Marco Armiliato studied piano at the Paganini Conservatory in his hometown of Genoa and began his conducting career in 1989 with "L’elisir d’amore" in Lima, Peru. In 1995, he made his debut with "Il barbiere di Siviglia" at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, followed a year later by his debut at the Vienna State Opera with "Andrea Chénier" and at the San Francisco Opera with "La bohème". Since then, his career has taken him to the world’s most prestigious opera houses, including the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Royal Opera in London, the Opéra national de Paris, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, La Scala in Milan, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. At the Salzburg Festival, he conducted productions including "Tosca" and "Andrea Chénier", as well as concert performances of "Manon Lescaut", "Lucrezia Borgia", and "I Capuleti e i Montecchi". In 2022, he was Music Director of the Arena di Verona Festival. He has maintained a close collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where since his debut in 1998 he has conducted almost 500 performances, including "Il trovatore", "La bohème", "Aida", "Turandot", "Rigoletto", "I puritani", "Madama Butterfly", and "La traviata". His recording "Verismo" (2009) with Renée Fleming received a Grammy Award, and the recording "Romantic Arias" (2008) with Jonas Kaufmann was honoured with a Diapason d’or. At the Vienna State Opera, where he has been an honorary member since 2019, he has conducted a wide range of works from the Italian and French repertoire, as well as gala performances and festive concerts. At the Zurich Opera House, he has recently conducted "La traviata", "Otello", "La bohème", "Manon", "Simon Boccanegra", "La rondine", "Messa da Requiem", and "Tosca".
Giacomo Puccini
Commedia lirica in three acts
Text by Giuseppe Adami after a libretto draft by
Artur Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert
From 17. September 2023 until 28. October 2023
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Duration :
2 hrs. 25 min. incl. intermission after approx. 1 hrs. 15 min. -
Language:
In Italian with German and English surtitles. -
More information:
Introduction 45 min before the performance.
Marco Armiliato
Christof Loy
Christof Loy studied music theatre directing in Essen as well as philosophy, art history, and Italian philology in Munich. He has worked as a freelance director since 1990. He regularly directs, among others, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Theater an der Wien, the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Opera Amsterdam, the Teatro Real in Madrid, and at the festivals in Glyndebourne and Salzburg. In Amsterdam, he was also responsible for choreography for the first time in 2019 with "Tannhäuser". At the Zurich Opera House, he directed "La straniera", "Alcina", "I Capuleti e i Montecchi", "Don Pasquale", and "La rondine". In 2017 and 2024, he was named Director of the Year at the International Opera Awards, after already winning the award for Best New Production there in 2016 for Britten’s "Peter Grimes" at the Theater an der Wien. For three productions at the Bavarian State Opera, "Saul" (2003), "Roberto Devereux" (2004), and "Die Bassariden" (2008), he was named Director of the Year by the magazine "Opernwelt". In 2024/25, he made his debut at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan with "Werther". Since then, he has directed, among others, "Elektra" at the Royal Opera House London, "Eugene Onegin" at the Teatro Real Madrid, "Turandot" at Theater Basel, "Il trittico" at the Opéra de Paris, and Charpentier’s "Louise" at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. One of his most important artistic concerns today is the rediscovery of zarzuela. His most recent directing works include the zarzuelas "Benamor" at the Theater an der Wien, "El gato montés" at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, and "El barberillo de Lavapiés" at the Theater Basel.
Étienne Pluss
Étienne Pluss was born in Geneva, where he initially ran an art gallery before beginning his studies in stage design at the Berlin University of the Arts. He began his theatre career as an assistant to set designers Achim Freyer and Karl-Ernst Herrmann. Since 2000, he has worked as a freelance set designer, collaborating with numerous renowned theatres and opera houses in the fields of drama and opera. He has a close working relationship with Claus Guth. For his productions, he has designed the sets for, among others, Beat Furrer’s "Violetter Schnee" at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (FAUST Theatre Award 2019), "La bohème" at the Opéra National de Paris, "Die Sache Makropulos" at the Staatsoper Berlin, Dusapin’s "Il Viaggio, Dante" at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, "Don Carlo" at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, "Salome" at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in cooperation with the Metropolitan Opera New York, and "Bluthaus" at the Bavarian State Opera. He also created the sets for Weinberg’s "Die Passagierin" at Oper Graz and "Hamlet" at the Komische Oper Berlin, both directed by Nadja Loschky. For "Il trittico" at the Salzburg Festival, he worked with Christof Loy. With Richard Brunel, he created the sets for Boesmans’ "On purge bébé" at La Monnaie in Brussels and for Escaich’s opera "Shirine" in Lyon. With Evgeny Titov, he developed Shakespeare’s "Richard III" at Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf. In 1998, he was invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen, and the following year he received the Kainz Medal for his work on Thomas Bernhard’s "Claus Peymann kauft sich eine Hose und geht mit mir essen". In Zurich, he most recently designed the sets for "Alice" and "Scylla et Glaucus".
