Cast

Musical Direction

Lorenzo Passerini

Birthplace:
Morbegno, Italy

Studies:
Graduated with honors in trombone at the Conservatoire in Como (2009)
Second-level academic diploma at the Conservatoire in Aosta with honors (2014)
Studies with Maestro Ennio Nicotra, John Axelrod, Massimiliano Caldi, Gilberto Serembe, Pietro Mianiti, Oleg Caetani and Antonio Eros Neg

Repertoire:
La Bohème, Rigoletto, Manon, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Rondine, La Sonnambula, Fedora, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Tosca, Un ballo in Maschera, Pierini e il Lupo, Aida, et al.

Stages:
Teatro Real, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Regio, Teatro dell’Opera in Sassari, Sydney Opera House, Theatre of Las Palmas, Zagabria National Theatre, Theatre de Champes Elysée, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Frankfurt Opera House, Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Essen Opera House, Savonlinna Opera Festival, Turku Festival, et al.

Cooperation with orchestras:
Orchestra Antonio Vivaldi, Teatro Sociale in Sondrio, ICO della Magna Grecia, Orchestra Regionale Filarmonia Veneta, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Orchestra della Fondazione Arena di Verona, Orchestra Regionale Toscana, Romanian National Opera Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo, Orchestra Camerata Musica Wien, Symphony Orchestra of the State of Mexico and Milano Chamber Orchestra, et al.

Find further information about Lorenzo Passerini here.

Performances

• Luisa Miller

photo: Elena Cherkashyna

Bass

Adam Palka

Birthplace:
Walbrzych, Poland

Studies:
Gdansk Conservatory in Poland, Opera Studio at Opernhaus Zürich

Prizes:
II prize in male voice category in St. Moniuszko Singing Competition.
Kammersänger Baden Würtemberg

Important parts:
Boris (Boris Godunov), Commendatore/Leporello (Don Giovanni), Méphistophélès (Faust), Timur (Turandot), Fafner (Das Rheingold), Rodolfo (La Sonnambula), Vodnik (Rusalka), Filippo (II Don Carlo), Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Walter (Luisa Miller), Colline (La bohème), Don Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Gremin (Eugene Onegin), Alidoro (La Cenerentola), et al.

Stages:
Teatro alla Scala, Staatsoper Berlin, Staatsoper Hamburg, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Vienna State Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Royal Opera House, Teatro Real Madrid, Opéra national de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, et al.

Cooperations with directors:
Robert Wilson, Christof Loy, Barrie Kosky, Frank Castorf, Richard Jones, Claus Guth, et al.

Cooperations with conductors:
Daniel Barenboim, Anthony Pappano, Riccardo Chailly, Nicola Luisotti, Michel Plason, Philippe Jordan, Bertrand de Billy, Dan Ettinger, Omer Meir Wellber, Antonino Fogliani, Cornelius Meister, et al.

Performances

• Luisa Miller

photo: Ania Wisniewska

Tenor

Giorgio Berrugi

Birthplace:
Pisa, Italy

Prizes:
Abbiati prize, best recording
Abbiati prize, best show
Preis der deutschen schallplattenkritik
1st prize International chamber music competition: Roma, Firenze and Bologna

Important parts:
Riccardo (Un Ballo in Maschera), Mario Cavaradossi (Tosca), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), the Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto), Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Alfredo (La Traviata), Rodolfo (La Bohème), Idomeneo (Idomeneo), Avito (L’Amore dei Tre Re), Macduff (Macbeth), Siegmund (Die Walküre), Giasone (Medea), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Don José (Carmen), et al.

Stages:
Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House in London, Lincoln Center in New York, Teatro di San Carlo, Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Wiener Konzerthaus, Opéra Bastille, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Vienna State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera di Roma, San Francisco Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Staatsoper Berlin, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Arena di Verona et al.

Cooperations with directors:
Franco Zeffirelli, Robert Carsen, Bob Wilson, David Mc Vicar, PIERLUIGI PIZZI, La fura dels baus, Stefan Herheim, Emilio Sagi, Gilbert Deflo, Davide Livermore

Cooperations with conductors:
Zubin Mehta, Christian Thielemann, Fabio Luisi, Andriss Nelsons, Riccardo Chailly, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniel Oren, Gianandrea Noseda, Pinchas Steinberg, Franz Welser-Möst, Nicola Luisotti, Myung-Whun Chung, Manfred Honeck, Roberto Abbado, Jaap van Zweden

Find further information about Giorgio Berrugi here.

