Iván Fischer

con­duc­tor, Music Direc­tor

Con­duc­tor, com­pos­er, opera direc­tor, thinker and edu­ca­tor, anchored in the tra­di­tion of the great musi­cal poly­maths, Iván Fis­ch­er is con­sid­ered one of the most vision­ary musi­cians of our time.

His focus is always the music, and to this end, he has devel­oped sev­er­al new con­cert for­mats and reformed the struc­ture and work­ing method of the sym­pho­ny orches­tra. In the mid-1980s he found­ed the Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra, where he has since intro­duced and estab­lished numer­ous inno­va­tions. He envi­sions a pool of musi­cians serv­ing the com­mu­ni­ty in var­i­ous com­bi­na­tions and musi­cal styles.

His work as Music Direc­tor of the Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra has devel­oped into one of the great­est musi­cal suc­cess sto­ries of the last 30 years. With inter­na­tion­al tours and a series of record­ings for Philips Clas­sics and Chan­nel Clas­sics, he has earned a rep­u­ta­tion as one of the world’s most cel­e­brat­ed orches­tral con­duc­tors, for whom tra­di­tion and inno­va­tion go hand in hand.

He has found­ed a num­ber of fes­ti­vals, includ­ing the Budapest Mahler­fest, the Bridg­ing Europe fes­ti­val and the Vicen­za Opera Fes­ti­val. The World Eco­nom­ic Forum pre­sent­ed him with the Crys­tal Award for his achieve­ments in fos­ter­ing inter­na­tion­al cul­tur­al rela­tions.

He was prin­ci­pal con­duc­tor of the Nation­al Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra in Wash­ing­ton, the Opéra Nation­al de Lyon and the Konz­erthau­sor­ch­ester Berlin, the lat­ter appoint­ing him Con­duc­tor Lau­re­ate. The Roy­al Con­cert­ge­bouw Orches­tra named him Hon­orary Guest Con­duc­tor fol­low­ing many decades of work­ing togeth­er. He is a fre­quent guest con­duc­tor of the Berlin Phil­har­mon­ic, the Bavar­i­an Radio Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra and New York Phil­har­mon­ic Orches­tra.

Iván Fis­ch­er stud­ied the piano, vio­lin and cel­lo in Budapest, before join­ing the leg­endary con­duct­ing class of Hans Swarowsky in Vien­na. Hav­ing spent two years as assis­tant to Niko­laus Harnon­court, he then launched his inter­na­tion­al career as win­ner of the Rupert Foun­da­tion con­duct­ing com­pe­ti­tion in Lon­don.

After var­i­ous guest appear­ances at inter­na­tion­al opera hous­es, he found­ed the Ivan Fis­ch­er Opera Com­pa­ny. His stag­ing always sets as its goal an organ­ic uni­ty between music and the­atre. IFOC pro­duc­tions, which often spa­tial­ly con­nect the instru­men­tal­ists and singers, have been received with great acclaim in recent years in New York, Edin­burgh, Abu Dhabi, Berlin, Gene­va and Budapest.

Iván Fis­ch­er has been active as a com­pos­er since 2004, writ­ing most­ly vocal music with instru­men­tal ensem­bles. His opera The Red Heifer made head­lines across the world; the children’s opera The Gruffa­lo enjoyed numer­ous revivals in Berlin; his most fre­quent­ly per­formed work, “Eine Deutsch-Jid­dis­che Kan­tate” has been per­formed and record­ed in sev­er­al coun­tries.

Iván Fis­ch­er is founder of the Hun­gar­i­an Mahler Soci­ety and patron of the British Kodá­ly Acad­e­my. The pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Hun­gary award­ed him the Gold Medal, and the French gov­ern­ment hon­ored him as Cheva­lier des Arts et des Let­tres. In 2006 he was dec­o­rat­ed with the Hun­gar­i­an Kos­suth Prize, in 2011 with the Roy­al Phil­har­mon­ic Soci­ety Music Award and the Dutch Ovatie Prize, and in 2013 he was named an hon­orary mem­ber of the Roy­al Acad­e­my of Music in Lon­don.
Iván Fis­ch­er is hon­orary cit­i­zen of Budapest.

