "The Rake's Progress" in Budapest. Future plans include "Aida" in Frankfurt and "Oedipus Rex" / "Antigone" at De Nationale Opera Amsterdam.

Concerts have taken Erik Nielsen to Oslo, Manchester, Stockholm, Madrid, Strasbourg, Lisbon, Basel, the Aspen Music Festival and the Interlochen Center for the Arts, among others. After studying harp, oboe and conducting in New York and Philadelphia, he was a member of the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic as a harpist.

Brigitte
Fassbaender

Brigitte Fassbaender, who is directing the complete "Ring des Nibelungen" in Erl, is one of the most important artists these days. Until 1994 she pursued a sensational international career as a mezzo-soprano, which took her to all the leading opera houses and to the most renowned festivals in the world with the important roles in her field. Some 300 recordings, many of which have received awards, and the majority of which are in the lied and concert repertoire, testify to the importance of the Munich and Vienna Kammersängerin.

Since 1994, Brigitte Fassbaender has devoted herself entirely to directing and has since staged some 90 productions in Germany and abroad. Among her most recent works is the world premiere of Vito Žuraj's / Händl Klaus' opera "Blühen" at the Frankfurt Opera. Between 1995 and 1997 Brigitte Fassbaender was opera director at the Staatstheater Braunschweig, and from 1999 to 2012 she was artistic director of the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck.

From 2009 to 2017 she was Artistic Director of the Richard Strauss Festival Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Since 2002 she has directed the festival "Eppaner Liedsommer". The promotion of young talents was and is an important concern for Brigitte Fassbaender: As a sought-after vocal pedagogue, she teaches master classes worldwide. In 2019, her memoirs "Komm' aus dem Staunen nicht heraus" were published.

Kaspar
Glarner

Kaspar Glarner was born in Zurich and studied in Paris. He regularly designs sets and costumes for productions by Keith Warner, including "Volo di notte" / "Il prigionero," "Death in Venice," "Falstaff," "Lear" and most recently "Der Zar lässt sich fotografieren" / "Die Kluge" at Oper Frankfurt and "Otello" at the ROH Covent Garden in London. Their joint reading of "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" premiered at the Vienna State Opera during the current season.

For Walter Sutcliffe, Kaspar Glarner designed the sets for "Owen Wingrave", "The Turn of the Screw" and "Tiefland" in Toulouse, "Die Gespenstersonate" at Oper Frankfurt, "Rigoletto" in Santiago de Chile and Belfast as well as Gounod's "Faust" at Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Kaspar Glarner also has a longstanding collaboration with Johannes Erath: "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" in Bern, "Aida" in Cologne, "Lohengrin" in Graz and Oslo, "I masnadieri" at the Bavarian State Opera, as well as the world premiere of "Der Mieter" at the Frankfurt Opera and "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" in 2022/23.

In Frankfurt he also worked with Anselm Weber on "Lady Macbeth of Mzensk". Kaspar Glarner's work has also been seen in San Francisco, Tokyo, Santiago de Chile, Copenhagen, Prague, Warsaw, Strasbourg, Toulouse and at the Festival-d'Aix-en-Provence. For the Tyrolean Festival Erl he worked on "Le postillon de Lonjumeau" as well as the "Ring des Nibelungen".

Jan
Hartmann

Jan Hartmann, who has already designed the lighting for "Rusalka," "L'elisir d'amore" and "Francesca da Rimini" at the Tyrol Festival Erl and is accompanying the entire "Ring des Nibelungen," has been engaged at the Frankfurt Opera since 1999. There he worked for the first time in 2011 as lighting designer for the production "Nineteen Hundred".

This was followed by, among others. "Idomeneo", "The Golden Dragon", "Julietta", "Le cantatrici villane", "Pierrot lunaire" / "Anna Toll" (world premiere), "Rigoletto", "L'Africaine", "The Cunning Little Vixen", "Dalibor," "The Medium" / "Satyricon," "Pénélope," "La gazzetta," "Amadigi," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the world premiere "Blühen" and "Le vin herbé."

In 2023/24 he is working on "Der Traumgörge" and "Tannhäuser", among others. In addition, Jan Hartmann has worked for various music theater, dance, drama and film projects, including with the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble for the "Festa Teatrale Carneval" in Hong Kong, with choreographer Deborah Hay for the production "As Holy Sites Go" as well as for "Falstaff" at the Nationaltheater Mannheim. Since 2013 he has been a lecturer in lighting design at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach am Main.