Barbara Drosihn
Born in Hamburg, Barbara Drosihn studied costume design at the University of Applied Sciences in her home city after training as a dressmaker. She has since worked as a freelance costume designer at, among others, Thalia Theater, Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Burgtheater Vienna, Schauspielhaus Bochum, Staatsschauspiel Dresden and Schauspiel Köln. Her work has included collaborations with directors such as Michael Thalheimer, Stephan Kimmig, Nicolas Stemann, Andreas Kriegenburg and Stefan Bachmann. In 2009, she designed the costumes for her first opera, Christof Loy’s production of "Lucrezia Borgia" at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. This was followed by, among others, "Der Rosenkavalier" and "Der ferne Klang" at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, "Das Wunder der Heliane" at Deutsche Oper Berlin, "Così fan tutte" at the Salzburg Festival and "Don Pasquale" at Zurich Opera House. There, she also designed the costumes for Andreas Homoki’s productions of "I puritani" and "Fidelio". She has a close artistic collaboration with Tatjana Gürbaca. For her, she has designed the costumes for "Parsifal" and "Der fliegende Holländer" in Antwerp, "La traviata" in Oslo, "Capriccio" and the "Ring" trilogy at Theater an der Wien, as well as "La finta giardiniera" and "Le Grand Macabre" at Zurich Opera House. In recent seasons, she designed the costumes for the zarzuela "Benamor" at Theater an der Wien with Christof Loy, "Isidor", based on Shelly Kupferberg’s novel, at the Akademietheater with Philipp Stölzl, and "Il barbiere di Siviglia" at the Hamburg State Opera with Tatjana Gürbaca.
Fabrice Kébour
Born in France, Fabrice Kébour works in the fields of dance, drama, musical theatre and opera and has designed the lighting for more than 250 productions. He began his career in New York, where he worked on Broadway, among other places. Over the past 20 years, his work has been seen at such renowned venues and festivals as the Comédie-Française, the Vienna State Opera, the Bregenz Festival, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and La Monnaie in Brussels. Since 2007, he has created the lighting design for several productions by David Pountney, including "La forza del destino" in Vienna, "Die Zauberflöte" in Bregenz, the world premiere of Philip Glass’ "Spuren der Verirrten" for the opening of Musiktheater Linz and "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" at Oper Leipzig. With Claus Guth, he has worked, among other things, on the world premiere of Michael Jarrell’s "Bérénice" at the Paris Opera. In 2022, he created the lighting design for the world premiere of Philip Glass’ ballet "Alice" at the Opéra national du Rhin. In addition to his work at musical theatre and opera houses, he also creates lighting designs for large-scale events, such as the opening and closing ceremonies of the Asian Games in Doha and shows at Disneyland. He is a co-founder of the Union des Créateurs Lumière, which he chaired until 2012. Fabrice Kébour has received numerous prizes and awards and was nominated three times for the prestigious French theatre award Molière. In the 2026/27 season, he will design the lighting for, among other things, the new production of "Tannhäuser" at Teatro Real Madrid and for "Roméo et Juliette" at La Monnaie in Brussels.
Ernst Raffelsberger
Ernst Raffelsberger comes from Gmunden, Upper Austria. He studied music education and church music at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna as well as choral conducting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. From 1983 to 1986 he was Kapellmeister of the Vienna Boys’ Choir. During this time, he led the ensemble in Vienna and on tours through Europe, South Africa, Canada, and the USA. From 1986, Ernst Raffelsberger was choral director and Kapellmeister at the Salzburg State Theatre (participating in the Salzburg Mozart Week and the Salzburg Festival). In 1989 he moved as choral director and Kapellmeister to the theatre in Freiburg/Breisgau. Since autumn 1993, Ernst Raffelsberger has been engaged at the Zurich Opera House as choral director. Here he has since supervised around 150 premieres and countless revivals and worked with many renowned conductors such as Marco Armiliato, Riccardo Chailly, Teodor Currentzis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Zubin Mehta, Gianandrea Noseda, and Franz Welser-Möst. Guest performances with the Zurich Opera House have taken him to Vienna, London, Paris, and Tokyo. From summer 2012 he additionally began a ten-year activity as choral director of the Vienna State Opera Chorus Association at the Salzburg Festival. There he collaborated successfully with, among others, Riccardo Muti, Mariss Jansons, and Sir Simon Rattle. After Ernst Raffelsberger ended this work with the festival summer 2021, he has since 2025 once again been responsible, at Maestro Muti’s request, for choral preparation for his festival concerts in Salzburg. Numerous CD and DVD recordings document his work in Zurich as well as in Salzburg.
