Richard Wagner | Parsifal
Musikalische Leitung
Patrick Hahn
Conductor
Birthplace:
Graz, Vienna
Studies:
University of Music and Performing Arts Graz/Kunstuniversität Graz (KUG)
Prizes:
Various awards, Chicago Jazz Festival
“Outstanding Soloist Award – Best Jazz Pianist”, 37th Annual Jazz Festival, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Career stages:
General Music Director: Sinfonieorchester und Oper Wuppertal
Principal Guest Conductor: Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Principal Guest Conductor: Royal Scottish National Orchestra (from 2024/25)
Previously Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Advisor: Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic (2021-2023)
Stages:
Zürich Opera, Opera Frankfurt
Cooperation with orchestras:
Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, Deutsche Symphony Orchester Berlin, Bamberg Symphony, Wiener Symphoniker, et al.
More about Patrick Hahn
photo: C&G Pictures
Amfortas
Christoph Pohl
Baritone
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
More about Christoph Pohl
Titurel
Han Kim
Bass
Birthplace:
Pohang, South Korea
Studies:
Bachelor, Seoul National University with Kwangchul Youn; Master Vocal performance, Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe with Christian Elsner; Soloist’s Diploma Vocal performance, Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe with Christian Elsner
Master class:
with Ann Murray, Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe (2019), with David Selig, Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe (2019)
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Ensemble member of the Hamburg State Opera since the 2023/24 season
Was Member of the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera 2021/22 and 2022/23
Important parts:
Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Leporello/Masetto (Don Giovanni), Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Sprecher (Die Zauberflöte), Il conte Rodolfo (La sonambula), Don Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Don Fernando (Fidelio), Colline (La Bohème), Zuniga (Carmen)
Stages:
Theater Heidelberg
Cooperation with directors:
Sonja Trebes
Cooperation with conductors:
Dietger Holm
photo: Johannes Xaver Zepplin
Gurnemanz
Kwangchul Youn
Bass
Birthplace:
Cheongju, South Korea
Important parts:
Gurnemanz (Parsifal), Daland (Der fliegende Holländer), Pogner (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), Jacopo Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra), Hunding (Die Walküre), Conte des Grieux (Manon), Ramfis (Aida), et al.
Stages:
Vienna State Opera, Opéra de Paris, Berlin State Opera, Bayreuth Festival, Salzburg Festival, Salzburg Easter Festival, Metropolitan Opera New York, Tongyeong Festival, et al.
Cooperations with directors:
Harry Kupfer, et al.
Cooperations with conductors:
Daniel Barenboim, René Jacobs, Bertrand de Billy, Semyon Bychkov, Kirill Petrenko, et al.
More about Kwangchul Youn
photo: Kwangchul Youn
Parsifal
Benjamin Bruns
Tenor
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.
More about Benjamin Bruns
photo: Sara Schöngen
Klingsor
Mark Stone
Baritone
Studies:
Singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Prizes:
Decca Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards (1998)
Important parts:
Wotan (Die Walküre), Gunther (Götterdämmerung), Alberich (Das Rheingold), White Knight (Alice’s Adventures Underground), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Balstrode (Peter Grimes), Protector (Written on Skin), Ford (Falstaff), Germont Pere (La Traviata), Gianni Schicchi (Gianni Schicchi), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), et al.
Stages:
Grand Théâtre de Genève, Longborough Festival, Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera, Valencia Palau de les Arts, Copenhagen Opera Festival, Queensland Opera, Mariisnky Theatre St Petersburg, Philadelphia Opera, Santa Fe Opera, et al.
photo: Simon Fowler
Kundry
Iréne Theorin
Birthplace:
Södra Hestra, Sweden
Studies:
Vocal performance at the Music Academy and Royal Opera School in Copenhagen
Prizes:
Singer of the Year in Spain for Brünnhilde in “Die Walküre” in Barcelona 2014
Order of the Dannebrog by Queen Margrethe ll of Denmark
Important parts:
Brünnhilde (Die Walküre), Brünnhilde (Götterdämmerung), Turandot (Turandot), Valencia (Elektra), Isolde (Tristan und Isolde), Färberin (Die Frau ohne Schatten), Ortrud (Lohengrin), Gioconda (La Gioconda), Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana)
Stages:
Teatro alla Scala, Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Berliner Staatsoper, Wiener Staatsoper, Salzburg Festival, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opera de Paris, Semperoper Dresden, Bayreuth Festival, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Royal Swedish Opera, The New National Theatre Tokyo, Dutch National Opera, Opera Vlaanderen, Teatro Real Madrid, Oper Leipzig, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Wagner Festival in Budapest, Théâtre de la Monnaie, Oper Stuttgart, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Arena di Verona, The Royal Danish Theatre, The Mikhailovsky Theatre et al.
