Gaetano Donizetti | Maria Stuarda
Sun, Feb. 15, 2026, 7.00 pm - 10.00 pm
Cast

Musikalische Leitung
Stefano Montanari

Chorleitung
Alice Meregaglia

Alice Meregaglia
Biography will be published shortly.
Performances

Elisabetta
Raffaella Lupinacci

Mezzo-soprano
Raffaella Lupinacci
Birthplace:
Acri, Italy
Studies:
Conservatorio Stanislao Giacomantonio, Cosenza
Masterclasses with, among others, Mirella Freni
Prizes:
ASLICO 2012
Accademia Rossiniana Pesaro 2012, et al.
Important parts:
Tancredi (Tancredi), Melibea (Il Viaggio a Reims), Angelina (La Cenerentola), Doralice (La Gazetta), Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Carlotta (Torvaldo e Dorliska), Jane Seymour (Anna Bolena), Adalgisa (Norma), Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Leonora (La Favorita), Sara (Devereux), Elisabetta (Maria Stuarda), Carmen (Carmen),Fenena (Nabucco), Arturo (Rosmonda d’Inghilterra), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Cherubino (Nozze di Figaro), Donna Elvia (Don Giovanni), Suzuki (Madame Butterfly), et al.
Stages:
Théâtre la Monnaie, Brussels, Rossini Opera Festival, ROF Pesaro, Muskat, Royal Opera House, Theatro Massimo, Palermo, Amsterdam Opera, Teatro Carlo Felice , Genova, Opera House of Menorca, the opera houses of Lima and Seoul, Teatro Petruzzelli, Bari, Teatro San Carlo, Naples, Teatro Comunale, Bologna, Donizetti Festival, Bergamo, Wexford Festival, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, et al.
Cooperations with directors:
Mario Martone, Moshe Leiser, Allex Aguilera, Olivier Fredj, Rosetta Cucchi, Davide Livermore, et al.
Cooperations with conductors:
Alberto Zedda, Michele Mariotti, Daniel Oren, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Gabriele Ferro, Giampaolo Bisanti, Francesco Lanzillotta, Sesto Quatrini, Jader Bignamini, Michele Gamba, et al.
Performances
photo: Victor Santiago

Maria Stuarda
Mariangela Sicilia

Anna Kennedy
Elizaveta Kulagina

Elizaveta Kulagina
Biography will be published shortly.
Performances

Roberto, Graf von Leicester
Oleksiy Palchykov

Tenor
Oleksiy Palchykov
Birthplace:
Kiev, Ukraine
Studies:
At the Vocal Faculty of the Petro Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine, Atelier Lyrique of the Opéra National de Paris
Prizes:
Grand Prix of the XVI International Lydia Abramova Vocal Student’s Competition “Bella voce” in Moscow, special prize of the Jury at the International Vocal Competition “Debut” in Wiekersheim, Prix Lyrique du Carpeaux, Prix Lyrique de L'AROP, finalist of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Ensemble member of the Hamburg State Opera since 2017/18
Important parts:
Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Alfredo (La Traviata), Fenton (Falstaff), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Nemorino (L’Elisir d’Amore), Il Conte d’Almaviva (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Pylade (Iphigénie en Tauride), Paris (La belle Hélène), Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Male Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia), Cassio (Otello), Narraboth (Salome), Beppe (Pagliacci), Sinowi (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk), Lykow (The Tsar’s Bride), Gritsko (Sorochintsi Fair), Kudryash (Katia Kabanova), Alfred (Die Fledermaus), et al.
Stages:
The Lyon Opera house, Opera Bastille, Opera Garnier, Athénée-Théâtre, Opernhaus Zürich, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Edinburg International Festival, Garsington Festival, Bayerische Staatsoper, Komische Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Hamburg, Champs Elysees Theatre, National Opera of Monpellier, National Opera of Ukraine, M. Dzhalil Tatar Academic State Opera, Chaliapin Festival, Le Théâtre du Léman, Palazzo dei Congressi Lugano, et al.
Cooperation with directors:
Andreas Homoki, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Barrie Kosky, Calixto Bieito, Willy Decker,
Renaud Doucet/André Barbe, Mariame Clement, William Kentridge, Christophe Perton, Àlex Ollé, Laurent Pelly, Olivier Py, et al.
Cooperation with conductors:
Nello Santi, Philippe Jordan, Kent Nagano, Visiliy Petrenko, Michael Schønwandt, Riccardo Frizza, Kazushi Ono, Paolo Carignani, Alessandro De Marchi, Daniele Callegari, Henrik Nánási, Vakclav Luks, et al.
Find further information about Oleksiy Palchykov here.
Performances
photo: Antonia Sievierova