Thomas Wilhelm
Thomas Wilhelm trained at the Palucca School Dresden. As a dancer, he was engaged, among other places, at the Semperoper Dresden, the Gothenburg Opera and in Stephan Thoss’s company, and worked at Staatsoper Hannover. Since 2006, he has worked as a freelance choreographer. He has a long-standing collaboration with director Christof Loy, which has resulted in numerous productions at opera houses including those in Barcelona, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Zurich ("Alcina", "Capuleti e i Montecchi"), Geneva, Basel and Hamburg, as well as at the Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Royal Opera House London. At the Salzburg Festival, Thomas Wilhelm was choreographer for Loy’s production of "Theodora" (2009) and for Shirin Neshat’s production of "Aida" (2017). He also works regularly with Nadja Loschky, including on "L’incoronazione di Poppea", "La traviata" and "Death in Venice" at Theater Bielefeld, as well as on "Hamlet" at the Komische Oper Berlin, and has taken on the choreography for numerous productions by Amélie Niermeyer. At the Salzburg Festival in 2019, his first collaboration with Damiano Michieletto took place with "Alcina". They continued their collaboration with "Salome" at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, "Giulio Cesare in Egitto" at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, "Orfeo ed Euridice" at the Komische Oper Berlin and the world premiere of Raskatov’s "Animal Farm" in Amsterdam. His more recent work includes "Salome" at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, "Arabella" at Teatro Real Madrid and "Lucrezia Borgia" at the Bavarian State Opera. In the 2026/27 season, he is responsible for the choreography of Puccini’s "La rondine" at Zurich Opera House.
Kathrin Brunner
Kathrin Brunner was born in Zurich. She studied German, Musicology, and French in her hometown and at the Humboldt University in Berlin. After various assistant directorships (including "The Threepenny Opera" at the Lucerne Theater, directed by Vera Nemirova) and dramaturgy internships, she has been a dramaturge at the Zurich Opera House since 2008. There, she has worked with directors such as Achim Freyer ("Moses und Aron"), Harry Kupfer ("Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg", "Tannhäuser"), Stephan Müller, Guy Joosten, Damiano Michieletto, Christof Loy ("La straniera", "Alcina", "I Capuleti e i Montecchi", "Don Pasquale", "La rondine"), Willy Decker ("Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria", "The Turn of the Screw"), Andreas Homoki ("Wozzeck", "Das Land des Lächelns", "La forza del destino"), Christoph Marthaler ("Il viaggio a Reims", "Orphée et Euridice"), Barrie Kosky ("Die Gezeichneten", "Boris Godunov"), Nadja Loschky, Nina Russi, Jan Essinger, and Jetske Mijnssen ("Idomeneo", "Hippolyte et Aricie", "Platée").
At the 2012 Salzburg Festival, she worked on "La bohème" with Damiano Michieletto. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she co-founded the concert series "Altchemie live" at the Alte Chemie in Uetikon. In 2025, she served as dramaturge for Jetske Mijnssen’s production of Francesco Cavalli’s "La Calisto" at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
Cast
Der Kellner Yannick Bosc
Ermonela Jaho
Ermonela Jaho was born in Albania and studied voice at the Conservatory of Tirana and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Her repertoire includes Violetta, Cio-Cio-San, Suor Angelica, Adriana Lecouvreur, Anna Bolena, Thaïs and Luisa Miller, among others – roles in which she has appeared at houses including the Royal Opera House in London, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Bavarian State Opera, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Opéra national de Paris, the Vienna State Opera, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the Arena di Verona. She recently won the International Classical Music Award for vocal music and was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France. She was also named Artist of the Year at the 2023 International Classical Music Awards, Best Singer at the German Oper! Awards 2024 and Best Foreign Artist at the Spanish Opera XXI Awards 2024. She is an Artist Ambassador for Opera Rara and Opera for Peace and a member of the Academy of Sciences of Albania. Most recently, under the Opera Rara label, she released a recording of Puccini’s "La rondine" as well as two albums of French and Italian songs by Donizetti in 2024. In the 2025/26 season, she made her role debut as Iris in Mascagni’s opera of the same name at the Teatro Real Madrid and appeared as Violetta at the Royal Opera, the Metropolitan Opera and the Rome Opera. After more than 300 performances, she thus bid farewell to the role of Violetta. She returns to Zurich Opera House in the 2026/27 season in the role of Magda in Puccini’s "La rondine".