André Schuen

bari­tone

Maria Bengtsson

sopra­no

 Swedish sopra­no Maria Bengts­son is praised as „…excep­tion­al­ly touch­ing, with radi­ant tone…” (The Dai­ly Tele­graph), for „… a mar­vel­lous, deeply touch­ing char­ac­ter­i­sa­tion, her voice yearn­ing ever more luminously…the stage flood­ed with human warmth” (The Spec­ta­tor) and “…mag­nif­i­cent singing Swedish sopra­no Maria Bengtsson…the voice has a won­der­ful lumi­nos­i­ty — like a “halo”, a ray… high art of mes­sa di voce…” ( Frank­furter All­ge­meine Zeitung)

Maria Bengtsson´s rec­og­niz­able warm and radi­ant tim­bre is par­tic­u­lar­ly suit­able for Richard Strauss lyric sopra­no roles, like Ara­bel­la, Marschallin in Der Rosenkava­lier, Con­t­ess in Capric­cio  and Daphne. Her love for Mozart’s music has accom­pa­nied her on stage for more than 20 years in roles such as La Con­tes­sa Alma­vi­va in Le Nozze di Figaro, Don­na Anna and Don­na Elvi­ra in Don Gio­van­ni and Fiordili­gi in Cosi fan tutte.  In 2021 she added Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes to her reper­toire and has had a great suc­cess singing the role in Madrid, Lon­don and Paris.

The sea­son 2024/2025 began for Maria Bengts­son at the Roy­al Opera House in Lon­don where she sang La Con­tes­sa Alma­vi­va (Le Nozze di Figaro) and as Chris­tine in the new pro­duc­tion of Inter­mez­zo at the Säch­sis­che Staat­sop­er Dres­den. Fol­low­ing her extra­or­di­nary suc­cess as Chris­tine in Inter­mez­zo last sea­son, she returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin in the same role. The Vien­na State Opera fea­tures Bengts­son as Don­na Anna in the Don Gio­van­ni guest per­for­mance at the Opéra de Mona­co.
Maria Bengts­son returns to the Frank­furt Opera in her sig­na­ture role Marschallin in Der Rosenkava­lier and makes a guest appear­ance as La Con­tes­sa Alma­vi­va at the Münch­n­er Opern­fest­spiele. Con­cert engage­ments take the sopra­no to the Radio Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra Berlin with Bar­ber’s Knoxville, to Malmö and Ham­burg with Strauss’ Four Last Songs, both under the baton of Bertrand de Bil­ly, to the Sym­phonieorch­ester des Bay­erischen Rund­funks under Simone Young with Zem­lin­sky’s Lyric Sym­pho­ny and to the Sin­ga­pore Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra with Mahler’s Sym­pho­ny No. 2.

Maria Bengts­son has worked with con­duc­tors such as Kir­il Petrenko, Daniel Baren­boim, Sebas­t­ian Wei­gle, Vladimir Jurows­ki, Thomas Hen­gel­brock, Bertrand de Bil­ly, Sir Don­nald Run­ni­cles, Sir Mark Elder, Adam Fis­ch­er, Simon Young, Antonel­lo Man­a­cor­da, Ash­er Fisch, Michael Gie­len, Marc Minkows­ki, Gus­ta­vo Dudamel, Ivor Bolten, Ric­car­do Muti, Phillip Jor­dan and Loren­zo Viot­ti and with direc­tors such as Deb­o­rah Warn­er, Cal­ix­to Bieto, Sir David McVicar, Tobias Kratzer, Peter Kon­witschny, Claus Guth, Kei­th Warn­er, Alex Ranisch, Jan Philipp Gloger, Hans Neuen­fels, Andreas Homo­ki, Vin­cent Bous­sard, Philippe Arlaud, Dim­itri Tch­er­ni­akov, Kasper Holten, Sebas­t­ian Baum­garten, Her­bert Fritsch, Jonathan Miller and Mar­co Arturo Marel­li.

Maria Bengts­son stud­ied singing at the Uni­ver­si­ty in Freiburg in Breis­gau 1995 – 2000. 2000 – 2002 she was a mem­ber of the Volk­sop­er in Vien­na and from 2002 – 2007 she was in the ensem­ble of the Komis­che Oper in Berlin and sang all her impor­tant Mozart roles under the baton of Kir­il Petrenko.

Luca Pisaroni

bass-bari­tone

Ital­ian bass-bari­tone Luca Pis­a­roni has estab­lished him­self as one of the most charis­mat­ic and ver­sa­tile singers per­form­ing today. Since his debut with the Vien­na Phil­har­mon­ic at the Salzburg Fes­ti­val, led by Niko­laus Harnon­court, Pis­a­roni has con­tin­ued to bring his com­pelling artistry to the world’s lead­ing opera hous­es and con­cert halls.

