Staatsoper Hamburg - Stück-Besetzung: Richard Strauss

Musikalische Leitung

Alexander Soddy

Musical Direction

Alexander Soddy

The British conductor Alexander Soddy was General Music Director of the Mannheim National Theater from 2016 to 2022, and further Artistic Director of the city’s “Akademiekonzerte'' through the 2022/23 season, when he also took the theater’s production of Wagner’s Ring on tour to South Korea and completed a large-scale Bruckner cycle. In the 2023/24 season, Soddy’s guest conducting will be focused in Europe's most important opera houses. To begin he will lead Kirill Serebrennikov’s new production of Lohengrin at the Opéra national de Paris, after which he will end the calendar year with an extended presence at the Vienna State Opera where he will conduct Otello, Elektra, and Haensel and Gretel. In the second half of the 2023/24 season Soddy will remain at the Vienna State Opera to conduct a new production and the Viennese premiere of Animal Farm by composer Alexander Raskatov, alongside performances of Carmen and Parsifal. Later he travels to Berlin to conduct Lohengrin at the Staatsoper unter den Linden, and then on to London to lead Così fan tutte at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Elsewhere in the season, Soddy will make his debuts with the Orchestra dell´Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Sinfonieorchester Bern.

As GMD in Mannheim, Soddy’s focus was on the core German and Italian opera repertoire. Among numerous other titles he conducted Tristan and Isolde, The Flying Dutchman, The Ring of the Nibelungen, Tannhäuser, Parsifal, Salome, Der Rosenkavalier, Tosca, La Bohème, and Turandot there. Highlights of his 2022/23 season included his debut with London’s Philharmonia on Bruckner’s 6th Symphony, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra on Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony and the Copenhagen Philharmonic on Dvorak’s 7th Symphony. Elsewhere that season he made highly successful debuts at London’s Royal Opera with Salome and Tannhäuser, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Elektra, and at the Tokyo Nikikai Theatre with La Traviata. Also during that season he returned to the Vienna State Opera with Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, The Magic Flute, Elektra and Carmen, as well as to the Berlin State Opera with Madama Butterfly and Der Rosenkavalier.

Concert invitations in recent seasons have taken him to the Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg, the Niedersächsische Staatsorchester Hannover, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, the Royal Swedish Orchestra, the Norwegian National Opera Orchestra, the Orquestra de Valencia, the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

In 2017 Soddy debuted at the Metropolitan Opera with La Bohème in 2017 after which he was re-invited for Madama Butterfly in spring 2022. In the past few seasons, he has regularly conducted at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (Die Zauberflöte, La bohème) and at the Berlin State Opera (Die Zauberflöte, Der Freischütz, la Bohème, Fidelio). Since his successful 2018 debut (Barbiere), Soddy has become a favorite guest conductor at the Vienna State Opera having led Elektra, Salome and Carmen on multiple occasions, while some of his other guest engagements have taken him to the Oper Frankfurt (Warten auf heute by Schönberg/Martin), the Royal Swedish Opera (La Bohème, Madama Butterfly), the Semperoper in Dresden (Der Freischütz) and the English National Opera (Midsummer Night’s Dream).

From 2013 to 2016 Soddy was chief conductor at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, where he led a.o. new productions of Der Rosenkavalier and Macbeth. From 2010 to 2012 he was engaged as Kapellmeister at the Hamburg State Opera, where he had debuted in the 2008/09 season with Mozart's Magic Flute and went on to conduct such titles as La Bohème, Rigoletto, Don Giovanni, La Traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor, Faust and Carmen a.o.

Soddy was born in Oxford and received his education at the Royal Academy of Music, Cambridge University and at the National Opera Studio in London.

