Die lustige Witwe

Ruben Drole, a bass-baritone, was born in Winterthur and studied at the Zurich University of the Arts. In 2004, he joined the International Opera Studio and in 2005 the ensemble of Zurich Opera House, where he appeared, among other roles, as Lucio Cinna (J. C. Bach’s "Lucio Silla"), Haly ("L’italiana in Algeri"), Argante ("Rinaldo"), Wurm ("Luisa Miller") and as Papageno in "Die Zauberflöte", conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He also made his debut as Papageno at the Semperoper Dresden in 2015. Further projects with Harnoncourt included Kezal ("Die verkaufte Braut") and Haydn’s "Schöpfung" at Styriarte Graz, Beethoven’s "Christus am Ölberg" in Vienna and Lucerne, a tour of Japan (Mozart’s "Requiem" and Handel’s "Messiah") and Leporello ("Don Giovanni") at Theater an der Wien. In the Zurich cycle of the Mozart/Da Ponte operas by Sven-Eric Bechtolf and Franz Welser-Möst, he appeared as Guglielmo ("Così fan tutte"), Figaro ("Le nozze di Figaro") and Leporello. Under Welser-Möst, he also performed the same roles with the Cleveland Orchestra. At the Salzburg Festival in 2012, he sang Achilla ("Giulio Cesare") and appeared there in 2013 in Haydn’s "Il ritorno di Tobia" and Walter Braunfels’ "Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna". In Zurich, he has sung, among others, Papageno ("Die Zauberflöte"), Alaskawolfjoe ("Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny"), Soldier ("Die Geschichte vom Soldaten"), Odysseus ("Die Odyssee"), Duchess/Caterpillar in "Alice im Wunderland" and Frank ("Die Fledermaus"). Most recently, he also appeared in the ballet evening "Nachtträume". In the 2026/27 season, he will take on the role of Baron Mirko Zeta in Lehár’s "Die lustige Witwe" for the first time.

Soprano Serafina Starke made her operatic debut at the age of 13 as Flora in Britten’s "The Turn of the Screw." She began her vocal training at the University Mozarteum Salzburg and continued her studies at the Munich University of Music, where she completed her master’s degree in 2024. She has won several awards, including the Dostal Operetta Competition in 2022 and the International ARD Music Competition and the Federal Singing Competition in 2024. In the summer of 2022, she participated in the Young Singers Project of the Salzburg Festival, performing the Princess in "Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren." The following year, she returned to the festival as Barbarina in "Le nozze di Figaro." She has appeared in productions at, among others, the Bavarian State Opera, the Bregenz Festival, the Easter Festival Baden-Baden, and the International Handel Festival at the Opera Halle. In spring 2025, she made her debut at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival in Wagner’s "Parsifal." Since the 2024/25 season, she has been a member of the International Opera Studio at the Berlin State Opera, where she has performed roles such as Frasquita in "Carmen" and Echo in "Ariadne auf Naxos." On the concert stage, Serafina Starke has sung the soprano solo in Verdi’s "Te Deum" at the Salzburg Festival. In the 2025/26 season, she will make her debut as Blonde in a new production of "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" and debut with the "St. John Passion" at the Zurich Opera House.

The Slovak tenor Pavol Breslik was a member of the ensemble of the Berlin State Opera from 2003 to 2006 and was named Young Singer of the Year by the magazine "Opernwelt" in 2005. Since 2006, he has been a regular guest at the major European opera houses. At the Vienna State Opera, he sang Lenski in "Eugen Onegin", Nemorino in "L’elisir d’amore", Don Ottavio in "Don Giovanni", and Alfredo in "La traviata". At the Bavarian State Opera, he made his debut as Gennaro in "Lucrezia Borgia" alongside Edita Gruberová, as well as Edgardo in "Lucia di Lammermoor" with Diana Damrau. At the Royal Opera House, he appeared as Lenski, Ferrando in "Così fan tutte", Don Ottavio, and Tamino in "Die Zauberflöte". At the National Theatre Prague, he made his debut as the Prince in "Rusalka". Further guest engagements have taken him to the Opéra national de Paris, the Liceu Barcelona, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Berlin State Opera, to the Salzburg Festival, to the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, to the Theater an der Wien, the Semperoper Dresden, and the Grand Théâtre de Genève. From 2012 to 2018, Pavol Breslik was a member of the ensemble at the Zurich Opera House, where he sang, among others, Števa in "Jenůfa", Don Ottavio, Nadir in "Les pêcheurs de perles", Peter Quint in "The Turn of the Screw", and Leicester in "Maria Stuarda". In 2021, he was awarded the honorary title of Bavarian Kammersänger.

