Staatsoper Hamburg - Stück-Besetzung: Giacomo Puccini | La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West)

Musikalische Leitung

Paolo Carignani

Chorleitung

Christian Günther

Minnie

Anna Pirozzi

Jack Rance

Claudio Sgura

Baritone

Claudio Sgura

Birthplace:
Brindisi, Italy

Studies:
In Lecce with Maria Mozzota

Prizes:
Winner of the Viterbo Singing Competition (2005) and second prize at the Verdi Competition in Busseto (2006)

Important parts:
Alfio (Cavalleria Rusticana), Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Rigoletto (Rigoletto), Miller (Luisa Miller), Scarpia (Tosca), Jack Rance (La fanciulla del West), Jago (Otello), Ezio (Attila), Il Conte di Luna (Il trovatore), Amonasro (Aida), Macbeth (Macbeth), Enrico Ashton (Lucia di Lammermoor), Marcello (La bohème), Barnaba (La Gioconda), Tonio (Pagliacci), Germont (La traviata), Giacomo (Giovanna d'Arco), Francesco Foscari (I due Foscari), Amleto (Samson et Dalila), Simon Boccanegra (Simon Boccanegra), Carlo Gérard (Andrea Chénier), et al.

Stages:
Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Petruzzellli di Bari, Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Royal Swedish Opera, Teatro San Carlo, Den Norske Opera & Ballet, Teatro Regio di Torino, Korea National Opera in Seoul, Bregenzer Festspiele, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opernhaus Zürich, Teatro La Fenice, New National Theatre Tokyo, Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro Regio di Torino, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opera di Roma, Opéra national de Paris, Teatro Regio di Parma, Teatro Lirico in Cagliari as well as performances in Melbourne, Sydney, Rom, Turin, Bejing, Salerno, Bogotà, et al.

Cooperation with directors:
Giorgio Albertazzi, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Massimo Gasparon, Piero Faggioni, Eimuntas Nekrošius und Gabriele Lavia, Keita Asari, Robert Carsen, Claudio Abbado, Hugo de Ana, Calixto Bieito, Nicola Berloffa, et al.

Cooperation with conductors:
Myung-Whun Chung, Sir Antonio Pappano, Nicola Luisotti, Daniele Callegari, Donato Renzetti, Plácido Domingo, Keri-Lynn Wilson, Bruno Apea, Renato Palumbo, Asher Fisch, Daniel Oren, Yves Abel, Valery Gergiev, Carlo Rizzi, Nello Santi, et al.

Find further information about Claudio Sgura here.

Performances

La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West)

photo: Jeff Busby

Dick Johnson

Gregory Kunde

Tenor

Gregory Kunde

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.

Performances

La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West)

photo: Sim Canetty-Clarke

Nick

Andrew Dickinson

Ashby

Han Kim

Sonora

Tigran Martirossian

Bass

Tigran Martirossian

Birthplace:
Yerevan, Armenia

Studies:
Musical studies at the Gnessin State Academy of Music with Prof. Artur Eizen and Prof. Pavel Lisitsian

Prizes:
Prize winner of nine international singing competitions, inter alia, second prize in the “Neue Stimmen” Competition in Gütersloh (1997), second prize in the 2nd International Singing Competition in Shizuoka (2000), first prize in the Ondina Otta Competition in Marburg (1999)

Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Ensemble member of the Hamburg State Opera since 2005/06

Important parts:
Ramfis (Aida), König René (Jolanthe), Salieri (Mozart und Salieri), Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra), Dulcamara (L’Elisir d’Amore), Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Sulpice (La Fille du Régiment), Colline (La Bohème), Basilio (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Selim (Il Turco in Italia), Banco (Macbeth), Pagano (I Lombardi alla prima Crociata), Daland (Der fliegende Holländer), Dossifei (Chowanschtschina), Fasolt (Das Rheingold), Rodolfo (La Sonnambula), Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor) Don Magnifico (La Cenerentola), Philippe II (Don Carlos), Méphistophélès (Faust), Fürst Galizky (Fürst Igor), Ein Eremit (Der Freischütz), Doktor (Wozzeck), Oroveso (Norma) , Pimen (Boris Godunov), et al.