Sandra Hamaoui
The French-American soprano Sandra Hamaoui studied at the San Francisco Conservatory and the Juilliard School in New York. She is a prizewinner of numerous competitions; among other things, she was a semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and won first prize at the New England Regional Finals, the West Bay Opera League Competition and the Mary Trueman Vocal Competition. While still a student, she sang the title role in Gounod’s "Roméo et Juliette" with the Canadian Vocal Arts Institute and Adina in "L’elisir d’amore" with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music at the Kennedy Center. In the 2017/18 season, she was a member of the ensemble of Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she sang, among other roles, Ninetta in "Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen" and Pamina in "Die Zauberflöte". As a member of the ensemble at Zurich Opera House, she appeared, among other roles, as Susanna in "Le nozze di Figaro", Gilda in "Rigoletto", Nanetta in "Falstaff", Gretel in "Hänsel und Gretel" and Lisette in "La rondine". Her most recent engagements include her role debuts as Sophie in Massenet’s "Werther" at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and as Sœur Constance in Poulenc’s "Dialogues des Carmélites" at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia. In the 2025/26 season, she returned to Zurich Opera House as Susanna in "Le nozze di Figaro" and sang Adina in Donizetti’s "L’elisir d’amore" at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. In the 2026/27 season, she makes her debut as Sophie at the Opéra national de Paris and the Vienna State Opera.
Benjamin Bernheim
Benjamin Bernheim studied with Gary Magby at the Conservatory in Lausanne and was a member of the International Opera Studio and the ensemble at Zurich Opera House. Today, the French tenor appears at the most prestigious opera houses, including the Opéra national de Paris, the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Vienna State Opera, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Teatro alla Scala and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. His principal roles include Rodolfo ("La bohème"), Des Grieux ("Manon"), Edgardo ("Lucia di Lammermoor"), Roméo ("Roméo et Juliette"), Lenski ("Eugen Onegin"), as well as the title roles in "Faust", "Werther" and "Les contes d’Hoffmann". In the 2025/26 season, he returned to Zurich as Des Grieux in "Manon" and appeared as Faust in "La Damnation de Faust" at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and as Hoffmann in "Les contes d’Hoffmann" at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. In 2024, he performed at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris and at the reopening of Notre-Dame. In 2025, he was named Singer of the Year at the Opus Klassik Awards. His current repertoire is also complemented by song recitals and concert performances. In 2026/27, Bernheim returns to Zurich Opera House as Ruggero in Puccini’s "La rondine".
Juan Francisco Gatell
Juan Francisco Gatell was born in La Plata, Argentina, and began his musical training at the conservatory in his hometown before moving to Spain, where he completed his studies at the conservatory in Madrid. In 2004, he won the Caruso Award, in 2005 the first prize at the Concorso Città di Pistoia, and in 2006 the first prize at the ASLICO Competition for his Don Ottavio in "Don Giovanni". Since then, invitations have taken him to the major opera and concert stages of Europe, North and South America. Highlights of his career to date include his debuts as Alessandro Magno in "Il re pastore" and as Tom Rakewell in "The Rake’s Progress" at La Fenice in Venice, as Demetrio in Rossini’s "Demetrio e Polibio" and as Almaviva ("Il barbiere di Siviglia") at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, as Almaviva at the Royal Opera House Muscat in Oman, in Buenos Aires and in Vienna, as well as Fenton ("Falstaff") in Lyon and Aix-en-Provence. He has sung Don Ottavio at, among others, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, in Washington and Tokyo, as well as Ferrando ("Così fan tutte") in Madrid, Florence and Brussels. His most recent engagements include "L’elisir d’amore" in Bologna, "Die Zauberflöte" in Rome, "Don Pasquale" in Tokyo and the staged world premiere of Tomás Marco’s "Tenorio" in Madrid. In the 2026/27 season, he returns to Zurich Opera House as Prunier in Puccini’s "La rondine" and will also appear as Cassio in Verdi’s "Otello" at Teatro alla Scala in Milan and as Lord Percy in Donizetti’s "Anna Bolena".