Recent engage­ments include his debut as Dr. Dul­ca­ma­ra in Donizetti’s Elisir d’Amore at Seat­tle Opera, Enri­co VIII in Anna Bole­na at Opern­haus Zürich, the Four Vil­lains in Offenbach’s Les Con­tes d’Hoffmann at Teatro alla Scala, Basilio in Rossini’s Il Bar­bi­ere di Siviglia at Los Ange­les Opera and the Title Role in Don Gio­van­ni at Hous­ton Grand Opera.
Mr. Pisaroni’s diverse reper­toire includes por­tray­als of Golaud in Pel­leas et Melisande at the Opéra Nation­al de Paris and Staat­sop­er Berlin, Méphistophélès in Gounod’s Faust at Teatro Real and Hous­ton Grand Opera, Méphistophélès in Berlioz’s La Damna­tion de Faust with the Pitts­burgh Orches­tra, Don Rodrigue in the world pre­miere of Marc-André Dalbavie’s Le Souli­er de satin with Opéra nation­al de Paris, Mahomet II in Le Siège de Corinthe at the Rossi­ni Opera Fes­ti­val in Pesaro; the young Loren­zo da Ponte in the world pre­miere of Tarik O’Regan’s The Phoenix at Hous­ton Grand Opera, Con­te Rodol­fo in Bellini’s La Son­nam­bu­la and Mustafà in L’italiana in Algeri at Wiener Staat­sop­er; Gior­gio in I Puri­tani and Cal­iban in The Enchant­ed Island at the Met; Pizarro in Fide­lio at Teatro alla Scala and Orchestre Mét­ro­pol­i­tain under Yan­nick Nézet-Séguin; Le nozze di Figaro at Opéra Nation­al de Paris, San Fran­cis­co Opera, and the Bay­erische Staat­sop­er; Lep­orel­lo in Don Gio­van­ni at Teatro alla Scala, The Met­ro­pol­i­tan Opera and Salzburg Fes­ti­val; Gugliel­mo in Così fan tutte at Glyn­de­bourne and the Salzburg Fes­ti­val; Con­te Dor­val in Mar­tin y Soler’s Il Burbero di Buon Cuore at Teatro Real; Maomet­to in Rossini’s Maomet­to II at the Cana­di­an Opera Com­pa­ny; Argante in Rinal­do at Lyric Opera of Chica­go and the title role in Cavalli’s Ercole Amante with De Ned­er­landse Opera.

In con­cert, Mr. Pis­a­roni has per­formed Beethoven’s Sym­pho­ny No. 9 and Schönberg’s A Sur­vivor from War­saw at the Laeiszhalle; Rossini’s Petite Messe Solen­nelle at the Roy­al Fes­ti­val Hall; Beethoven’s Sym­pho­ny No. 9 at the Gewand­haus and Konz­erthaus Dort­mund with Andris Nel­sons; Frère Lau­rent in Berlioz’ Roméo et Juli­ette with Michael Tilson-Thomas and the San Fran­cis­co Sym­pho­ny, Verdi’s Mes­sa da Requiem with the Col­legium Vocale Gent and Philippe Her­reweghe, Haydn’s Die Jahreszeit­en under the direc­tion of Niko­laus Harnon­court; Rossini’s Sta­bat Mater with Franz Welser-Möst; Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with Sir Simon Rat­tle and the Philadel­phia Orches­tra; Schumann’s Faust­szenen with Daniel Hard­ing and the Berlin Phil­har­mon­ic, as well as Beethoven’s Mis­sa Solem­nis with the LSO and Michael Tilson-Thomas. He has also been a fea­tured soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with Gus­ta­vo Dudamel and the Los Ange­les Phil­har­mon­ic; Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem under the baton of Edo de Waart; Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Gewand­hau­sor­ch­ester under Her­bert Blom­st­edt; Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpur­gis­nacht with the Orches­tra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, led by Pablo Heras-Casa­do; Hasse’s I Pel­le­gri­ni al Sepol­cro di Nos­tro Sig­nore and Cherubini’s Mis­sa Solem­nis under Ric­car­do Muti; and Testi’s Sacrae Sym­pho­ni­ae with the Orchestre Nation­al de Radio France.

In addi­tion to his exten­sive opera and con­cert appear­ances, Mr. Pis­a­roni has pre­sent­ed crit­i­cal­ly laud­ed recitals at Carnegie Hall, Wig­more Hall, the Teatro de la Zarzuela, the Con­cert­ge­bouw, Edin­burgh Fes­ti­val, Vienna’s Musikvere­in, Zaryadye Hall in Moscow, the Van­cou­ver Recital Soci­ety, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Pierre Boulez Saal, and the Dort­mund Konz­erthaus, among oth­er promi­nent inter­na­tion­al venues.