Bibi
Abel

Video artist Bibi Abel studied at the Cologne Werkkunstschule and completed further training as a multimedia developer. Engagements have taken her to the Cologne Opera, the Frankfurt Opera, the Aalto Music Theater in Essen, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Theater an der Wien, the playhouses of Bochum, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Graz and Zurich, the Theater Gessnerallee in Zurich, the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo and the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome.

Bibi Abel has a continuous collaboration with the director Johannes Erath. Other directors she has worked with include David Bösch, Jan Bosse, Vincent Boussard, Agnese Cornelio, Heike M. Götze, Tilmann Köhler, Andreas Kriegenburg, Vera Nemirova and Keith Warner. At the Tyrol Festival Erl, she is responsible for the video in "Der Ring des Nibelungen" and also in "Bianca e Falliero" in 2022.

Future engagements include Trojahn's "September Sonata" at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf and an "Evening for Arnold Schönberg" for the composer's 150th birthday for the Musiktheater an der Wien.

Mareike
Wink

Mareike Wink supports Brigitte Fassbaender's production of "Der Ring des Nibelungen" at the Tyrol Festival Erl. There, she has already made guest appearances for "Rusalka", "Le postillon de Lonjumeau" and "Francesca da Rimini".

Since 2013 Mareike Wink has been employed as a dramaturge at the Frankfurt Opera, where she has worked with directors such as David Hermann, Jens-Daniel Herzog, Nadja Loschky, Benedikt von Peter, Hans Walter Richter, R. B. Schlather, Lydia Steier, Katharina Thoma and Keith Warner, with conductors such as Martyn Brabbins, Dennis Russell Davies, Johannes Debus, Leo Hussain, Karsten Januschke, Eun Sun Kim, Erik Nielsen, Alexander Soddy, Sebastian Weigle and Lothar Zagrosek, and with composers such as Peter Eötvös, Helmut Lachenmann, Rolf Riehm, Manfred Trojahn and Vito Žuraj.

The reading of "Schlaues Füchslein" by Ute M. Engelhardt, which she accompanied, was awarded the 2016 Götz Friedrich Prize, and the Frankfurt premiere of three one-act operas by Ernst Křenek was celebrated as "Rediscovery of the Year 2018" at the International Opera Awards. She is also active as a guest dramaturg for the International Bach Academy Stuttgart. Mareike Wink studied music, theater and media studies as well as German language and literature in Frankfurt and Rome, and was a scholarship holder of the Richard Wagner Association Frankfurt.

Vincent
Wolfsteiner

The Munich-born Vincent Wolfsteiner studied with William Cotten in the USA and made his debut as Rodolfo ("La Bohème") at the Granite State Opera in New Hampshire, US. He subsequently appeared as Don José ("Carmen"), Turiddu ("Cavalleria rusticana"), Coraddo ("Il corsaro"), Canio ("Pagliacci"), Prince ("The Love for Three Oranges"), Count Zedlau ("Wiener Blut"), Florestan ("Fidelio"), Max ("Der Freischütz"), Erik ("Der fliegende Holländer"), Hans ("Die verkaufte Braut"), Des Grieux ("Manon Lescaut"), Aegisth ("Elektra"), Bacchus ("Ariadne auf Naxos") and Siegmund ("Die Walküre") on numerous American and German stages.

In permanent engagements at the Nuremberg State Theater and the Frankfurt Opera, he expanded his repertoire to include the core roles in his field. Guest engagements took Vincent Wolfsteiner to the Theater an der Wien as Hüon ("Oberon") and to the Berlin State Opera as Wagner's Tristan and Strauss' Bacchus and Herodes. He also sang the latter role at the Vienna State Opera and the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.

At the Bayreuth Festival he filled in as Tristan and Siegmund, and in Paris and Munich as Tristan and Lohengrin, which he also interpreted at the Tokyo Spring Festival and at the Teatro Communale di Bologna. Sinowi Borissowitsch Ismailow ("Lady Macbeth of Mzensk") at the Hamburg, Baron de Laubardemont ("The Devils of Loudun") at the Bavarian and the first Tannhäuser at the Berlin State Opera will now be followed by both Siegfrieds at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl in 2022/23.