Cooperations with directors:
Fura del Baus, Katie Mitchell et al.
Cooperations with conductors:
Daniel Barenboim, Mikko Franck, David Alden, Sir Simon Rattle, Marek Janwoski et al.
More about Iréne Theorin
photo: Chris Gloag
2. Gralsritter
Hubert Kowalczyk
Bass
Birthplace:
Radom, Poland
Studies:
Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin with Prof. Martin Bruns and Prof. Dr. Michail Lanskoi; Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali "Pietro Mascagni" in Livorno with Prof. Graziano Polidori; Young Talents Development Program - Opera Academy in Warsaw
Master class:
Lioba Braun, Helmut Deutsch, Brigitte Fassbaender, Tomasz Konieczny, Bogdan Makal, Olga Pasiecznik, Eytan Pessen, Rudolf Piernay, Matthias Rexroth, Harald Stamm, et al.
Important parts:
Bartolo (Le nozze di Figaro), Collatinus (The Rape of Lucretia), Colline (La Bohème), Crespel (Les Contes d'Hoffmann), Haly (L'italiana in Algeri), Nourabad (Les Pêcheurs de perles), Oroveso (Norma), Pistola (Falstaff), Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), Zuniga (Carmen), et al.
Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Ensemble member of the Hamburg State Opera since the 2021/22 season
Member of the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera from 2019/20 to 2021/22
Stages:
Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Zurich Opera House, Bregenz Festival, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatr Wielki - Opera Narodowa, Opera Rara Festival in Krakow, et al.
Cooperation with directors:
Calixto Bieito, David Bösch, Frank Castorf, Petra Deidda, Brigitte Fassbaender, Herbert Fritsch, Alexander Riemenschneider, Dmitri Tcherniakov, et al.
Cooperation with conductors:
Matteo Beltrami, Bertrand de Billy, Giampaolo Bisanti, Jonathan Brandani, Daniele Callegari, Paolo Carignani, Nicholas Carter, Vladimir Conta, Axel Kober, Volker Krafft, Carlo Montanaro, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Kent Nagano, Ivan Repušić, Sébastien Rouland, Robin Ticciati, Keri-Lynn Wilson, Lidiya Yankovskaya, et al.
More about Hubert Kowalczyk
photo: Martina Cyman
Blumenmädchen I, 1
Yeonjoo Katharina Jang
Soprano
Birthplace:
Pohang, South Korea
Studies:
Bachelor’s degree in singing at the Seoul National University with Heion Seo, Master’s degree in singing at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar with Marietta Zumbült owning a DAAD scholarship
Prizes:
First prize at the Piero Boni international singing contest (2020), second prize at the Anton Rubinstein internhational music competition (2019), first prize at the Vienna Grand Prize Virtuoso international music competition (2019), special award at the international music competition Paris (2019), second prize at the korean singing competition (2016), first prize at the international singing competition of the korean singing club (2015), third prize at the Dong-A music competition (2015), u. a.
Refernce to the Staatsoper:
Member of the international opera studio at the Staatsoper Hamburg since the 2022/23 season
Master classes:
with Samuel Yoon (2021), Edda Moser (2019)
Important parts:
Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Königin der Nacht / Erste Dame / Papagena (Die Zauberflöte),
Gilda (Rigoletto), Olympia (Les Contes d‘Hoffmann), Ida (Die Fledermaus)
Stages:
Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, Daegu Opernhaus, et al.
Cooperations with directors:
Christian Weise, Roman Hovenbitzer, Stephanie Koch, et al.
Cooperations with conductors:
Stefan Lano, Joongbae Jee,et al.
photo: Jörn Kipping
Orchester
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg
Orchestra
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.
More about Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg
photo: Foto: Felix Broede
Chor
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.
photo: Niklas Marc Heinecke