Performances

Salome

photo: Miina Jung

Herodes

Peter Hoare

Herodias

Claudia Mahnke

Mezzo-soprano

Claudia Mahnke

Birthplace:
Crimmitschau, Germany

Studies:
Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden

Prizes:
Kammersängerin in Frankfurt and Stuttgart

Important parts:
Fricka, Waltraute (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde), Kundry (Parsifal), Magdalena (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Judit (Herzog Blaubarts Burg), Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Charlotte (Werther), Marguerite (La damnation de Faust), Adalgisa (Norma), Die fremde Fürstin (Rusalka), Marie (Wozzeck), Didon (Les Troyens), Selika (L'Africaine), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), La Muse, Nicklausse and Giulietta (Les Contes d'Hoffmann), Le Prince Charmant (Cendrillon), Simplicius (Simolicius Simplicissimus), Adriano (Rienzi), Lucretia (The Rape of Lucretia), Charlotte (Die Soldaten), La Conception (L'heure espagnole), et al.

Stages:
Frankfurt Opera, Vienna State Opera, Staatsoper unter den Linden Berlin, Bavarian State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Stuttgart State Opera, Cologne Opera, Aalto Theater Essen, Komische Oper Berlin, San Francisco Opera, LA Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera National de Lyon, Teatro Real Madrid, Opera Vlaanderen, Bayreuth Festival, etc.

Cooperations with directors:
Christof Loy, Barrie Kosky, Margarethe von Trotta, Kirill Serebrennikov, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Achim Freyer, Frank Castorf, Claus Guth, Jossi Wieler, Christof Nel, Willy Decker, Elisabeth Stöppler, Johannes Erath, Harry Kupfer, Anselm Weber, Johannes Schaaf, Uwe Eric Laufenberg, Tobias Kratzer, et al.

Cooperations with conductors:
Kirill Petrenko, Christian Thielemann, Sebastian Weigle, Bertrand de Billy, Lothar Zagrosek, Nikola Luisotti, Fabio Luisi, Donald Runnicles, Peter Eötvös, Simone Young, Erik Nielsen, Kent Nagano, Antonello Manacorda, Constantinos Carydis, Stefan Soltesz, Alejo Pérez, Patrick Summers, Steven Sloane, Paolo Carignani, Silvain Cambreling, Enoch zu Guttenberg, Michael Gielen, Herbert Blomstedt, Johannes Debus, et al.

Performances

Salome

photo: Monika Rittershaus

Salome

Vida Miknevičiūtė

Soprano

Vida Miknevičiūtė

Herkunft:
Litauen

Studium:
Magister in Gesang an der Litauischen Akademie für Musik und Theater in Kaunas, Ersamus-Stipendium an der Leipziger Hochschule für Musik „Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy“ (2003)

Auszeichnungen:
Erster Preis und Publikumspreis beim Robert-Stolz-Gesangswettbewerb „Wiener Operette“ in Hamburg, dritter Preis beim Gesangswettbewerb „Operette meine Liebe“ in Kaunas (Litauen), Stipendiatin der Barenberg-Bank für künstlerische Entwicklung Hamburg sowie des Concorso Riccardo Zandonai in Riva del Garda und Diplomandin bei Gesangswettbewerben in Litauen und Russland

Wichtige Partien:
Hebe und Phani (Les Indes galantes), Pamina und Papagena (Die Zauberflöte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Adina (L’Elisir d’Amore), Sandmännchen und Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Micaëla (Carmen), Wellgunde und Freia (Rheingold), Helmwige (Walküre), Elisabeth (Tannhäuser), Senta (Der fliegende Holländer), Elettra (Idomeneo), Eva (Eva), Lydia Ivanovna (Fatinitz), Natalie Prinzessin von Oranien (Der Prinz von Homburg), Tatjana (Eugen Onegin), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Margherita (Mefistofele), Violetta Valéry (La Traviata), Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Margarete(Faust), Blanche (Dialogues des Carmélites), Mimi (La Boheme), Ursula (Mathis der Maler), Elisabeth (Don Carlo), Die grosse Hure (Antikrist), Kaiserin (Die Frau ohne Schatten), Sylva Varescú (Die Csárdásfürstin), Irene (Rienzi), Chrysothemis (Elektra), Maddalena di Coigny (Andrea Chenier), u.a.

Bühnen:
Opernhaus Zürich, Hamburgische Staatsoper (Mitglied des Internationalen Opernstudios von 2008-2010), Staatstheater Mainz, Festival Aix-en-Provence, Theater Basel, Staatstheater Kassel, Oper Frankfurt, Oper Leipzig, Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Lettische Nationaloper, u.a.

