Staatsoper Hamburg - Stück-Besetzung: Richard Wagner

Musikalische Leitung

Patrick Hahn

Amfortas

Christoph Pohl

Baritone

Christoph Pohl

Birthplace:
Hanover, Germany

Studies:
Opera singing studies at University of Music and Drama Hanover in Hanover at Prof. Carol Richardson-Smith, member of International Opera Studio of Staatsoper Hamburg (2003–2005)

Master class:
Prof. Klesy Kelly (Cologne), Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Piotr Beczala, Neal Shicoff

Prizes:
prizewinner of Bundeswettbewerb Gesang, prizewinner of Deutscher Musikrat-Wettbewerb, Schumann-Liedwettbewerbs (2008), Christel-Goltz-Preis der Semperoperstiftung (2008)

Important parts:
Papageno (The Magic Flute), Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Marcello (La Bohème), Dandini (La Cenerentola), Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Olivier and Count (Capriccio), Harlequin and Music Teacher (Ariadne auf Naxos), Frank/Fritz (Die tote Stadt ), Ottokar (Der Freischütz), Danilo (Die lustige Witwe), Dr. Falke (Die Fledermaus), Valentin (Faust), Figaro (Il Barbiere di Sevillia), Belcore (L'elisir d'amore), Schwanda (Svanda dudak), Heerrufer (Lohengrin), Lescaut (Manon Lescaut), Sharpless (Butterfly), Germont (La Traviata), Posa (Don Carlo), Guillaume Tell (Guillaume Tell), Spielmann (Königskinder), Eugen Onegin (Eugen Onegin), Amfortas (Parsifal), Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde), Johannes (Morgen und Abend), Alfonso (Die Jüdin von Toledo)

Stages:
Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Oper Leipzig, Maifestspiele Wiesbaden, Oper Frankfurt, Bayerische Staatsoper, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Wigmore Hall London, Semperoper Dresden, Teatro La Fenice Venice, Bregenz Festival, Theater an der Wien, Opernhaus Zürich, Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen, et al.

Cooperation with directors:
Johannes Erath, Klaus Guth, Peter Konwitschny, Stefan Herheim, Robert Carsen, Graham Vick, Andreas Homoki, Hans Neuenfels, Calixto Bieito, Damiano Michieletto, Jetzke Mijnssen, Lydia Steyer, Torsten Fischer, Elisabeth Stöppler, Axel Köhler, Markus Bothe

Cooperation with conductors:
Peter Schneider, Christian Thielemann, Donald Runnicles, Michael Boder, Axel Kober, Ivor Bolton, Nicola Luisotti, Giorgio Morandi, Cornelius Meister, Omer Meier Wellber, Sebastian Weigle

Find further information about Christoph Pohl here.

Performances

Titurel

Han Kim

Gurnemanz

Kwangchul Youn

Parsifal

Benjamin Bruns

Tenor

Benjamin Bruns

Birthplace:
Hanover, Germany

Studies:
University of Music and Theatre in Hamburg

Prizes:
Winner of the International Singing Competition of the Rheinsberg Castle Chamber Opera (2002), 2nd prize in the German National Singing Competition (2002), Kurt Hübner Prize of the Bremen Theater (2008), Young Talent Award of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (2009)

Important parts:
Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serial), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Tito (La Clemenza di Tito), Max (Der Freischütz), Alwa (Lulu), Loge (Das Rheingold), Erik (Der fliegende Holländer), Lohengrin (Lohengrin), Bacchus (Ariadne auf Naxos), Narraboth (Salome), Matteo (Arabella), Kaiser (Frau ohne Schatten), Herodes (Salome), Parsifal (Parsifal), Siegmund (Walküre)

Stages:
Vienna State Opera, State Opera Unter den Linden, Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Teatro Real Madrid, Bayreuth Festival, Cologne Opera, Saxon State Opera Dresden, Bavarian State Opera, Zurich Opera House, Teatro Municipal de Santiago, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Colón, Opéra national du Rhin, Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Salzburg Easter Festival, Gran Teatre del Liceu, et al.

Cooperations with directors:
Robert Wilson, Hellmuth Matiasek, Rosamund Gilmore, Jan Philipp Gloger, Barrie Kosky, Andrea Moses, Christof Loy, Katharina Thoma, David McVicar, Philipp Himmelmann, Mariame Clément, Michael Sturminger, Josef Ernst Köpplinger, Roland Schwab, Adrian Noble, La Fura dels Baus, et al.

Cooperations with conductors:
Christian Thielemann, Kirill Petrenko, Sir Simon Rattle, Simone Young, Gerd Albrecht, Christoph Eschenbach, Karen Kamensek, Adam Fischer, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Yannick Nezét-Séguin, Franz Welser-Möst, Ivor Bolton, Marc Minkowski, Daniel Harding, Laurence Équilbey, Pablo Heras-Casado, Cornelius Meister, Masaaki Suzuki, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Manfred Honneck, Alain Altinoglu, Andris Nelsons, Julia Jones, et al.

Cooperations with orchestras:
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, MDR Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian State Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Kammerorchester Basel, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Bach Collegium Japan, et al.

Find further information about Benjamin Bruns here.

Performances

photo: Sara Schöngen

Klingsor

Mark Stone

Kundry

Iréne Theorin

2. Gralsritter

Hubert Kowalczyk

Blumenmädchen I, 1

Yeonjoo Katharina Jang

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