Performances

• Luisa Miller

photo: Alessandro Moggi

Baritone

George Gagnidze

Birthplace:
Tbilisi, Georgia

Studies:
Tbilisi State Conserva

Prizes:
Winner of the “Voci Verdiane” competition in Busseto, of the “Leyla Gencer Voice Competition” and the “Elena Obraztsova Competition”

Important parts:
Rigoletto, Nabucco, Macbeth, Simon Boccanegra, Falstaff, Iago (Otello), Germont (La traviata), Scarpia (Tosca), Michele (Il tabarro), Carlo Gérard (Andrea Chénier), Tonio (Pagliacci), Barnaba (La Gioconda), Shaklovity (Khovanshchina) et al.

Stages:
Metropolitan Opera in New York, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Vienna State Opera, Staatsoper and Deutsche Oper Berlin, Gran Teatro del Liceu, Teatro Real Madrid, Palau de les Arts Valencia, San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Dallas Opera, Washington National Opera, Teatro San Carlo of Naples, Arena di Verona, BBC Proms, Festival of Aix-en-Provence, et al.

Cooperations with directors:
Luc Bondy, Robert Carsen, Liliana Cavani, Edoardo De Angelis, Giancarlo Del Monaco, Andreas Homoki, David McVicar, Ferzan Ozpetek, Francesca Zambello et al.

Cooperations with conductors:
Semyon Bychkov, James Conlon, Gustavo Dudamel, Mikko Franck, Jesús López-Cobos, James Levine, Fabio Luisi, Nicola Luisotti, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Gianandrea Noseda, Daniel Oren, Kirill Petrenko, Yuri Temirkanov, et al.

Performances

• Luisa Miller

photo: Dario Acosta

Soprano

Narea Son

Birthplace:
Seoul, South Korea

Studies:
Bachelor's degree at Seoul National University, master's degree opera and concert exam opera at Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg

Master class:
with Edita Gruberová, Jaume Aragall, Cheryl Studer, Mariella Devia, Thomas Quastoff, Edda Moser, Brigitte Fassbaender und Joyce DiDonato at Carnegie Hall in New York with Live Stream by Arte TV, et al.

Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Ensemble member of the Hamburg State Opera since the 2019/20 season
Was a member of the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera 2016/17 and 2017/18

Important parts:
Adele (Die Fledermaus), Pamina (Erzittre, feiger Bösewicht!, Neufassung der Zauberflöte von J. Harneit), Marzelline (Fidelio), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Katze Ivanka ( U.A. Katze Ivanka ), Ljusja (Moskau, Tscherjomuschki ), Marthe, Sorge, Seliger Knabe und Sopran Solo ( Szenen aus Goethes Faust), Javotte (Manon), Echo (Ariadne auf Naxos), Oberto (Alcina), et al.

Stages:
Hamburgische Staatsoper, Theater Bremen, Sejong Center (Seoul Metropolitan Opera), Shanghai Grand Theater, Geumho-Konzerthalle, et al.

Cooperation with directors:
Achim Freyer, Philipp Stölzl, Georges Delnon, Vera Nemirova, David Bösch, BARBE&DOUCET et al.

Cooperation with conductors:
Kent Nagano, Alexander Joel, Johannes Fritzsch, Massimo Zanetti, Christopher Moulds, Renato Palumbo, Axel Kober, Jonathan Darlington, et al.

Performances

• Carmen
• Jubiläumsgala: 30 Jahre Internationales Opernstudio
• Don Giovanni
• Luisa Miller
• Manon

photo: Sangdon Lee

Bass

Brindley Sherratt

Birthplace:
Lancashire, United Kingdom

Studies:
Trumpet at the Royal Academy of Music

Important parts:
Claggart (Billy Budd), Gurnemanz (Parsifal), Hunding (Die Walküre), Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), Rocco (Fidelio), Doktor (Wozzeck), Swallow (Peter Grimes), Harapha (Samson), Sparafucile (Rigoletto), Gremin (Eugene Onegin), Fafner (The Ring Cycle), Ramfis (Aida) , Il Commendatore (Don Giovanni), Timur (Turandot), et al.