Diana Damrau is a regular guest on the stages of the world’s leading opera and concert houses. Her extensive repertoire lies in the lyric and coloratura fach and includes, among others, the title roles in "Lucia di Lammermoor" and "Manon" as well as the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s "Die Zauberflöte". She regularly appears at the most important houses such as the Bavarian State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and Teatro alla Scala. Roles in Iain Bell’s "A Harlot’s Progress" and Lorin Maazel’s "1984" were composed especially for her. Diana Damrau has released numerous award-winning CD and DVD recordings. As a lieder interpreter, she regularly performs in renowned concert halls such as Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Berlin Philharmonie. She maintains a close artistic partnership with Helmut Deutsch and Jonas Kaufmann, with whom she presented a successful lieder recital tour for the third time in spring and summer of 2025, including at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Salzburg Festival. Most recently, she sang the Marschallin in "Der Rosenkavalier" on stage at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and at the Zurich Opera House. She is a Bavarian Kammersängerin, recipient of the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art, as well as the Federal Cross of Merit. Since autumn 2024, she has been teaching as a principal voice instructor at the Zurich University of the Arts.

Andrew Owens, tenor, was born in Philadelphia and studied voice at the Oberlin Conservatory. He is a prizewinner of several competitions, including the Zarzuela Prize at the Tenor Viñas Competition. He participated in the Young Singers Project of the Salzburg Festival and was a member of the Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. From 2012 to 2014 he was a member of the Young Ensemble of the Theater an der Wien, where he appeared at the Kammeroper in works including "La bohème", "La Cenerentola", "Fidelio", "Attila", "Mathis der Maler" and "La clemenza di Tito". Since then, he has returned to the Theater an der Wien as Mads in Werner Egk’s "Peer Gynt", as Snout in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream", as the Fourth Jew in "Salome", and most recently in 2021 as Jacob Glock in "Der feurige Engel", and he has performed in the title role of "Don Carlos" at the Kammeroper Wien. More recently, he has appeared as Arturo in "Lucia di Lammermoor" at the Opera Philadelphia, as Don Ramiro in "La Cenerentola" at the Irish National Opera, in Schumann’s "Scenes from Goethe’s Faust" with the Cleveland Orchestra, as Lukas in Haydn’s "The Seasons", as well as in a concert performance of "Le Rossignol" at the Salzburg Festival and as Aménophis in "Moïse et Pharaon" at the Rossini Opera Festival. Since 2021 Andrew Owens has been a member of the ensemble of the Zurich Opera House, where he has sung the Fourth Jew, Telémachos ("Die Odyssee"), Peppe ("Pagliacci"), Van Ruijven ("Girl with a Pearl Earring"), Lord Arturo Bucklaw ("Lucia di Lammermoor"), Gualtiero ("Il pirata"), Xaïloum ("Barkouf"), Lord Cecil ("Roberto Devereux"), as well as Guglielmo Antolstoinoloff ("Viva La Mamma!") and Pylade ("Iphigénie en Tauride").

Mexican tenor Rafael Rojas completed his studies at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), where he was awarded the prestigious "International Artist Diploma" scholarship. Last season, he made his debut as Rafael in Christof Loy's new production of "El Gato Montés" at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid. At the RNCM, he appeared as the Prince in the college's production of Prokofiev's "L'amour des Trois Oranges" and as the Schoolmaster in Janáček's "Das schlaue Füchslein". Forthcoming engagements include appearances at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Before his studies in Manchester, he was a member of the Mexican Opera Studio, where he appeared in Bizet's "Carmen", Massenet's "Manon", and a selection of Mexican operas by Melesio Morales, Carlos Jiménez Mabarak, and Daniel Catán. In 2022 and 2023, he won first prize at the Mexican Metropolitan Opera's regional Laffont Competition, and in 2022 he won first prize at the Carlo Morelli Zarzuela Competition at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. In 2024, he performed at the Houston Grand Opera's "Concert of Arias", and in 2026 he was awarded second prize at the Clonter Opera Competition. Since this season, he has been a member of the International Opera Studio at the Zurich Opera House.

The tenor Tautvydas Slizauskas is from Lithuania and studies voice in the class of Prof. Brigitte Lindner at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. In the 2026/27 season, he will become a member of the International Opera Studio at Zurich Opera House. Here, he will appear, among other roles, as Benvolio in Gounod’s "Roméo et Juliette", Ninetta in Puccini’s "Manon Lescaut" and Raoul de Saint-Brioche in Lehár’s "Die lustige Witwe". Further performances will take him to the Zurich stage in "La rondine", "Alice im Wunderland" and "Angels in America".

Thalia Cook-Hansen is from the USA. After studying voice in the USA and Canada, she completed her master’s degree at the Dutch National Opera Academy. She also attended masterclasses with, among others, Elliot Madore, Floris Visser and Lynne Dawson. In Amsterdam, she appeared, among other roles, as Nerina in Haydn’s "La fedeltà premiata", Fanny in Rossini’s "La cambiale di matrimonio", Bastienne in Mozart’s "Bastien et Bastienne" and Adele in "Die Fledermaus". She sang Barbarina ("Le nozze di Figaro") at the Estates Theatre in Prague as well as the First Lady ("Die Zauberflöte") and Mademoiselle Silberklang ("Der Schauspieldirektor") in Toronto. Her repertoire also includes roles such as Bubikopf in Viktor Ullmann’s "Der Kaiser von Atlantis", Singer No. 1 in Conrad Susa’s "Transformations", Amore in Monteverdi’s "Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria" and the title role in Donizetti’s "Lucia di Lammermoor". Since the 2025/26 season, she has been a member of the International Opera Studio at Zurich Opera House. Most recently, she appeared here, among other roles, in "Gianni Schicchi" and "Der Rosenkavalier". In the 2026/27 season, she will perform roles in "La rondine", "Alice im Wunderland", "Die lustige Witwe" and "Angels in America".