Vincent Wolfsteiner has worked with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Plácido Domingo, Thomas Guggeis, Kent Nagano, Christian Thielemann, Sebastian Weigle and Lothar Zagrosek, and with directors such as Christof Loy, Barrie Kosky and Keith Warner.

Manuel
Walser

Manuel Walser has already appeared at the Tyrol Festival Erl as Donner ("Das Rheingold"). Until 2019, the baritone was a permanent ensemble member of the Vienna State Opera, where he interpreted Schaunard ("La bohème"), Masetto ("Don Giovanni"), Harlequin ("Ariadne auf Naxos"), Publio ("La clemenza di Tito") and Haly ("L'italiana in Algeri"), among others.

He has performed at La Scala in Milan, the Berlin State Opera, the Semperoper in Dresden, the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Zurich Tonhalle, the Vienna Musikverein, the Paris Philharmonie, the Verbier Festival, the Salzburg Mozart Week and the Salzburg Festival, among others. In Oviedo, Manuel Walser made his debut as Peter Besenbinder ("Hansel and Gretel") with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias under Nuno Coelho. Throughout Europe he sang in Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Mahler's "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen" and the "Rückertlieder".

Lieder recitals have taken him to the Liedrezital Zurich, the Pierre Boulez Hall in Berlin, the Max-Joseph-Saal in Munich and the Small Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. The Wiener Konzerthaus presented the multi-award-winning baritone as a "Great Talent" in various concerts in 2019-21. Brigitte Fassbaender, Frédéric Gindraux, Thomas Quasthoff and Wolfram Rieger are among his most important teachers and mentors.

Craig
Colclough

The American bass-baritone Craig Colclough has already appeared as Alberich ("Das Rheingold") at the Tyrol Festival in Erl. He began his career at Los Angeles Opera, where he remains a regular guest, most recently as Figaro ("Le Nozze di Figaro") and Peter ("Hansel and Gretel").

Major international engagements include Macbeth at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Lyric Opera Chicago, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich and Opera Vlaanderen, Telramund ("Lohengrin") at the ROH Covent Garden in London, Scarpia ("Tosca") with the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Falstaff and Don Pasquale at Minnesota Opera, Kurwenal ("Tristan und Isolde") and Jack Rance ("Fanciulla del West") at ENO in London, Fra Melitone ("La forza del destino") at Oper Frankfurt and Sweeney Todd at Opera Saratoga.

His plans include Wagner's "Der Fliegende Holländer" in Gothenburg and Leporello ("Don Giovanni") at Los Angeles Opera. Craig Colclough has appeared on the concert podium as Timur ("Turandot") with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela under Gustavo Dudamel and in Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He appeared as Dottore Grenvil ("La traviata") at the Hollywood Bowl.

Major conductors and directors with whom he has collaborated include: Woody Allen, Christoph Waltz, James Gray, Richard Jones CBE, Sir David McVicar, Plácido Domingo, James Conlon, Edward Gardner, Paolo Carignani and Marco Armiliato. Craig Colclough was a Young Artist with Florida Grand Opera and Filene Young Artist with Wolf Trap Opera.

Robert
Pomakov

Canadian Robert Pomakov studied voice at the Curtis Institute of Music. He made his professional debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Monterone in "Rigoletto" and has since returned there regularly as Mathieu ("Andrea Chénier"), Bartolo ("Le nozze di Figaro"), Innkeeper ("Manon") and Monk ("Don Carlo"), among others.

Future engagements include Ferrando ("Il trovatore") at San Francisco Opera and "America" by Roman Haubenstock-Ramati. With the Canadian Opera Company Robert Pomakov sang Bartolo, Hobson ("Peter Grimes") and the Chamber Lord ("Le rossignol"), at Calgary Opera Banco ("Macbeth"), at Houston Grand Opera Monterone, Benoît ("La bohème") and Haly ("L'italiana in Algeri"), at Washington Opera Mozart's Leporello, Ferrando at the Zurich Opera House, Prince Gremin ("Eugene Onegin"), King René ("Iolanta") and Oroveso ("Norma") at the Frankfurt Opera, Varlaam ("Boris Godunov") at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Bonze ("Madama Butterfly") at the Opéra national de Paris and Gremin at the Norske Opera in Oslo.