Zusammenarbeit mit Regisseuren:
Lorenzo Fioroni, Katharina Thalbach, Johannes Schütz, Tilman Knabe, Harry Kupfer, Christof Nel, Tom Ryser, Vera Nemirova, u.a.

Zusammenarbeit mit Dirigenten:
Simone Young, Daniel Barenboim, Adam Fischer, Valery Gergiev, Alexander Joel, Eun Sun Kim, Peter Schneider und Hermann Bäumer, u.a.

Find further information about Vida Miknevičiūtė here.

Performances

Jochanaan

Christopher Maltman

Baritone

Christopher Maltman

Birthplace:
Cleethorpes, England

Studies:
Singing at the Royal Academy of Music

Prizes:
Cardiff Singer of the World Lieder Prize (1997)

Important parts:
Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Posa (Don Carlo), Simon Boccanegra (Simon Boccanegra), Falstaff (Falstaff), Conte di Luna (Il trovatore), Guy de Montfort (Les Vêpres siciliennes), Don Carlo di Vargas (La forza del destino), Rigoletto (Rigoletto), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Forester (The Cunning Little Vixen), Marcello (La Bohème), Ramiro (L’Heure Espagnole), Lescaut (Manon Lescaut), Conte di Luna (Il trovatore), Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Sid (Albert Herring), Tarquinius (The Rape of Lucretia), Alfonso (Così fan tutte ), Vitelozzo Tamare (Die Gezeichneten), Albert (Werther), Šiškov (From the House of the Dead), Eugene Onegin (Eugene Onegin), Figaro (Il Barbiere de Sivigilia), Prospero (The Tempest), Mandryka (Arabella), Ford (Falstaff), Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Oreste (Iphigénie en Tauride), Wozzeck (Wozzeck), Gawain (Gawain), Oedipe (Oedipe), Billy Budd (Billy Budd), Harlekin (Ariadne auf Naxos), Silvio (I Pagliacci), Mark Rutland (Marnie), Laurent (Therese Raquin), Beaumarchais (The Ghost of Versailles), Alfio (Cavalleria rusticana), Tonio (Pagliacci), et al.

Stages:
Royal Opera House, Salzburger Festspiele, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper München, Oper Köln, Oper Frankfurt, Wiener Staatsoper, Dutch National Opera, Théâtre du Capitole, Ravinia Festival, San Sebastian Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Glyndebourne Festival, Liceu Opera Barcelona, Opéra National de Paris, Opernhaus Zürich, Osterfestspiele Salzburg, Welsh National Opera (WNO), Teatro Regio di Torino, Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera House of National Grand Theatre Beijing, San Francisco Opera, Wiener Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Salzburg Mozarteum, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Kölner Philharmonie, Teatro alla Scala, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Cheltenham Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Schubertiade, Aldeburgh Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall, et al.

Cooperation with conductors:
Gustavo Dudamel, James Conlon, Franz Welser-Möst, Christoph von Dohnányi, John Adams, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Simon Rattle, Tadaaki Otaka, Valery Gergiev, Sir Colin Davis, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Daniel Harding, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, James Conlon, Sir Colin Davis, Kurt Masur, et al.

Performances

Salome

photo: Pia Clodi

Page

Clare Presland

Narraboth

Florian Panzieri

1. Jude

N.N.

2. Jude

Jürgen Sacher

Tenor

Jürgen Sacher

Birthplace:
Augsburg, Germany

Studies:
Church music and music education at the Leopold-Mozart Konservatorium in Augsburg, vocal studies with Leonore Kirschstein

Prizes:
Scholarship of the Richard Wagner Verband, Promotion Prize of the Hamburgische Staatsoper, appointment as Hamburger Kammersänger (2017)

Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Ensemble member of the Staatsoper Hamburg since 1991/92