Mr. Pis­a­roni has record­ed for all major labels, his discog­ra­phy includes Don Gio­van­ni and Rinal­do from the Glyn­de­bourne Fes­ti­val; Così fan tutte, Don Gio­van­ni, and Le nozze di Figaro from the Salzburg Fes­ti­val; Verdi’s Simon Boc­cane­gra with the Wiener Sym­phoniker, record­ings of Don Gio­van­ni and Le nozze di Figaro with the Mahler Cham­ber Orches­tra and Yan­nick Nézet-Séguin and Beethoven’s Mass in C Major with Mariss Jan­sons. Recent releas­es include Les Con­tes d’Hoffmann with Kent Nagano, Agrip­pina with Il Pomo d’Oro, Berlioz’ Roméo et Juli­ette with the San Fran­cis­co Sym­pho­ny and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solen­nelle with the Orchestre Phil­har­monique du Lux­em­bourg and Gus­ta­vo Gimeno.

He lives in Vien­na. Gold­en retriev­er Lenny 2.0 and minia­ture dachs­hund Tris­tan are the singer’s con­stant trav­el­ing com­pan­ions.
Luca Pis­a­roni 

Miah Persson

sopra­no

Since her oper­at­ic debut as Susan­na Le nozze di Figaro in 1998, Swedish sopra­no Miah Pers­son has dis­tin­guished her­self as one of the world’s prin­ci­pal Mozart inter­preters, leav­ing a last­ing lega­cy on those lyric sopra­no roles for which she has become most cel­e­brat­ed: Susan­na, Zer­li­na Don Gio­van­ni, Sophie Der Rosenkava­lier, Pop­pea L’Incoronazione di Pop­pea and lat­er Fiordili­gi Cosi fan Tutte, Don­na Elvi­ra Don Gio­van­ni and Con­tes­sa Le nozze di Figaro.

Hav­ing ‘added a bur­nish of gold to the sil­very sopra­no that served her so well in Mozart roles’ (The Sun­day Times), Pers­son has now ‘cement­ed her place as one of the most intel­li­gent Strauss sopra­nos of our time at the peak of her pow­ers’ (Bach­track), with impact­ful role debuts as the Marschallin Der Rosenkava­lier and Count­ess Capric­cio. 

Persson’s 2023–24 sea­son high­lights includ­ed Berlioz Les Nuits d’eté in Swe­den with the Nor­rbot­ten Cham­ber Orches­tra; Beethoven Mis­sa Solem­nis with the Rund­funk-Sin­fonieorch­ester Berlin cond. Vladimir Jurows­ki; Beethoven Sym­pho­ny No. 9 & Strauss Lieder on tour in Spain with the Orchestre Nation­al de Lyon; Bach St John Pas­sion in Chica­go with Music of the Baroque cond. Jane Glover; and per­for­mances of Ver­di Requiem in Glas­gow and Edin­burgh with the BBC Scot­tish Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra cond. Ryan Wig­glesworth, at the Roy­al Albert Hall with the Roy­al Phil­har­mon­ic Orches­tra cond. Vasi­ly Petrenko and at the Nation­al Con­cert Hall Dublin with the Nation­al Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra cond. Jaime Martín. Pers­son also appeared in recital at the Vic­to­ria de los Ánge­les Fes­ti­val, Barcelona with Joseph Mid­dle­ton, at Oxford Inter­na­tion­al Song Fes­ti­val and the Prague Spring Fes­ti­val with Mal­colm Mar­tineau and at London’s Wig­more Hall with Mag­nus Svens­son. 
 
Persson’s 2024–25 sea­son high­lights include Strauss Vier let­zte Lieder at New York’s Lin­coln Cen­ter with the New York Phil­har­mon­ic Orches­tra cond. Sant­tu-Matias Rou­vali, at the Muziekge­bouw Eind­hoven with the Bergen Phil­har­mon­ic Orches­tra cond. Sir Mark Elder and in Paler­mo with the Orches­tra Sin­fon­i­ca Sicil­iana cond. Har­mat Haenchen. She also gives con­cert per­for­mances of Marschallin Der Rosenkava­lier with the Tokyo Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra cond. Jonathan Nott at Sun­to­ry Hall and Muza Kawasa­ki Sym­pho­ny Hall, Mahler Sym­pho­ny No. 4 with the Aal­borg Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra and Mahler Sym­pho­ny No. 2 with the Boston Phil­har­mon­ic Orches­tra cond. Ben­jamin Zan­der. Recital appear­ances include a Schu­bert and Liszt pro­gramme at London’s Wig­more Hall with tenor Stu­art Jack­son and pianist Julius Drake and a per­for­mance with pianist Mag­nus Svens­son at the Stock­holm Kon­serthuset. Future plans include appear­ances with the Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra.  
 