Stages:
Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Royal Opera House, Bayerische Staatsoper, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Welsh National Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Hamburgische Staatsoper, Dutch National Opera, Teatro Réal in Madrid, BBC Proms, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Wigmore Hall, et al.

Cooperations with directors:
Oliver Mears, Stefan Herheim, et al.

Cooperations with conductors:
Omer Meir Wellber, Edward Gardner, Laurence Cummings, Thomas Hengelbrock, Maxim Emelyanychev, Richard Farnes, Fabio Luisi, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Mark Elder, John Nelson, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, et al.

Performances

• Luisa Miller

photo: Gerard Collett

Mezzo-soprano

Kristina Stanek

Birthplace:
Krefeld, Germany

Studies:
Master studies with distinction at the Royal Academy of Music, London

Prizes:
Best young singer at the European Music Festival in Rome, Italy; 1st prize at the Mozart Competition in Prague, Czech Republic; 1st prize at the Rotary Music Competition, Germany

Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Ensemble member of the Hamburg State Opera since season 2020/21

Important parts:
Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde), Prinzessin Eboli (Don Carlos), Azucena (Il trovatore), Carmen (Carmen), Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), 2. Norn (Götterdämmerung), Maddalena (Rigoletto), et al.

Stages:
Staatsoper Hamburg, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Semperoper Dresden, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Theater Basel, et al.

Cooperation with directors:
Hans Neuenfels, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Michael Thalheimer, Lydia Steier, Yuval Sharon, David Bösch, Sebastian Baumgarten, Barbara Frey, et al.

Cooperation with conductors:
Kent Nagano, Christian Thielemann, Marco Armiliato, Philipp Jordan, Antonello Manacorda, Marek Janowski, Ivor Bolton, Marc Albrecht, Giampaolo Bisanti, Axel Kober, Jonathan Darlington, Erik Nielsen, Kristiina Poska, Joana Mallwitz, Titus Engel, Christopher Moulds, Gianluca Capuano, Jonathan Stockhammer, David Parry, Christian Curnyn, Michele Spotti, Thomas Guggeis, et al.

Find further information about Kristina Stanek here.

Performances

• Luisa Miller
• Eugene Onegin
• Il trovatore

photo: Felix Grünschloß

Mezzo-soprano

Nora Kazemieh

Birthplace:
Hamburg, Germany

Studies:
Bachelor with Dr. Deborah Massell at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, New York
Master Opera with Prof. Yvi Jänicke at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama

Master classes:
Marek Rzepka, Claudia Visca (International Singer Academy Michaelstein), Hedwig Fassbender (Exzellenz-Labor Gesang), Ulrike Sonntag (European Academy of the Arts), Christiane Iven, Angela Denoke (HfMT Hamburg)

Prizes:
2nd prize at the Elise Meyer Competition
3rd prize at the Mozart Competition of the Absalom Foundation Hamburg

Important parts:
Rinaldo (Rinaldo), L'enfant (L'enfant et les sortilèges), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Wahrheit (Der Triumph von Zeit und Wahrheit), Floßhilde (Das Rheingold), Siegrune (Die Walküre), Zweite Waldelfe (Rusalka), et al.

Stages:
Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Volkstheater Rostock, Elbphilharmonie, Opernloft, Oper Oder-Spree, Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, et al.

Cooperations with directors:
Lars Franke, Daniela Kerck, Christian Poewe, Carleen Graham, et al.

Cooperations with conductors:
Bettina Rohrbeck, Willem Wentzel, Michael Guettler, Philipp Pointner, et al.

Performances

• Luisa Miller

Tenor

Ziad Nehme

Birthplace:
Tripoli, Libanon

Studies:
Diploma in Singing at the Lebanese National Conservatory in Beirut, Master in Opera at the University Mozarteum Salzburg

Master classes:
with Siegfried Jerusalem, Kurt Moll, Barbara Bonney, Andrew Watts, Marjana Lipovsek

Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Member of the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera from 2008/09 to 2009/10

