Biography
Currently on tour with Theatre latté da’s wildly successful international tour of Peter Rothstein's All is Calm, the new year sees several significant debuts for Cuban-American tenor Andres Acosta.
Biography
Currently on tour with Theatre latté da’s wildly successful international tour of Peter Rothstein's All is Calm, the new year sees several significant debuts for Cuban-American tenor Andres Acosta.
Calendar
2024-2025 SCHEDULE
Mr. Brownlee's 2024-2025 season features multiple milestone appearances at Bayerische Staatsoper, Oper Frankfurt and Wagner Festspiele.
WOTAN
Das Rheingold
BAYERISCHE STAATSOPER
WOTAN
Das Rheingold
October 27, 31
November 3, 8, 10
July 28 & 31
2024 & 2025
With Das Rheingold, Tobias Kratzer will now stage the first part of Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk (synthesis of the arts), which will be completed in 2027. While the reception of Wagner’s music in recent decades tended to emphasise the human attributes of the gods and the entire Ring des Nibelungen often served as background for caustic critique of capitalism, the future General Manager of the Hamburg State Opera was especially interested in the motif of faith and its significance for today’s society. Because nowadays, gods tend to be relegated to a niche existence.
MACBETH
Macbeth
OPER FRANKFURT
MACBETH
Macbeth
December 1, 5, 7, 12, 22 & 29
January 1
2024 & 2025
In 1847 Verdi wrote, inspired by his idol William Shakespeare, a largely experimental score, which broke the shackles of hitherto time-honoured forms. Instead of tailoring the subject matter for the stage, as was usual, the composer made his music fit the play, which he tried to mirror as closely as possible. This resulted in a thrilling, sombre opera.
AMONASRO
Aida
OPER FRANKFURT
AMONASRO
Aida
December 8, 15 & 20
2024
Verdi's Aida depicts people, faced with conflict-laden relationships, trying to achieve their own ends but being manipulated before falling foul of pitiless structures of dominion.
The timeless central questions in the opera come to a head in Lydia Steier’s reading of the work in one to one conflicts and imposing chorus scenes. Unbelievably moving and intense is Amneris’ final prayer for peace, set alongside the unforgiving Priest’s chorus, while Aida and Radamès share one last moment of happiness before taking their leave from the world in »O terra, addio«.
HOLLÄNDER
Der fliegende Holländer
PALAU DE LES ARTS REINA SOFIA
HOLLÄNDER
Der fliegende Holländer
March 2, 5, 8, 11 & 14
2025
This production features a cast of seasoned Wagnerian voices, led by the young American bass-baritone Nicholas Brownlee as the Dutchman, a role he is performing for the first time in Europe. His incarnations of Wotan, Donner, Amfortas and Hans Sachs in Leipzig, Munich, Frankfurt and the Bayreuth Festival testify to his meteoric Wagnerian career. Elisabet Strid is one of the most sought-after Sentas in opera houses around the world (she recently performed the role for 60 performances in Covent Garden). The rest of the cast includes bass Franz-Josef Selig (Daland) and tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac (Erik). Willy Decker, well-known for his outstanding productions of La traviata and Peter Grimes, sets the curse of the Dutchman in a simple but enormous stage design dominated by gigantic, practically empty rooms, with a masterly interplay of light and shadow that accentuates the psychological aspect of the drama.
WOTAN
Das Rheingold
OPER LEIPZIG
WOTAN
Das Rheingold
February 7 and March 29
2025
To coincide with the Wagner anniversary in 2013, the Oper Leipzig kicks off a new staged production of the Ring des Nibelungen, together with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under the direction of Intendant and General Music Director Prof. Ulf Schirmer. Das Rheingold isn’t just the shortest of the four operas, but also the most comical. Gods are, after all, just like men…
SOLOIST
Das Knaben Wunderhorn
PRAGUE PHILHARMONIA
SOLOIST
Das Knaben Wunderhorn
April 27
2025
Nicholas Brownlee joins the Prague Philharmonia under the baton of Maestro Emmanuel Villaume for Gustav Mahler’s orchestrated song cycle Das Knaben Wunderhorn. The program also includes Carl Maria von Weber’s overture from Der Freischütz and Richard Wagner’s Symphony in C major, WWV 29.
AMFORTAS
Parsifal
OPER FRANKFURT
AMFORTAS
Parsifal
May 18, 24, 29 and June 1, 7, 9, 14 and 19
2025
Richard Wagner wrote his last work for the Festspielhaus he designed in Bayreuth, which opened in 1876 with his Ring des Nibelungen. He continued using Leitmotivs, as in the Ring, but differently. Whereas in the tetralogy, as in earlier operas, the plot was often influenced by violent conflict and dramatic moments of truth, the events in Wagner's »taking leave from the world piece« unfold in a different time frame, the music transcending the pseudo-religious setting by penetrating worlds no composer ever dared bring to the operatic stage before.
BASS SOLOIST
Verdi Requiem
LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC
BASS SOLOIST
Verdi Requiem
July 12
2025
Judgement Day: drums thunder, trumpets blast, and a massed chorus cries out in terror. Verdi’s Requiem might not be what you expect from religious music. But it’s exactly what you’d expect from the grand master of Italian opera, and with the full Choir joined by four world-class soloists, hold on to your seats and prepare to be overwhelmed as Domingo Hindoyan ends our season of song by taking you to the end of the world – and back again.
DONNER
Das Rheingold
WAGNER FESTSPIELE (BAYREUTH)
DONNER
Das Rheingold
July 26 and August 15
2025
Nicholas Brownlee returns to Bayreuth and the Wagner Festspiele to reprise his role as Donner in their production of Wagner's Das Rheingold.