On the concert podium he interpreted the bass part in Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, King Heinrich ("Lohengrin") with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra and the bass part in Verdi's Requiem with the New Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra. Robert Pomakov is a laureate of several international competitions, including the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium, the Belvedere Singing Competition in Vienna and the Plácido Domingos Operalia Competition.

Christiane
Libor

Christiane Libor has sung roles from the youth to dramatic soprano repertoire at opera houses such as the Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg and Stuttgart State Operas, the Frankfurt Opera, the Zurich Opera, the Opéra Bastille in Paris and the opera houses of and the opera houses of Washington and Seattle.

She has worked with renowned orchestras and conductors such as Philippe Auguin, Marek Janowski, Philippe Jordan, Kurt Masur, Ingo Metzmacher, Marc Minkowski, Sebastian Weigle, Antoni Wit, Simone Young and Jaap van Zweden. Recent guest engagements include her debut as Turandot at the Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Leonore ("Fidelio") at the West Australian Opera in Perth under Asher Fisch and with the Los Angeles Philhamonic Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel, and Brünnhilde ("Götterdämmerung") at the Staatsoper Stuttgart.

At Oper Leipzig, where she sang all three Brünnhilden for the first time in 2018, Christiane Libor will be heard next season as Wagner's Isolde and Strauss' Elektra. By now, the soprano has interpreted almost all Wagner roles in her field. A native of Berlin and winner of the O. E. Hasse Prize of the Berlin Academy of the Arts and the Salzburg International Mozart Competition, she studied at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music with Anneliese Fried and continued to be taught by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Brigitte Fassbaender. Since 2011 Christiane Libor has been a professor at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe.

Irina
Simmes

Soprano Irina Simmes, who made her debut last summer at the Tyrol Festival Erl as Sieglinde ("Die Walküre"), now makes her debut as Gutrune.

She recently made a guest appearance as Pat Nixon ("Nixon in China") at Oper Dortmund, whose ensemble she previously belonged to and where she will return next season as Freia ("Das Rheingold"). As Violetta ("La traviata"), which she has already sung at various theaters, she was recently seen at the Aalto-Musiktheater Essen.

In 2019 Irina Simmes sang Gerhilde ("Die Walküre") at the Frankfurt Opera, after her first guest appearance there as Konstanze ("Die Entführung aus dem Serail") under the baton of Sebastian Weigle. Numerous other Mozart roles are in her repertoire: Pamina ("The Magic Flute"), Countess ("Le nozze di Figaro"), Fiordiligi ("Così fan tutte") and Donna Anna ("Don Giovanni"). At the Staatstheater in Karlsruhe she made guest appearances as Isolde in Avner Dorman's "Wahnfried" as well as in Mozart's "Lucio Silla".

Her repertoire includes Laura in Korngold's "Der Ring des Polykrates", Musetta ("La Bohème"), Rosalinde ("Die Fledermaus") and Micaëla ("Carmen"), but also rarities of the baroque (e.g. Pilade in Traetta's "Ifigenia in Tauride") as well as works of contemporary music theater such as Jost's "Rumor" or Harneit's "Abends am Fluss". Irina Simmes completed her vocal training at the Folkwang University of the Arts Essen and graduated from the opera studio of the Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen.

Zanda
Švēde

Marvic
Monreal

The Maltese mezzo-soprano Marvic Monreal was a member of the Frankfurt Opera Studio until 2021/22. There she appeared in roles such as Martha ("Iolanta"), Lucia ("La gazza ladra") and Deaconess ("Król Roger"), as First Maid in Dallapiccola's "Ulisse" ("Rediscovery of the Year 2022", International Opera Awards) and La suor zelatrice ("Suor Angelica"), and most recently as Olga ("Eugene Onegin").

Marvic Monreal will soon make her debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Floßhilde ("Das Rheingold") and at the Philharmonie Berlin in Dvořák's "Stabat mater". Recent engagements include Maddalena ("Rigoletto") at the Lithuanian National Opera in Vilnius, and Mercédès ("Carmen"), Verdi's Requiem and Daniel ("Belshazar") in Malta. Past performances have taken her to Teatru Manoel in Valletta as Dido ("Dido and Aeneas"), Winterbourne Opera in Salisbury as Marthe ("Faust"), and the Royal Academy Opera as Bradamante ("Alcina"), Vénus ("Orphée aux enfers"), Older Woman in Dove's "Flight" and Carmen in "La tragédie de Carmen".

