Die Walküre

Born in Vaasa, Finland, Camilla Nylund is one of the most internationally sought-after lyric-dramatic sopranos. She studied at the Mozarteum Salzburg, was a member of the ensemble at the Hanover State Opera from 1995 to 1999, and from 1999 to 2001 a member of the ensemble of the Saxon State Opera Dresden. Guest engagements have taken her, among others, to the Teatro alla Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, the State Operas in Vienna, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin, the New National Theatre Tokyo, De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam, the Royal Opera House London, the Opéra Bastille, to Bayreuth, and to the Salzburg Festival. Her most important roles include Elisabeth in "Tannhäuser", Elsa in "Lohengrin", Eva in "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg", Senta in "Der fliegende Holländer", as well as the Marschallin in "Der Rosenkavalier", Arabella, Salome, the Countess in "Capriccio", Ariadne, and Chrysothemis in "Elektra". At the Vienna State Opera, she sang Marietta/Marie in "Die tote Stadt", at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Marie in "Wozzeck", and at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Jenůfa. In addition to her opera work, she is a regular guest in major concert halls. She has received multiple awards, including as Saxon and Austrian Kammersängerin, the European Cultural Prize, the Lotte Lehmann Memorial Ring, and the Austrian Music Theatre Prize. At the Zurich Opera House, she made her role debuts as Isolde and Brünnhilde in "Die Walküre", "Siegfried" and "Götterdämmerung".

Eric Cutler, born in Iowa, completed his studies at Luther College and the Lindemann Young Artists Development Program at the Met. In 2005, he won the Tucker Award. He appears at international opera houses including the New York Met, the Bavarian State Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, the Paris Opera, La Fenice in Venice, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, the Canadian Opera Company, the Santa Fe Opera, as well as at the Salzburg and Glyndebourne festivals. After beginnings in the Mozart and Bel Canto repertoire as well as lyrical roles by Bellini, Donizetti, Bizet, and Gounod at, among others, the New York Met, the Bavarian State Opera Munich, the Royal Opera House, the Paris Opera, and the Salzburg and Glyndebourne festivals, he now especially sings roles of the youthful heroic fach. Recent highlights include the Emperor in Richard Strauss’s “Die Frau ohne Schatten” (Semperoper Dresden), Florestan in “Fidelio” (Dutch National Opera & Ballet), Max in Weber’s “Der Freischütz,” and Erik in “Der fliegende Holländer” (Bavarian State Opera). The latter he also sang in 2023 in New York in a co-production of the Met with the Abu Dhabi Festival and the Opéra de Québec. Earlier highlights included the title role in Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” (Brussels and Dresden) and Bacchus in “Ariadne auf Naxos” (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence). At the Zurich Opera House, he was most recently seen as Siegmund in “Die Walküre” and returned in 2025 as Paul in Korngold’s “Die tote Stadt.”

The bass Christof Fischesser, born in Wiesbaden, studied singing with Martin Gründler at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main. In 2000 he won first prize at the Federal Singing Competition in Berlin, which was followed by an engagement at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. In 2004 he moved to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin; from 2012 to 2015 he was a member of the ensemble at the Zurich Opera House, with which he has maintained a close collaboration ever since. Guest engagements have taken him, among others, to the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, the Opéra national de Paris, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Bavarian State Opera Munich, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Semperoper Dresden, the Opéra de Lyon, the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Houston Grand Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, as well as to the opera houses of Antwerp, Copenhagen and Gothenburg. His wide-ranging repertoire includes roles such as King Marke in "Tristan und Isolde", Landgrave in "Tannhäuser", King Henry in "Lohengrin", Gurnemanz in "Parsifal", Sarastro in "The Magic Flute", Figaro in "Le nozze di Figaro", Rocco in "Fidelio", Banquo in "Macbeth", Méphistophélès in "Faust" and Baron Ochs of Lerchenau in "Der Rosenkavalier". Numerous CD and DVD recordings document his artistic work. At the Zurich Opera House he has appeared, among others, as King Henry, Orest in "Elektra", Kaspar, Daland, Gremin, Gurnemanz, Marchese di Calatrava and Padre Guardiano in "La forza del destino", Hunding in "Die Walküre" as well as Jacopo Fiesco in "Simon Boccanegra".