Important parts:
Conte Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Arbace (Arbace), Basilio (Le Nozze di Figaro), Alfred (Die Fledermaus), Camille de Rosillon (Die lustige Witwe), Boni (Die Csárdásfürstin), Male Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia), Schwan (Carmina Burana), Nerone (Agrippina), Oronte (Alcina), Truffaldino (Die Liebe zu drei Orangen), Marquis (Spieler), 1. Jude (Salome), et al.; zeitgenössisches Repertoire: Uraufführungen Esame di mezzanotte (Lucia Ronchetti), L’ombre de Venceslao (Martin Matalon), Anoia (Gordon Kampe) sowie Werke von Brett Dean, Giacinto Scelsi, Georges Aperghis

Stages:
Hamburgische Staatsoper, Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Staatstheater Kassel, Stadttheater Bremerhaven, Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, Theater Kiel, Staatstheater Darmstadt, Staatstheater Mainz, Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, Opéra de Marseille, Opéra de Montpellier, Opéra de Rennes, Opéra de Marseilles, Opéra de Reims, Göteborg Konserthuset, Teatro Real Madrid, Shanghai Grand Theatre, Philharmonie de Paris, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Berliner Philharmonie, et al.

Cooperations with directors:
Hans Neuenfels, Tatjana Gürbaca, Achim Freyer, Lydia Steier, Harry Kupfer, Tilman Knabe, Sasha Waltz, Markus Bothe, et al.

Cooperations with conductors:
Daniel Barenboim, Valery Gergiev, Simone Young, Dan Ettinger, Kent Nagano, Alessandro De Marchi, Lorenzo Viotti, Alexander Soddy, Stefan Soltesz, Barbara Hannigan, et al.

Find further information about Ziad Nehme here.

Performances

• Kannst du pfeifen, Johanna
• Luisa Miller

Orchestra

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, 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.

Performances

• Rathausmarkt Open Air
• 1st Academy Concert - Program I
• 1st Academy Concert - Program II
• 1st Academy Concert - Program III
• 4th Academy Concert
• Trionfi
• Carmen
• The Times Are Racing
• 1st Philharmonic Concert
• Kannst du pfeifen, Johanna
• Boris Godunov
• Special chamber concert
• Tosca
• Jubiläumsgala: 30 Jahre Internationales Opernstudio
• La clemenza di Tito
• Orchesterprobenbesuch
• 2nd Philharmonic Concert
• Don Giovanni
• Jane Eyre
• 3rd Philharmonic Concert
• Elektra
• Der Freischütz
• Luisa Miller
• La Bohème
• Slow Burn
• 4th Philharmonic Concert
• Hänsel und Gretel (Hansel and Gretel)
• Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)
• The Nutcracker
• New Year's Eve concert
• Der fliegende Holländer
• 5th Philharmonic Concert
• THE ART OF Lise Davidsen
• Die Kreide im Mund des Wolfs
• Ariadne auf Naxos
• Manon
• 6th Philharmonic Concert
• Les Contes d'Hoffmann
• Mitridate, re di Ponto
• Eugene Onegin
• 7th Philharmonic Concert
• PhiSch - das Staatsorchester hautnah...
• Don Pasquale
• Rigoletto
• Maria Stuarda
• La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West)
• Il trovatore
• Falstaff
• 8th Philharmonic Concert
• La Traviata
• The Odyssey
• Parsifal
• Pique Dame
• Opening concert of the Hamburg International Music Festival
• Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank
• Romeo and Juliet
• Die dunkle Seite des Mondes
• Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde)
• 9th Philharmonic Concert
• Salome
• National Youth Ballet
• Nijinsky
• Frühlings Erwachen
• Così fan tutte
• Le Nozze di Figaro
• 10th Philharmonic Concert
• Demian
• Nijinsky Gala L

photo: Foto: Felix Broede

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.

Performances

• Rathausmarkt Open Air
• Hamburg Theatre Night
• Trionfi
• Carmen
• Tosca
• La clemenza di Tito
• Der Freischütz
• Luisa Miller
• La Bohème
• Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)
• Der fliegende Holländer
• Manon
• Les Contes d'Hoffmann
• Eugene Onegin
• Don Pasquale
• Rigoletto
• Maria Stuarda
• La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West)
• Il trovatore
• Falstaff
• La Traviata
• Parsifal
• Pique Dame
• Die dunkle Seite des Mondes
• Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde)
• Così fan tutte
• Le Nozze di Figaro

photo: Niklas Marc Heinecke