In 2018/19, she was a member of the National Opera Studio London. As a participant of the Young Singers Project 2017, the multiple prize winner made her debut with Pisana ("I due foscari"; concertante) at the Salzburg Festival. As a concert singer, she has performed in Mahler's 2nd Symphony at the Royal Festival Hall in London, among others, and appeared for the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra's online program together with Diana Damrau and Nicolas Testé.

Anna-Katharina
Tonauer

Austrian mezzo-soprano Anna-Katharina Tonauer has been a member of the ensemble at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich since the 2016/17 season, where she has sung roles such as Charlotte ("Werther"), Angelina and Tisbe ("La Cenerentola"), Hänsel ("Hänsel und Gretel"), Dorabella ("Così fan tutte"), Second Lady ("The Magic Flute"), Nancy ("Martha"), Maddalena ("Rigoletto"), Lucy ("The Threepenny Opera"), Olga ("Eugene Onegin"), Smeton ("Anna Bolena"), Rosina ("The Barber of Seville"), The Muse / Niklas ("The Tales of Hoffmann") and Cherubino ("Le nozze di Figaro").

Guest engagements have taken the young singer to the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern and the Stadttheater Heilbronn in the title role of "La Cenerentola", to the Frankfurt Opera as Tisbe ("La Cenerentola"), to the Nationaltheater Mannheim as Rosina, to the Aalto Musiktheater Essen as Maddalena, to the Styriarte Graz as Primavera ("La Gloria di Primavera") and to Salzburg, Linz, Graz and Vienna as Mozart's Dorabella.

Anna-Katharina Tonauer studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Gabriele Fontana and Karlheinz Hanser. She received groundbreaking impulses in master classes from Brigitte Fassbaender, Anne Sofie von Otter, Helmut Deutsch and Leopold Spitzer, among others. In 2014 she was awarded the first prize at Musica Juventutis, endowed with a song recital at the Vienna Konzerthaus.

Monika
Buczkowska

Polish-born soprano Monika Buczkowska has already appeared at the Tyrol Festival Erl as Madeleine in "Le postillon de Lonjumeau" and Freia ("Das Rheingold"). In 2019/20 she made her German debut at Oper Frankfurt in Fauré's "Pénélope" (Lydie), of which she has been a member of the ensemble since 2020/21. Current roles include: Gretel ("Hansel and Gretel"), Dorinda ("Orlando"), First Lady ("The Magic Flute") and the Fifth Maid ("Elektra").

Previously she sang Leonora ("Masquerade"), Fiordiligi ("Così fan tutte"), Helena ("A Midsummer Night's Dream") and Suor Genovieffa ("Suor Angelica") / Nella ("Gianni Schicchi") as well as in Pergolesi's Stabat mater. Monika Buczkowska was a scholarship holder of the Young Talents Development Program (Opera Academy) at Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, where she sang Zerlina ("Don Giovanni"), Susanna ("Le nozze di Figaro") and Papagena. Under Kazushi Ōno she sang there in Prokofiev's "The Fiery Angel" (co-production with the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence).

She sang Donna Anna ("Don Giovanni") at the Music Festival in Nieborów and Eurydice ("Orpheus in the Underworld") at the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk, Fiordiligi at the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg and Helena at the Hanover State Opera, as well as in Brahms' "Ein deutsches Requiem" at the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck. A graduate of the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan, her awards include First Prize at the Polish Vocal Festival Maria Stankowa in Olsztyn.

Anna
Nekhames

The Moscow-born soprano Anna Nekhames was heard in the winter of 2022 as Francesca da Rimini at the Tyrol Festival Erl, which she also sang shortly thereafter at the Frankfurt Opera, of which she has been a member of the ensemble since 2022/23.