Michael Volle, after engagements at the opera houses in Mannheim, Bonn, Düsseldorf and Cologne, was a member of the ensemble of the Zurich Opera House and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. In 2008 and 2023, the magazine Opernwelt named him "Singer of the Year"; in 2009 he was awarded the German Theatre Prize "Der Faust", and in 2023 he received an Oper!Award in recognition of his achievements. As a guest artist, he received invitations to the state operas in Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna, to the Semperoper Dresden, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Opéra de Paris, the Royal Opera London, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Liceu in Barcelona, La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as well as to the Salzburg, Bregenz and Bayreuth Festivals. Michael Volle has made a name for himself particularly as a Wagner singer, as well as with the roles of Richard Strauss and the interpretation of the great Italian baritone roles, including the operas of Verdi. More recently, he appeared in David McVicar’s "Ring" at La Scala in Milan, and returned in the title role of "Falstaff" at the Berlin State Opera, where he also performed Wotan/The Wanderer. As part of the 150th anniversary of the Bayreuth Festival, he will sing two "Ring" cycles there in 2026 as well as Amfortas ("Parsifal"). At the Zurich Opera House, he has been heard, among others, as Eugene Onegin, Yeletsky ("The Queen of Spades"), Roland ("Fierrabras"), Sixtus Beckmesser, Hans Sachs ("The Mastersingers of Nuremberg"), Golaud ("Pelléas et Mélisande"), Wolfram ("Tannhäuser"), the Dutchman, Nabucco and Boris Godunov, and in the 2026/27 season he will sing Wotan/The Wanderer in "The Ring of the Nibelung" in Zurich as well as on tour in Paris and New York.

The soprano Vida Miknevičiūtė studied voice at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre as well as in Leipzig. Between 2005 and 2007, she was a member of the International Opera Studio at the Zurich Opera House and appeared at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence as well as at Theater Basel. This was followed by ensemble memberships at the Staatsoper Hamburg from 2008 to 2010 and at the Staatstheater Mainz from 2011 to 2020, where she appeared, among others, as Elettra in "Idomeneo," Tatiana in "Eugen Onegin," Violetta Valéry in "La traviata," Eva in "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg," Marguerite in "Faust," Mimì in "La bohème," and Elisabeth in "Don Carlo." She made her role debut as Elsa in "Lohengrin" at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and made her debut at the Victorian Opera in Melbourne as Salome, for which she was awarded the Green Room Award for Best Leading Actress. Further guest engagements took her to the Vienna State Opera, the Staatsoper Stuttgart, the Oper Frankfurt, the Latvian National Opera, and the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden. Most recently, she performed "Die tote Stadt" at the Dvořák Festival in Prague, at the Bavarian State Opera, and in Dmitri Tcherniakov’s new production at the Zurich Opera House. Other highlights included the title role in "Salome" at the Vienna State Opera, the Finnish National Opera, and the Staatsoper Hamburg, her debuts at the Bayreuth Festival and at the Santa Fe Opera as Sieglinde in "Die Walküre," as well as her role debut as the Countess in "Capriccio" at the Victorian Opera in Melbourne. In the concert field, she performed "Die Walküre" at the Sydney Opera House as well as Wolfgang Rihm’s "Das Gehege" with the Berlin Philharmonic, both under the direction of Simone Young.

Claudia Mahnke studied singing at the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden. From 1996 to 2006, she was a member of the ensemble at the Stuttgart State Opera, where she appeared, among others, in the title role of Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s "Simplicius Simplicissimus". In 2013, she made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Fricka, Waltraute and Second Norn in a new "Ring" cycle under Kirill Petrenko. Since the 2006/07 season, she has been a member of the ensemble at the Frankfurt Opera. Her most recent roles there include, among others, Herodias in "Salome", the Foreign Princess in "Rusalka", Marie in "Wozzeck", Sélika in Meyerbeer’s "L’Africaine", Charlotte in "Werther", Lucretia in "The Rape of Lucretia", Dido in "Les Troyens", Concepción in "L’Heure espagnole", Judith in "Herzog Blaubarts Burg" and Marguerite in "La damnation de Faust". Recent highlights include her role debut as Countess Geschwitz in "Lulu" and as Giselle in Magnard’s "Guercœur" at the Frankfurt Opera, her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Magdalene in "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" under Antonio Pappano, Herodias at the Vienna State Opera and the Hamburg State Opera, Fricka at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, as well as her acclaimed debuts as Amneris in "Aida" and Mère Marie in "Dialogues des Carmélites". She holds the honorary titles of Kammersängerin of the Stuttgart State Opera and the Frankfurt Opera.

