Fidelio

Yannick Debus studied voice at the Lübeck University of Music, the Basel Academy of Music and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. His first engagements included the Father in "Hansel and Gretel" at Schloss Weikersheim, Guglielmo in "Così fan tutte" at the Chamber Opera Schloss Rheinsberg, the Emperor in Ullmann’s "Emperor of Atlantis" as well as Figaro in Milhaud’s "The Guilty Mother" at Theater Basel and Emireno in Handel’s "Ottone" at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music. From 2020 to 2022 he was a member of the International Opera Studio at the Zurich Opera House. He has a close collaboration with René Jacobs, under whose direction he has appeared, among others, as Jesus ("St John Passion") at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, as Apollo (Handel’s "Apollo e Dafne"), as Kilian and Ottokar ("Der Freischütz") including at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, in Handel’s "Israel in Egypt" at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Konzerthaus Freiburg and the Berlin Philharmonie, as well as in the title role of Monteverdi’s "Orfeo" with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, including at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Philharmonie de Paris and at the Liceu in Barcelona. Also with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, he sang Jesus ("St Matthew Passion") under Francesco Corti on tour, including in Frankfurt, Madrid, Budapest, Zurich and Seoul. Since the 2024/25 season he has been a member of the ensemble of the Zurich Opera House. There he has recently sung Harlequin ("Ariadne auf Naxos"), Lesbo ("Agrippina"), the title role in Wolfgang Rihm’s "Jakob Lenz", Schaunard in "La bohème", Lescaut in Massenet’s "Manon" and Dr Falke in "Die Fledermaus".

The Irish-American baritone Brian Mulligan studied at Yale University and at the Juilliard School. He regularly works with leading opera houses and orchestras worldwide. Highlights of the 2024/25 season included the title role in "The Flying Dutchman" at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam under Jaap van Zweden, Don Pizarro in "Fidelio" at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, his role debut as the Wanderer in "Siegfried" in Hangzhou, and as Alberich in "Das Rheingold" at the Opéra national de Paris. He also sang Jochanaan in "Salome" in Naples and Florence, Kurwenal in "Tristan and Isolde" with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Shostakovich’s "The Execution of Stepan Razin" with the MDR in Leipzig. He opened the 2025/26 season as Amfortas in "Parsifal" at the San Francisco Opera. He also performs the title role in Dallapiccola’s "Il prigioniero" with the Czech Philharmonic under Antonio Pappano, Alberich in "Siegfried" at the Opéra national de Paris under Pablo Heras-Casado, and the Wanderer with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Paris and Baden-Baden. At the Concertgebouw Amsterdam he sings Balstrode in "Peter Grimes" under Karina Canellakis, and at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2026 he performs Barak in Barrie Kosky’s new production of "The Woman Without a Shadow" under Klaus Mäkelä. Brian Mulligan is a regular guest at major opera stages such as the Metropolitan Opera New York and the Zurich Opera House, as well as at festivals including the Salzburg Festival and the Vienna Festival Weeks. His solo albums have been released by Naxos and include the song repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Klaus Florian Vogt is one of the outstanding Wagner tenors of our time. His repertoire primarily includes dramatic roles such as Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Parsifal, Stolzing, and Siegmund, but also Florestan ("Fidelio") and Hoffmann ("Les Contes d’Hoffmann"). In addition, he performs lyric-dramatic roles such as Andrej ("Khovanshchina"), the Prince ("Rusalka"), and Faust ("La Damnation de Faust"). Originally from northern Germany, Klaus Florian Vogt studied at the University of Music and Theatre in Lübeck. In 1997/98, he was engaged at the Landestheater Flensburg and was a member of the Semperoper Dresden ensemble from 1998 to 2003. Since then, he has been a regular guest at all the major opera houses around the world, as well as at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals. In 2005, he made his Japan debut as Hoffmann in Tokyo, followed by his American debut as Lohengrin at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 2006. In 2007, he sang for the first time at La Scala in Milan (as Lohengrin) and later returned there as Florestan. That same year, he made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Walther von Stolzing ("Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg"), and from 2011 to 2015 he appeared there as Lohengrin in Hans Neuenfels’ production, in 2016 as Parsifal, and from 2017 to 2021 as Stolzing in Barrie Kosky’s new production of "Die Meistersinger". In 2022, he returned to the festival as Siegmund in the new "Ring" and as Lohengrin. He also participated in concerts at the Festspielhaus conducted by Andris Nelsons. In Zurich, he was most recently heard as Siegfried and Lohengrin, as well as in a lieder recital. In 2012, he received the ECHO Klassik award as Artist of the Year. In 2019, the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg awarded him the title of "Hamburger Kammersänger."