Through­out her dis­tin­guished career, Pers­son has per­formed Fiordili­gi Cosi fan tutte, Gre­tel Hansel und Gre­tel and Pam­i­na Die Zauber­flöte at the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Opera; Susan­na Le Nozze di Figaro and Zer­li­na Don Gio­van­ni for the Roy­al Opera House Covent Gar­den; title role L’In­coro­n­azione di Pop­pea and Gov­erness Turn of the Screw at Teatro alla Scala; Fiordili­gi, Sophie and Susan­na at the Wiener Staat­sop­er; Gov­erness, Fiordili­gi, Don­na Elvi­ra and Anne Trulove The Rake’s Progress at the Glyn­de­bourne Fes­ti­val; Don­na Elvi­ra at the The­atre Champs Elysées and the Liceu Barcelona; Fiordili­gi at the Bay­erische Staat­sop­er, Ham­bur­gis­che Staat­sop­er, New Nation­al The­atre Tokyo, Bay­erische Staat­sop­er, in Stock­holm and for a Deutsche Gram­mophon record­ing at the Fest­spiel­haus Baden-Baden; Iris Sunken Gar­den for Dal­las Opera and L’Incoronazione di Pop­pea at Carnegie Hall. She also cre­at­ed the cen­tral role in Michel van der Aa Blank Out for the Nether­lands Opera with per­for­mances in Ams­ter­dam, Rome and the Park Avenue Armory, New York. 
 
In con­cert, Pers­son has sung Bach Mass in B Minor at Teatro La Fenice; Bach St Matthew Pas­sion with the Rot­ter­dam Phil­har­mon­ic; Beethoven 9 with the Lon­don Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra cond. Vladimir Jurows­ki at the BBC Proms; Brahms Requiem with the State Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra of Rus­sia, the Gul­benkian Foun­da­tion and the Lon­don Phil­har­mon­ic; Peer Gynt with the Vien­na Sym­pho­ny; Nel­son Mass at the Inter­na­tionale Stiftung Mozar­teum Salzburg; The Sea­sons with the Boru­san Istan­bul Phil­har­mon­ic; Mahler 2 with the MDR Mit­teldeutsch­er Rund­funk, Lon­don Sym­pho­ny, Teatro alla Scala and the Phil­har­monie Lux­em­bourg; Mahler 4 with the Basque Nation­al Orches­tra, Phil­har­monie Lux­em­bourg, Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra and Orchestre Nation­al de Lille; Des Knaben Wun­der­horn for the Gul­benkian Foun­da­tion; Mozart Requiem with the LA Phil­har­mon­ic; Schu­mann Faust Szenen with the Leipzig Gewand­hau­sor­ch­ester and Vier let­zte Lieder with the Deutsches Sym­phonie-Orkester Berlin, Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra and Mon­tre­al Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra; The Cre­ation at the Ver­bier Fes­ti­val as well as recitals at London’s Wig­more Hall, Wiener Konz­erthaus, Ams­ter­dam Con­cert­ge­bouw, Pierre Boulezsaal, Spivey Hall, the Schu­bert Club of St Paul, Cal Per­for­mances at Berke­ley, Van­cou­ver Play­house and New York’s Carnegie Hall.  
 
Miah Pers­son was appoint­ed Hov­sånger­s­ka, Court Singer, by H.M. the King of Swe­den in 2011. 

Bernard Richter

tenor

Swiss-born Bernard Richter is one of the most sought-after tenors of his gen­er­a­tion.

He gives guest per­for­mances at the most impor­tant inter­na­tion­al opera hous­es, includ­ing the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Roy­al Opera House in Lon­don, the Vien­na State Opera, Paris Nation­al Opera, the Bavar­i­an State Opera, the Teatro Real in Madrid, Zurich Opera House, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the New Nation­al The­atre Tokyo and the Salzburg Fes­ti­val.

His 2024/25 sea­son includes engage­ments such as title roles in La clemen­za di Tito under Tomáš Netopil in Gene­va and his high­ly antic­i­pat­ed role debut of Les con­tes d’Hoffmann under Kent Nagano in Ham­burg, also in Ham­burg Schönberg’s Jakob­sleit­er under Ingo Met­z­mach­er in the Elbphil­har­monie, and the Messe solen­nelle by Berlioz in Bern.