Natália Tuznik, soprano, was born in Budapest and completed her vocal studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music there. She was awarded the Junior Prima Prize. In 2023, she was a member of the Opera Academy at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw and the following year took part in the "Exzellenz Labor Oper," founded by Hedwig Fassbender. She attended numerous masterclasses and worked with artists such as Éva Marton, Claudio Di Segni, Anatoli Goussev, Izabela Kłosińska, Fausto Nardi, Katelan Trần Terrell, Michał Biel, and René Massis. In 2022, she made her debut as Wellgunde ("Götterdämmerung") at the Hungarian State Opera and sang the First Lady ("The Magic Flute") on a tour of Japan. At the Hungarian State Opera, she has also performed the title role in Gluck’s "Iphigenie auf Tauris", Donna Anna ("Don Giovanni"), Alice Ford ("Falstaff"), and most recently Countess Almaviva ("Le nozze di Figaro"). Since the 2025/26 season, she has been a member of the International Opera Studio at the Zürich Opera House.

Cashlin Oostindië is a Dutch mezzo-soprano. She received her training at the Amsterdam Conservatory 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"), participated in the chorus of Poulenc’s "Dialogues des Carmélites," and performed as a soloist at the Lefkas Music Week Festival in Greece. In concert, she has sung the alto parts in Bruckner’s "Requiem" and Rossini’s "Petite Messe solennelle." She regularly gives song recitals in the Netherlands with pianist Florence van der Does. Since the 2025/26 season, she has been a member of the International Opera Studio at the Zürich Opera House.

Siena Licht Miller, a German-American mezzo-soprano, studied voice at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She completed her training with courses at Opera Philadelphia, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and the Aspen Music Festival. She is a scholarship holder of the Bagby Foundation, prizewinner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Marilyn Horne Rubin Foundation, and the Gerda Lissner Foundation. Highlights of her career so far include role debuts as Hermia in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream", Second Lady in "Die Zauberflöte", and one of the two solo parts in the world premiere of "Denis and Katya" by Philip Venables at Opera Philadelphia. At the Aspen Opera Center she sang the title role in Ravel’s "L’Enfant et les sortilèges" under the direction of Robert Spano. She also regularly focuses on art song. She performed in the series "The Song Continues" at Carnegie Hall in celebration of her mentor Marilyn Horne and went on a US recital tour with pianist Kevin Murphy. In the 2020/21 season she was a member of the International Opera Studio at the Zurich Opera House, where she appeared in "Maria Stuarda", "Simon Boccanegra", "Viva la mamma", "Salome", "Odyssee", in the ballet "Monteverdi", in "L’italiana in Algeri", as well as Flosshilde in "Das Rheingold". Since the 2022/23 season she has been a member of the ensemble of the Zurich Opera House, where she was most recently seen as Lucilla ("La scala di seta") and Hänsel ("Hänsel und Gretel").

The mezzo-soprano Dominika Stefańska studied in Łódź and was a member of the Warsaw Opera Academy. She was a finalist at the Ada Sari International Vocal Artistry Competition 2021. At the Łódź Opera, she performed the roles of Volpino ("Lo speziale") and Mrs. Reich ("The Merry Wives of Windsor"), as well as a nymph ("Rusalka") at the Poznań Opera. As a member of the International Opera Studio at the Zurich Opera House, she appeared, among others, as Hippolyta in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream", as well as in "Jim Knopf" and "Sweeney Todd". Starting from the 2026/27 season, Dominika Stefańska will become a permanent ensemble member at the Zurich Opera House.