Giorgio Talbot, Graf von Shrewsbury
Ilia Kazakov

Ilia Kazakov
Biography will be published shortly.
Performances

Lord Guglielmo Cecil
Chao Deng

Bass-baritone
Chao Deng
Birthplace:
Tianjin, China
Studies:
Vocal studies in Tianjin, China; diploma in voice at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg with Cheryl Studer; master studies with Christian Elsner and in the Lied class of Gerold Huber and opera studio at the Hochschule für Musik Weimar with Prof. Dr. Michail Lanskoi; master class exam at the Hochschule für Musik Dresden with KS Prof. Matthias Henneberg.
Master classes:
With Liang Li, Michaelis Doukakis, John Norris, KS Camilla Nylund, KS Helen Donath, KS Brigitte Fassbaender, Sonja Prina, Alberto Triola, Catherine Foster, Georg Zeppenfeld, Juliane Banse, Roberto Scandiuzzi, KS Deborah Polaski.
Awards:
Prize for Opera Singing of the Concerto Foundation Würzburg (2015), Prize Winner of the International Singing Competition of the Chamber Opera Schloss Rheinsberg (2014), Scholarship Holder of the Richard Wagner Association Bayreuth Festival (2014), et al.
Relation to the State Opera:
Ensemble member of the Hamburg State Opera since the 2020/21 season.
Important roles:
Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Escamillo (Carmen), Alidoro (La Cenerentola), Peter (Hänsel und Gretel), Fasolt (Das Rheingold), Comte Capulet (Roméo et Juliette), Häuptling Abendwind (Häuptling Abendwind), Ramfis (Aida), Gianni Schicchi/Betto di Signa (Gianni Schicchi), Papageno/Sprecher /2. Geharnischte (Die Zauberflöte), Frank (Die Fledermaus), Don Fernando (Fidelio), Schaunard (La Bohème), Herr Fluth (Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor), Kilian/Ottokar (Der Freischütz), Buonafede (Il mondo della luna), Förster (Das schlaue Füchslein), Le Duc (Romeo et Juliette), Angelotti (Tosca), Colas (Bastien et Bastienne), Priamus (Les Troyens), Antonio (Le nozze di Figaro), Marullo/Ceprano (Rigoletto), Zuniga (Carmen), De Retz (Les Huguenots), Lord Syndham (Zar und Zimmermann), Spielmann (Königskinder), Journalist (Lulu), Osias, Oberpriester (Judith), et al.
Stages:
Hamburg State Opera, Opernhaus Zürich, Bavarian State Opera, Dresden Semper Opera, German Opera on the Rhine, Dresden Philharmonic, Braunschweig State Theater, German National Theater Weimar, Dresden State Operetta, Erfurt Theater, Weimarhalle, Saar Music Festival, Shanghai Opera House, et al.
Collaboration with directors:
Peter Konwitschny, Lydia Steier, Barrie Kosky, Mariame Clément,Yona Kim, Manfred Weiß, Sabine Hartmannshenn, Hasko Weber, Anette Leistenschneider, Guy Montavon, Andrea Moses, et al.
Collaboration with conductors:
Kent Nagano, Sebastian Weigle, Stefano Ranzani, John Fiore, Stefan Soltész, Xu Zhong, Daniele Callegari, Speranza Scappucci, Giampaolo Bisanti, Ivan Repušić, Riccardo Minasi, Giacomo Sagripanti, Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, Thomas Leo Cadenbach, Moritz Gnann, Felix Krieger, Christoph Gedschold, Kristiina Poska, Tomáš Netopil, Antonino Fogliani, Omer Meir Wellber, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Stefan Lano, Martin Hoff, Georg Fritzsch, et al.
Find further information about Chao Deng here.
Performances
- Carmen
- Tosca
- Le Nozze di Figaro
- Così fan tutte
- Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)
- Hänsel und Gretel (Hansel and Gretel)
- Maria Stuarda
- Lohengrin
- Elektra
photo: Jie Chen

Chor
Chor der Hamburgischen Staatsoper

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
- Eugen Onegin (concerted)
- 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
- HOUSE WARMING CONCERT
- Das Paradies und die Peri
- Ruslan und Ljudmila
- L'elisir d'amore
- The great silence
- Lohengrin
- Madama Butterfly
- Il Barbiere di Siviglia
photo: Niklas Marc Heinecke

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
- 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
- Die Kreide im Mund des Wolfs
- Ariadne auf Naxos
- Manon
- 6th Philharmonic Concert
- Ariadne auf Naxos (concerted)
- Les Contes d'Hoffmann
- Mitridate, re di Ponto
- Eugene Onegin
- Mitridate, re di Ponto (concerted)
- Eugen Onegin (concerted)
- 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: Die Unsichtbaren
- Nijinsky
- Frühlings Erwachen
- Così fan tutte
- Le Nozze di Figaro
- 10th Philharmonic Concert
- Demian
- Nijinsky Gala L
- 1st Philharmonic Concert
- The Seagull
- HOUSE WARMING CONCERT
- Das Paradies und die Peri
- 3. Blaues Konzert
- Schulkonzert
- 2nd Philharmonic Concert
- Kids only #1: Erwachsene verboten
- Ruslan und Ljudmila
- Lady of the Camellias
- 3rd Philharmonic Concert
- Surrogate Cities
- L'elisir d'amore
- 4th Philharmonic Concert
- New Year's Eve concert
- 5th Philharmonic Concert
- Monster´s Paradise
- Kids only #2: Überall doch nirgends zuhause
- 6th Philharmonic Concert
- POINT OF NO RETURN
- The great silence
- Lohengrin
- 7th Philharmonic Concert
- Women's love and death
- Madama Butterfly
- 8th Philharmonic Concert
- Il Barbiere di Siviglia
- Special concert music festival
- 9th Philharmonic Concert
- Kids only #3: Ich zieh aus!
- Wonderland
- 10th Philharmonic Concert
- Nijinsky Gala LI
photo: Foto: Felix Broede