Among the great­est suc­cess­es of his career are engage­ments as Pel­léas (Pel­léas et Mélisande) in Tokyo, Don Ottavio (Don Gio­van­ni), Idome­neo and Schubert’s Fierrabras (title role) at La Scala in Milan, his debut at the Roy­al Opera House in Lon­don in the role of Tamino (Die Zauber­flöte), a new pro­duc­tion of Ari­o­dante at Moscow’s Bol­shoi The­atre, in which he took the role of Lur­ciano, and his debut at the Teatro Real Madrid in the title role of La clemen­za di Tito.

One of the most impor­tant roles in his reper­toire is Pel­léas. Bernard Richter has appeared in this role at the Vien­na State Opera, Teatr Wiel­ki War­saw, Opéra de Lyon and with the Orchestre sym­phonique de Mon­tréal, among oth­ers. His reper­toire also includes roles such as Tamino (Die Zauber­flöte), Bel­monte (Die Ent­führung aus dem Serail), Des Grieux (Manon), Hylas (Les Troyens), Béné­dict (Béa­trice et Béné­dict), Erik (Der fliegende Hol­län­der), Froh (Das Rhein­gold), Camille de Rossil­lon (Die lustige Witwe), Fritz (La Grande Duchesse de Gérol­stein), Paris (La Belle Hélène), Alphonse de Mon­za in Fer­di­nand Hérold’s Zam­pa, as well as the epony­mous roles in Lully’s Atys, Lucio Sil­la and Mitri­date.

 In addi­tion to his work on the great opera stages, Bernard Richter is also a sought-after con­cert singer. In 2023, under the direc­tion of Daniele Gat­ti, he gave sev­er­al con­certs in Rome and Turin with Mendelssohn’s Elias and Lobge­sang, respec­tive­ly. At the Bruck­n­er­haus Linz, he was most recent­ly heard in Frank Martin’s ora­to­rio Glo­gotha under the musi­cal direc­tion of Markus Poschn­er. Haydn’s Cre­ation con­duct­ed by Zubin Mehta at the Teatro del Mag­gio Musi­cale in Flo­rence, Beethoven’s Mass in C‑major con­duct­ed by William Christie in Madrid, Beethoven’s 9th Sym­pho­ny in St. Peters­burg con­duct­ed by Teodor Cur­rentzis and with the Vien­na Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra under Philippe Jor­dan, as well as appear­ances with the Musi­ciens du Lou­vre at the Salzburg Whit­sun Fes­ti­val are fur­ther exam­ples of his exten­sive con­cert activ­i­ty.

He also works reg­u­lar­ly with orches­tras such as that of the Accad­e­mia nationale del­la San­ta Cecil­ia, the Orches­tra Sin­fon­i­ca Nazionale del­la Rai, the Berlin­er Sym­phoniker, the MDR Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra, the Orchestre Phil­har­monique de Stras­bourg, and the Sev­eriges Radios Sym­fo­niorkester in Stock­holm, and has appeared on the most impor­tant con­cert stages such as the Salle Gaveau de Paris, the Ton­halle Zurich, the styr­i­arte Graz, the Gewand­haus Leipzig, the Accad­e­mia di San­ta Cecil­ia, and the Konz­erthaus in Vien­na.

Both his oper­at­ic and con­cert engage­ments have brought Bernard Richter togeth­er with the most dis­tin­guished con­duc­tors of our time, includ­ing Philippe Jor­dan, Daniel Hard­ing, William Christie, Adam Fis­ch­er, Kent Nagano, Marc Minkows­ki, Jef­frey Tate, Ivor Bolton, Niko­laus Harnon­court, Fabio Luisi, Sir Neville Mar­riner, Syl­vain Cam­brel­ing, Peter Schnei­der, Iván Fis­ch­er and Raphaël Pichon. He has worked with direc­tors such as Lau­rent Pel­ly, Christof Loy, Niko­laus Lehn­hoff, Kei­th Warn­er, Pierre-Emmanuel Rousseau, Jean-Marie Vil­légi­er, Christophe Hon­oré, Zabou Bre­it­man and Kasper Holten.

Fol­low­ing his vocal stud­ies in his home town, he tran­si­tioned to the Opera Stu­dio Biel, from where he launched his inter­na­tion­al career.

Giulia Semenzato

sopra­no

Giu­lia Semen­za­to is an inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized sopra­no espe­cial­ly for the inter­pre­ta­tion of the Baroque and Mozart reper­toire.