Stages:
Novaya Opera Theatre of Moscow, Bolshoi Theatre, Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Opéra National de Paris, Teatro Real in Madrid, Bayerische Staatsoper, Wiener Staatsoper, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Salzburg Festival, Theater an der Wien, Bregenz Festival, Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra Bastille, St. Galler Festspiele, et al.

Cooperation with directors:
Achim Freyer, Yona Kim, Jochen Biganzoli, David Alden, Andreas Homoki, Vincent Boussard, Stefan Herheim, Florentine Klepper, Francesca Zambella, et al.

Cooperation with conductors:
Sir Colin Davis, Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Mstislav Rostropovich, Carlo Rizzi, Simone Young, Plácido Domingo, Kent Nagano, Sylvain Cambreling, Valery Gergiev, Michel Plasson, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Daniel Oren, Mark Wigglesworth, Philippe Jordan, Daniele Callegari, Riccardo Frizza, et al.

Find further information about Tigran Martirossian here.

Performances

Trin

Paul Kaufmann

Sid

Nicholas Mogg

Bello

Charles Rice

Harry

Mziwamadoda Sipho Nodlayiya

Joe

N.N.

Happy

William Desbiens

Larkens

Grzegorz Pelutis

Baritone

Grzegorz Pelutis

Birthplace:
Słupsk, Poland

Studies:
Bachelor and Masters at Academy of Art in Szczecin, both graduated with honours, Janusz Lewandowski’s singing class (2016-2021)

Master classes:
Opera Academy Young Talent Development Programme of the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera In Warsaw (since 2021):
Consant tutelage by: Izabela Kłosińska, Olga Pasiecznik, Eytan Pessen, Matthias Rexroth, Michał Biel, Katelan Tran Terrell;
Guest masterclasses: Edith Wiens, Ewa Podleś, Mariusz Kwiecień, Maciej Pikulski, Hedwig Fassbender, Tobias Truniger, Adrian Kelly, Vesselina Kassarova, Fausto Nardi, Małgorzata Walewska

Prizes:
3rd prize and Juan Pons Prize at I International Juan Pons Singing Competition - Palma de Mallorca, Spain, June 2022
2nd prize winner at 1st Swiss International Music Competition – online, July 2021
2nd prize winner and special prize winner of the Director of the K. Namysłowski Symphony Orchestra in Zamość at 7th Krystyna Jamroz National Vocal Competition - Kielce/Busko-Zdrój, Poland, February 2022
3rd prize winner at 7th National Vocal Competition in Drezdenko, Poland, November 2021
3rd prize winner in"Opera Singers" category at"Prague Romansiada" competition, Prague 2017
Only Polish contestant of Plácido Domingo's Operalia 2022

Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Member of the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera since the season 2023/24

Important parts:
Chorąży “Ensign” (Hrabina - "The Countess"), Dudziarz (Halka), The Mayor “Burmistrz” (Szarlatan, czyli wskrzeszanie zmarłych - “Charlatan, or resurrection of the dead”), Escamillo (Carmen), Archiereios (King Roger), et al.

Stages:
Teatr Wielki – National Polish Opera, The Castle Opera in Szczecin, Polish Philharmonic "Sinfonia Baltica" named after Wojciech Kilar in Słupsk, Gorzów Philharmonic, Tadeusz Baird Philharmonic in Zielona Góra, Stanisław Moniuszko Philharmonic in Koszalin, Karol Szymanowski Philharmonic in Cracow, Various concerts across Europe, e. g. Berlin, Kaliningrad, Prague, Magdeburg, Warsaw, Varna

Cooperation with directors:
Mariusz Treliński, Barbara Wiśniewska, Rafał Matusz, Jitka Stokalska, et al.

Cooperation with conductors:
Jerzy Wołosiuk, Małgorzata Bornowska, Tadeusz Kozłowski, Michał Klauza, Agnieszka Franków-Żelazny, Stefan Plewniak, et al.

Performances

photo: Jörn Kipping

Billy Jackrabbit

Mateusz Ługowski

Wowkle

Aebh Kelly

Jake Wallace

David Minseok Kang

José Castro

N.N.

Postillon

N.N.

Eine Stimme

N.N.

Orchester

Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg

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

photo: Foto: Felix Broede

Chor

Chor der Hamburgischen Staatsoper