The Swiss soprano Gabriela Scherer was born in Zurich, studied at the Mozarteum Salzburg and was a member of the International Opera Studio at the Zurich Opera House as well as the ensembles in Leipzig and Munich. She regularly appears on renowned stages such as the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Semperoper Dresden, the Staatsoper Hamburg, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Opéra national de Paris or at the Bayreuth Festival. In the 2024/25 season she performed Liszt’s "Legend of Saint Elisabeth" with the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra in Budapest, Amsterdam and Brussels. At the Staatsoper Unter den Linden she sang Pamina ("The Magic Flute") for the first time, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein she appeared as Senta in "The Flying Dutchman". She returned to Bayreuth for open-air concerts and as Gutrune in "Götterdämmerung". She also made her debut at the Teatro Real Madrid in a gala with excerpts from Wagner and Strauss as well as at the NCPA Beijing as Sieglinde in Act 1 of "Die Walküre". In the 2025/26 season she sings Irene in "Rienzi" at the Bayreuth Festival, Alice Ford in "Falstaff" and Pamina at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Leonore in "Fidelio" at the Zurich Opera House as well as Senta at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Among her most recent role debuts are Chrysothemis in "Elektra", the title roles in "Arabella" and "Tosca", Elsa in "Lohengrin", Elisabetta in "Don Carlo" and Agathe in "Der Freischütz". Other important roles are Donna Elvira in "Don Giovanni" and the Countess in "Le nozze di Figaro".

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".

The Russian-Lebanese soprano Anna El-Khashem was born in St. Petersburg. She studied at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory and has received numerous awards, including in 2019 first prize at the International Singing Competition “Neue Stimmen” of the Bertelsmann Foundation, in 2018 first prize at the International Mozart Competition Salzburg, as well as being named “Young Singer of the Year 2018” by “Opernwelt”. From 2016 to 2019 she was a member of the Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and subsequently until 2022 an ensemble member at the Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden. There she appeared, among others, as Pamina in “The Magic Flute”, Gretel in “Hansel and Gretel”, Susanna in “Le nozze di Figaro”, Woglinde in “Das Rheingold” and “Götterdämmerung”, as well as Sophie in “Werther”. In 2021/22 she made her debut at the Opéra national de Paris as Servilia in “La clemenza di Tito” and later also sang Susanna in “Le nozze di Figaro” as well as Zerlina in “Don Giovanni”. At the Zurich Opera House she was first heard in a concert with La Scintilla under Riccardo Minasi and then took on Flavia Gemmira in “Eliogabalo”, Clarine/Thalie in “Platée” as well as Romilda in “Serse”. In the 2025/26 season she returns as Marzelline in “Fidelio”. Further engagements take her as Silvia in “Ascanio in Alba” to the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Theater an der Wien and the Opéra de Lausanne.

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 guest performed in the title role of “Don Carlos” at the Kammeroper Wien. More recently, he has appeared as Arturo in “Lucia di Lammermoor” at 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 (“The Odyssey”), 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”).

Saveliy Andreev was born in St. Petersburg and studied voice, conducting and piano at the Glinka Choral College. After graduating in choral conducting in 2015, he continued his vocal training at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg. From 2017 he regularly appeared as a soloist at the Music Hall in St. Petersburg. In the same year he took part in the festival “14th German Week” in St. Petersburg, where he sang a solo part in Bach’s cantata “Lasst uns sorgen, lasst uns wachen”. In 2018 he won first prize in the tenor category at the competition “Great Opera. Voices of the Future”, and in 2019 he participated in a study programme at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. From 2020 to 2022 he was a member of the International Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera House, where he appeared in “Boris Godunov”, “Simon Boccanegra”, “Salome”, “Le Comte Ory”, “Dialogues des Carmélites” and “Il mondo della luna”.

The tenor Luis Magallanes was born in Venezuela. He received his musical training at the Simón Bolívar Conservatory and at the Camerata de Caracas; in 2018 he continued his studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. As a member of the Simón Bolívar National Symphonic Choir he sang, among others, under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle and Gustavo Dudamel. In 2013 he made his debut in Caracas in Baldassare Galuppi’s “Il filosofo di campagna”, later followed there by Ferrando in “Così fan tutte”. In 2019 he was a semifinalist in the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition and sang in the chorus of the Irish National Opera. From 2020 to 2022 he was a member of the International Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera House. There he appeared, among others, in “Les Contes d’Hoffmann”, “Salome”, “Le Comte Ory”, “Il turco in Italia” and “Il mondo della luna”.

The Ukrainian baritone Dmytro Kalmuchyn studied at the Music Academy in Lviv, where he sang roles such as Belcore in “L’elisir d’amore”, Uberto in Pergolesi’s “La serva padrona” as well as the title role in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”. He is a prizewinner of the 3rd Ukrainian Teodor-Teren-Yuskiv Competition for Young Singers, the international competition “XXI Century Art” in Vorzel, and the 7th International Mirjam Helin Competition in Helsinki. From 2016 to 2018 he was a member of the International Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera House and from 2018 to 2020 of the OperAvenir Opera Studio at Theater Basel. In Zurich he appeared, among others, as Clock/Cat in “L’Enfant et les sortilèges” as well as in “Don Carlo”, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”, “Lohengrin”, “Salome”, “La fanciulla del West”, “Luisa Miller”, “Le Comte Ory” and “Carmen”.

The baritone Mamuka Tepnadze studied solo singing at the State Conservatory in Tbilisi, where he completed a master’s degree. He participated in numerous international singing competitions and received several awards. From 2004 to 2013 he was a soloist at the Georgian State Paliashvili Theatre for Opera and Ballet, where he sang, among others, the title role in “Don Giovanni”, Marquis de Posa in “Don Carlo” and Renato in “Un ballo in maschera”. In 2010 he won first prize at the International Singing Competition “Hariclea Darclée” in Romania.