After grad­u­at­ing with hon­ors from the B. Mar­cel­lo con­ser­va­to­ry in Venice, she then spe­cial­ized in the Baroque reper­toire with Rosa Dominguez at the Schola Can­to­rum in Basel (Ch).

Win­ner of the Toti dal Monte di Tre­vi­so com­pe­ti­tion (2012), she made her debut in the role of Eliset­ta in Cimarosa’s “Il Mat­ri­mo­nio Seg­re­to” in the opera the­aters of Tre­vi­so, Luc­ca, Fer­rara, Pisa. Win­ner of the Farinel­li award for best baroque voice at the Bologna com­pe­ti­tion 2013 and at the Ces­ti-Com­pe­ti­tion of Inns­bruck 2014, she soon under­took an inter­na­tion­al career that saw her inter­preter in the major Euro­pean the­aters and con­cert halls such as Teatro La Fenice in the Juditha Tri­umphans and Ottone in Vil­la by A.Vivaldi’s, at Teatro alla Scala in Lucio Sil­la (2015), as Zer­li­na in “Don Gio­van­ni”, Ser­pet­ta in “La fin­ta Gia­r­diniera” by W.A.Mozart  and Nan­net­ta in “Fal­staff” by G.Verdi with Zubin Metha (2017);  “Cosi fan tutte” at Opern Zurich,  “Die Zauber­flöte” at Mus­cat Opera House, Fal­staff at Bei­jin NCPA. She was Car­oli­na in “Matromo­nio Seg­re­to” at Inns­bruck Fest­wochen (2016), Michael at Teather an der Wien in “Saul” (2018) and Dorin­da in “Orlan­do” (2019) by Han­del; Susan­na in “Le Nozze di Figaro” at the Roy­al Opera House Lon­don con­duct­ed by Sir. A.Pappano (2022); Mozart­wochen and Salzburg­er Fest­spiele (Suor Angel­i­ca 2022 and Fal­staff 2023).

Refined inter­preter of the Ital­ian sev­en­teenth and eigh­teenth-cen­tu­ry reper­toire, she has sang the role of Pop­pea in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Pop­pea at the Opera du Rhin, Venere in “Ercole Amante” at the Opera Comique in Paris, Salome in “San Gio­van­ni Bat­tista” by A.Stradella at the Con­cert­ge­beuw in Ams­ter­dam; she sang in the main roles  in the F.Cavalli operas “Ele­na” in Aix-en-Provence, Opera Comique, The­atre de Ver­sailles and  “Eritrea” at  Teatro La Fenice. In con­cert she has been invit­ed for Mozart’s Requiem (Teatro San Car­lo, Madrid, Cuen­ca), Mes­si­ah with Col­legium 1704 and Melk Stiftung with D. Hard­ing, Poulenc’s “Glo­ria” at the Teatro Regio in Turin and Car­lo Felice in Gen­o­va, “Mad­dale­na ai pie­di di Cristo” by Cal­dara at the Paris Phil­har­monie, Ham­burg Elbphi­lar­monie, Freiburg, Berlin Phil­har­monie. She sang in Sevil­la and Mar­ti­na Fran­ca with a pro­gram with Roman­tic Gui­tar togeth­er with Jad­ran Dun­cumb. She reg­u­lar­ly col­lab­o­rates with con­duc­tors such as Rene Jacobs, Gio­van­ni Antoni­ni, Raphael Pichon, Alessan­dro de Marchi, L.G.Alarcon, Vaclav Luks, Ric­car­do Minasi, D.Fasolis and oth­ers. She has worked with stage direc­tors includ­ing C.Guth, C.Loy, D.Michieletto, R.Carsen, D.Mc Vic­ar, B.Kowsky, C.Marthaler, J.Mijnnsen.

She has record­ed for the labels Accent, Arcana, Glos­sa, Har­mo­nia Mun­di, Cpo, Pen­ta­tone and her first solo album “Angel­i­ca Dia­bol­i­ca” for Alpha(Outhere). 

In 2022 she taught a mas­ter­class in baroque singing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Arts of Havana – Cuba,  and at the SMAV ear­ly music cours­es in Venice. 

Since Octo­ber 2024 she has been pro­fes­sor of his­tor­i­cal­ly informed singing at Mdw Uni­ver­si­ty in Vien­na. She grad­u­at­ed in a Bach­e­lor in Law at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Udine.

Daniel Noyola

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Daniel Noy­ola from San Luis Poto­sí, Mex­i­co is an ensem­ble mem­ber at the Bay­erische Staat­sop­er in Munich, Ger­many. There he has appeared as Pis­to­la in Verdi’s Fal­staff; as Zuñi­ga in Bizet’s Car­men and Truf­faldino in Ari­adne auf Nax­os, among oth­ers. 