Previously, Anna Nekhames was a member of the Opera Studio of the Vienna State Opera, where she appeared on stage as Juliette ("Die tote Stadt"), Masha and Chloe ("Pique Dame"), Second Flower Girl ("Parsifal"), Konstanze ("Entführung ins Zauberreich") and Modistin ("Der Rosenkavalier"), among others. In Frankfurt, she has sung Mozart's Queen of the Night and Schreker's Mizi ("Der ferne Klang"), among others. She also appeared as the Queen of the Night at the Volksoper Wien, where she also embodied the Morning Bird in the Austrian premiere of Glanert's "Leyla und Medjnun".

A native of Moscow, she was first in the children's choir of the Bolshoi Theater before beginning her vocal studies at the College of Musical Theater Arts "Galina Vishnevskaya." She then studied at the Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow. She completed her master's degree at the Music and Art Private University of the City of Vienna.

The repertoire of the multiple award-winning singer continues to include roles such as Musetta ("La bohème"), Madame Herz ("Der Schauspieldirektor"), Olympia ("Les contes d'Hoffmann"), Giannetta ("L'elisir d'amore"), Voce dal cielo ("Don Carlo"), Gilda ("Rigoletto"), Xenia ("Boris Godunov"), Adele ("Die Fledermaus"), First Wood Elf ("Rusalka"), An Italian Singer ("Capriccio") and Fiakermilli ("Arabella").

Karolina
Makuła

Karolina Makuła, who appeared as Mercadante's Paolo at the Tyrolean Festival in Erl in winter 2022, made her professional debut at Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz as Cherubino ("Le nozze di Figaro"). A graduate of the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, she was a member of the Akademia Operowa of the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw from 2017 and appeared at the Polish National Opera in Prokofiev's "The Fiery Angel," among other roles.

With this production, the mezzo-soprano also made a guest appearance at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. The Polish-born singer's other roles include Olga ("Eugene Onegin"), Second Lady ("The Magic Flute") and Fricka ("Das Rheingold"). From 2019/20 to 2021/22, Karolina Makuła was a scholarship holder at the Opera Frankfurt Opera Studio, where she performed, among others. as Tisbe ("La Cenerentola"), Mercédès ("Carmen"), Olga ("The Merry Widow"), Countess of Ceprano ("Rigoletto") and Pippo ("La gazza ladra"), Kate Pinkerton ("Madama Butterfly") and Second Witch ("Dido and Aeneas").

She also made her debut there as Desdemona in Rossini's "Otello" and stood in "Rigoletto", as Enrichetta di Francia ("I puritani") and as Francesca in the world premiere of Lucia Ronchetti's "Inferno". She returned to Frankfurt in the current season for Schreker's "Der ferne Klang" and the premiere of Weill's "Der Zar lässt sich fotografieren".

Katharina
Magiera

The alto Katharina Magiera has already appeared as Floßhilde ("Das Rheingold") and Hexe ("Königskinder") at the Tyrol Festival in Erl. At the Opéra National de Paris she made guest appearances as A Page to Herodias ("Salome"), Mozart's Third Lady and Schwertleite ("Die Walküre"), which she also sang at the Semperoper Dresden.

Other guest engagements have taken her to the Theater an der Wien, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, the Beijing Music Festival and the Salzburg Easter Festival, where she worked with Christian Thielemann, Ádám Fischer and Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

Since 2009/10 Katharina Magiera has been part of the ensemble of Oper Frankfurt, where she sang Hansel ("Hansel and Gretel"), Mozart's Third Lady, First Maid ("Elektra") and Amastre ("Xerxes") in the current season and in the future will embody Mozart's Marcellina and Nancy ("Martha"), among others. In Frankfurt, Katharina Magiera was also present as Kirke / Melantho (Dallapiccola's "Ulisse"; "Rediscovery of the Year 2022," International Opera Awards), Jokaste ("Oedipus Rex"), Witch ("King's Children"), Voice from Above ("The Woman Without a Shadow"), The Narrator / Saint Catherine ("La Damoiselle élue" / "Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher"), Eduige ("Rodelinda") and Emilia ("Otello").

Her repertoire further includes Ježibaba ("Rusalka"), Margret ("Wozzeck", CD on OehmsClassics), Annina ("Der Rosenkavalier"), Lisa ("Die Passagierin"), Teresa ("La sonnambula"), Maddalena ("Rigoletto") and Wanja ("Iwan Sussanin"). Katharina Magiera regularly gives recitals; a CD with Goethe settings was released by OehmsClassics.