Important parts:
Mime (Siegfried), Mime/Loge (Das Rheingold), Herodes (Salome), Knusperhexe (Hänsel und Gretel), Hauptmann/Andres (Wozzeck), Monostatos/1. Geharnischter (Die Zauberflöte), Maler/Prinz/Marquis/Kammerdiener (Lulu), Dr. Cajus (Falstaff), Tichon (Katja Kabanova), Truffaldino (Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen), Valzacchi (Der Rosenkavalier), David (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Junger Mann (Moses und Aron), Steuermann (Der fliegende Holländer), Peter Iwanow (Zar und Zimmermann), Pedrillo (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Walther von der Vogelweide (Tannhäuser), Goro (Madame Butterfly), Graf Elemer (Arabella), Raoul de St. Brioche (Die lustige Witwe), Novagerio (Palestrina), Orontes (Flavius Bertaridus), Asasello (Der Meister und Margarita), Tanzmeister (Ariadne auf Naxos), Graf von Kent (Lear), Reverend Adams (Peter Grimes), L´Aumonier (Dialogues des Carmélites), Aegisth (Elektra), Fedotik (Tri Sestri), Sylvester von Schaumburg (Mathis der Maler), et al.

Stages:
Hamburgische Staatsoper, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, La Monnaie, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Königliche Oper von Kopenhagen, Teatro alla Scala, Salzburger Festspiele, Theater an der Wien, Budapester Staatsoper, Theatro Municipal de São Paulo, Wagner Festival Budapest, Theater Dortmund, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Staatsoper Budapest, et al.

Cooperation with directors:
Harry Kupfer, Willy Decker, Claus Guth, Mario Martone, Achim Freyer, Géza M. Tóth, Livia Sabag, Roger Vontobel, Stefan Herheim, Karoline Gruber, Vincent Boussard, Jochen Biganzoli, et al.

Cooperation with conductors:
Adam Fischer, Bertrand de Billy, Claudio Abbado, Kent Nagano, Semyon Bychkov, Horst Stein, Christian Thielemann, Ingo Metzmacher, Michael Boder, Kirill Petrenko, Simone Young, Daniel Barenboim, et al.

Performances

photo: Martina Cyman

3. Jude

Daniel Kluge

4. Jude

Aaron Godfrey-Mayes

Tenor

Aaron Godfrey-Mayes

Birthplace:
Mansfield, United Kingdom

Studies:
Mascarade Emerging Artist (2022-2023)
Mascarade Opera Studio (2021-2022)
Advanced Diploma, Royal Academy Opera
Master of Arts, Royal Academy of Music
Bachelor of Music, Royal Academy of Music

Master class:
Allan Clayton, Royal Academy of Music
Dennis O’Neill, Royal Academy of Music
Carmen Santoro, Mascarade Opera Studio
Ann Murray
Ian Partridge, Royal Academy of Music

Prizes:
1 st place, Royal Academy of Music Pavarotti Prize
3 rd place & Wil Keune Mozart Prize, Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition
1 st place, David Clover Festival of Singing Recital Prize
19 th century Italian opera prize, Mozart Singing Competition
Prize winner, Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks Award
1 st place, Nottinghamshire Masonic Music Association Bursary

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

Important parts:
Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Flute (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Alì (Adina), Albert Herring (Albert Herring), Triquet (Eugene Onegin)

Stages:
Teatro La Fenice, Garsington Opera, Nevill Holt Opera, Königliches Kurtheater Bad Wildbad, et al.

Cooperation with directors:
Oliver Mears, Marie Lambert-Le Bihan, Noa Naamat, Douglas Boyd, Paul Curran, Federico Grazzini, Pedro Ribeiro, Jean-Romain Vesperini, et al.

Cooperation with conductors:
Philippe Herreweghe, Trevor Pinnock, Iain Ledingham, Luciano Acocella, Jonathan Santagada, Douglas Boyd, Sian Edwards, Peter Robinson, Matthew Scott Rogers, Nicholas Chalmers, Dionysis Grammenos, Tom Seligman, et al.

Performances

photo: Jörn Kipping

5. Jude

Hubert Kowalczyk

1. Nazarener

Liam James Karai

2. Nazarener

Nicholas Mogg

1. Soldat

David Minseok Kang

2. Soldat

Karl Huml

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