He recent­ly fin­ished his res­i­den­cy at the out­stand­ing Hous­ton Grand Opera Stu­dio where he made his house debut as Colline in La Bohème and Maset­to in Kasper Holten’s icon­ic pro­duc­tion of Don Gio­van­ni, as well as star­ring in the world pre­miere of El Mila­gro del Recuer­do by J. Mar­tinez.

In 2018 he grad­u­at­ed from the Acad­e­my of Vocal Arts in Philadel­phia. There he appeared as the title role in Mozart’s Don Gio­van­ni, Fer­ran­do in Verdi’s Il Trova­tore, Don Alfon­so in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and Rai­mon­do in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lam­mer­moor.

Pre­vi­ous engage­ments have includ­ed Mustafá in Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri with Tri-Cities Opera in New York; Dul­ca­ma­ra in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore (which he per­formed with Sociedad Artís­ti­ca Sinaloense in Mex­i­co); Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, with Ober­lin in Italy; Uber­to in La Ser­va Padrona and Luka in The Bear by William Wal­ton with the Mero­la Opera Pro­gram at the San Fran­cis­co Opera; and the roles of Scapin and Der Laut­sprech­er in a dou­ble bill called “The World Turned Upside Down” that includ­ed Gluck’s L’île de Mer­lin and Ullman’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis at Wolf Trap Opera.

In 2019 he rep­re­sent­ed Mex­i­co in Placido Domingo’s Oper­alia com­pe­ti­tion. He has been award­ed first place in the Career Bridges com­pe­ti­tion in N.Y.C. and Artist Series Con­cert of Sara­so­ta Com­pe­ti­tion for Voice, sec­ond place in the New Eng­land Region­al Met­ro­pol­i­tan Opera Nation­al Coun­cil Audi­tions in 2018, sec­ond place in the Mario Lan­za com­pe­ti­tion in Philadel­phia, and third place in the AIMS Meis­tersinger com­pe­ti­tion in Graz, Aus­tria, among oth­ers.

In 2014 he com­plet­ed his stud­ies at the Con­ser­va­to­rio Nacional de Músi­ca in Mex­i­co City.

Krisztián Cser

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Krisztián Cser was born in 1977, in Szeged, Hun­gary. He grew up in a fam­i­ly of musi­cians. After leav­ing high school, he grad­u­at­ed in physics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Szeged in 2002 and began to work as a PhD stu­dent at the Insti­tute of Bio­physics of the Szeged Bio­log­i­cal Research Cen­tre. But his artis­tic roots proved strong, sci­ence was replaced by music in his life. He stud­ied clas­si­cal singing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Szeged, where his vocal train­er was István Andrejc­sik, then he attend­ed the Depart­ment of Vocal and Opera Stud­ies at the Liszt Acad­e­my, where the famous oper­at­ic singer Éva Mar­ton was his pro­fes­sor and stud­ied stage move­ment and act­ing with Balázs Kova­lik. He suc­ceed­ed in sev­er­al Hun­gar­i­an and inter­na­tion­al singing com­pe­ti­tions, either he got into finals, got a spe­cial prize, or even won.

He came out as an ora­to­rio soloist in J. S. Bach’s Saint John Pas­sion in 1998. His reper­toire includes a wide range of musi­cal styles from ear­ly baroque to con­tem­po­rary music. A wor­thy per­former of the ora­to­rios of Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Hän­del, Mozart and Ver­di. In 2019, the Hun­gar­i­an State Opera pre­miered with him a new staged per­for­mance of Hän­del’s Mes­si­ah, Mozart’s revised ver­sion.

 

In opera roles he appeared first in 2008, since when he has been a mem­ber of the Hun­gar­i­an State Opera. Dur­ing the years, his title-role singing in Béla Bartók’s Blue­beard’s Cas­tle became emblem­at­ic, he sings it in many Hun­gar­i­an and inter­na­tion­al per­for­mances suc­cess­ful­ly with the con­tri­bu­tion of renowned con­duc­tors. In some of the coun­tries dur­ing his tour around the world, the audi­ence could lis­ten to and watch this opera for the first time in his per­for­mance.

Above all, on the CD pub­lished in 2018 for the cen­te­nary of the Blue­beard’s Cas­tle pre­miere, Krisztián Cser sings Blue­beard. Besides Bartók’s opera, he has played oth­er remark­able roles on opera stages.