Guram Margvelashvili is from Georgia. He completed his vocal studies at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire in 2024. From 2019 to 2023, he was a member of the Tbilisi Opera Studio, where he performed roles including the Priest and Papageno in "Die Zauberflöte", Valentin in Gounod’s "Faust", and the title roles in "Don Giovanni" and "Eugen Onegin". He also sang Belcore in Donizetti’s "L’elisir d’amore". Guram Margvelashvili received several scholarships and was a finalist in the Giuseppe Di Stefano International Singing Competition in Sicily and the Tamar Iveri International Singing Competition in Georgia. Since the 2025/26 season, Guram Margvelashvili has been a member of the International Opera Studio at Zurich Opera House. In the 2026/27 season, he can be seen here, among other things, in Puccini’s "La rondine", Lehár’s "Die lustige Witwe", "La fanciulla del West", Verdi’s "Don Carlo" and "Angels in America".

Northern Irish soprano Hannah McKay studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the direction of Yvonne Kenny, where she sang Mrs Coyle in Britten's "Owen Wingrave" and the title role in Respighi's "Lucrezia". She has taken masterclasses with, among others, Thomas Allen, Miah Persson, Lawrence Brownlee, and Sir Antonio Pappano. In summer 2026, she covered Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" at the Grange Festival. At the Barbican Hall, she sang the role of a Slave in Strauss's "Salome" under Antonio Pappano, and the role of the Mother in "Amahl and the Night Visitors" with Heritage Opera. Previously, she appeared as a "Young Artist" at West Green House Opera, where she took on the title role in Puccini's "Suor Angelica". Her repertoire includes roles such as Donna Elvira, Fiordiligi, Natasha in "War and Peace", and Maria Stuarda. In concert, she has sung Strauss's "Vier letzte Lieder", the Requiems of Verdi and Mozart, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Mendelssohn's "Elijah", and Vaughan Williams's "A Sea Symphony", among others in Durham Cathedral. In February 2026, she won the Clonter Opera Prize as a representative of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. At the Glenarm Festival of Voice, she received the Audience Prize in 2024. She was also a finalist in 2024 at the Irish Heritage Bursary Competition and the Veronica Dunne Irish Bursary Competition.

Bass Bowen Ding is studying voice/opera at the University of Music, Drama and Media Hanover in the class of Prof. Marek Rzepka. In the 2026/27 season, he is a member of the International Opera Studio at Zurich Opera House. Here, he takes on roles including Rabonnier in Puccini’s "La rondine", Pritschitsch in Lehár’s "Die lustige Witwe" and the Flemish Deputies in Verdi’s "Don Carlo". He can also be seen in "La fanciulla del west" and "Tosca".

Cashlin Oostindië is a Dutch mezzo-soprano. She received her training at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and in Athens, as well as privately with Lauren Athey-Janka and Eva-Maria Westbroek. During her studies, she was a member of Young Opera Noord Holland, sang Marcellina ("Le nozze di Figaro"), was part of the chorus in Poulenc’s "Dialogues des Carmélites" and appeared as a soloist at the Lefkas Music Week Festival in Greece. In concert, she sang the alto parts in Bruckner’s "Requiem" and Rossini’s "Petite Messe solennelle". Together with pianist Florence van der Does, she regularly gives song recitals in the Netherlands. Since the 2025/26 season, she has been a member of the International Opera Studio at Zurich Opera House.

Barbara Grimm was born in Bern, where she also completed her acting training. In 1980, she received a scholarship from the Canton of Bern for six months in New York (singing and tap dance). This was followed by numerous engagements in Germany, including at the Theater Kaiserslautern, Theater Ulm, Theater Essen, Staatstheater Stuttgart, and Schauspiel Kiel. In 1986/87, she participated in the Musical Studio Munich (patronage: August Everding). From 2002 to 2021, she was a permanent ensemble member at TOBS (Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn), where she also worked as a director. Her major roles included Lady Milford ("Kabale und Liebe"), Queen Elizabeth ("Maria Stuart"), Ranevskaya ("The Cherry Orchard"), Maria Callas ("Masterclass"), the Old Lady ("The Visit"), Florence Foster Jenkins ("Souvenir"), and Patricia Highsmith ("Switzerland"). Barbara Grimm is also a lecturer in role work and improvisation and a voice artist for radio and TV. In 2021, she played Charlotte Tanner in the fourth season of the TV series "Wilder." In 2011, she received the Acting Award from the Canton of Solothurn.