Vladimir Stoyanov
Vladimir Stoyanov was born in Pernik, Bulgaria, and studied voice at the Music Academy in Sofia, as well as in Rome and at the Accademia della Scala in Milan. He was initially a member of the ensemble at the opera house in Plovdiv for three years and has worked as a freelance artist since 1999. In 1998, he made his debut in the title role of "Macbeth" at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and has since appeared as a guest at numerous renowned opera houses worldwide, including Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Staatsoper Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House London, the Bavarian State Opera, the New National Theatre Tokyo, the Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the Paris Opera, Teatro Real Madrid and the opera houses in Naples, Parma and Rome. His repertoire includes roles such as the title role in "Rigoletto", Iago ("Otello"), Scarpia ("Tosca"), Conte di Luna ("Il trovatore"), Don Carlo ("Ernani"), Rodrigo ("Don Carlo") and Yeletsky ("Pique Dame"). His more recent engagements include Nabucco in Parma, Simon Boccanegra in Helsinki and Iago in Verdi’s "Otello" in Rome. In the 2025/26 season, he appeared as Giorgio Germont in "La traviata" at the Vienna State Opera and as Scarpia in "Tosca" at Staatsoper Hamburg.
Andrew Moore
Andrew Moore, an American bass-baritone from New Jersey, received his training at Rutgers University (Mason Gross School of the Arts) and the renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In 2019, he reached the New England Region Finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, where he received the Susan Eastman Encouragement Award. Other important stages in his artistic career included the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco and the Santa Fe Opera, where he appeared as an Apprentice Singer in "La bohème", "Così fan tutte" and "Jenůfa", among others. From 2020 to 2022, he was a member of the International Opera Studio at Zurich Opera House. He was subsequently invited to join the ensemble of the house, which he has been a member of since the 2022/23 season. Since then, he has appeared here, among other roles, as Figaro ("Le nozze di Figaro"), Paolo Albiani ("Simon Boccanegra"), Don Fernando ("Fidelio"), De Brétigny ("Manon"), Marullo ("Rigoletto"), Paris ("Roméo et Juliette"), Marchese d’Obigny ("La traviata"), Pritschitsch ("Die lustige Witwe"), Johann ("Werther") and Fix ("In 80 Tagen um die Welt"). His most recent international engagements include his debut with the Warsaw Philharmonic as the bass soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and his Salzburg debut as Marchese d’Obigny ("La traviata"). In summer 2026, he appeared as Johann ("Werther") at the Salzburg Festival.
Stanislav Vorobyov
Stanislav Vorobyov is from Russia and studied at the Moscow Conservatory. He was a member of the International Opera Studio and has been a member of the ensemble at the Zurich Opera House since the 2018/19 season. Here, he has appeared in roles including Colline ("La bohème"), Alidoro ("La Cenerentola"), the High Priest ("Nabucco"), Reinmar von Zweter ("Tannhäuser"), Zaretsky ("Eugene Onegin"), Angelotti ("Tosca"), the Fifth Jew and First Nazarene ("Salome"), Lord Rochefort ("Anna Bolena"), Dottor Grenvil ("La traviata"), Crébillon ("La rondine"), Zuniga ("Carmen"), Roberto ("I vespri siciliani"), Roucher ("Andrea Chénier"), Marchese Calatrava ("La forza del destino"), Tom ("Un ballo in maschera"), as well as Faust ("Der feurige Engel") and Méphistophélès ("La Damnation de Faust"). Guest engagements have taken him to the Bregenz Festival as Don Basilio in "Il barbiere di Siviglia", Uncle Bonzo in "Madama Butterfly", and Il capitano/L’ispettore in Giordano’s "Siberia", to Opera Ballet Vlaanderen and Luxembourg as Nourabad in "Les Pêcheurs de perles", to the Concertgebouw Amsterdam as Ombra di Nino in "Semiramide", and in 2024 as Colline in "La bohème" at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre and the ROHM Theatre Kyōto.
Steven Whiting
Steven Anthony Whiting was born in Vienna, studied theatre studies at the University of Manchester, and subsequently completed a Master’s degree in directing at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School. In New Zealand, he worked for the New Zealand Opera Company for ten years before relocating to Europe in 2012. As a director, he has staged productions for New Zealand Opera, the Bregenz Festival, the Berlin Opera Academy, and Vocalforum Graz. With OPERA/FABULA, he was responsible as producer and director for several site-specific music theatre works. He has also worked as an assistant to renowned directors in the United Kingdom The Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, English National Opera, and Opera North, Germany Deutsche Oper Berlin and Cologne Opera, and Austria Vienna State Opera and the Bregenz Festival, including Stefan Herheim, Sir Nicholas Hytner, Simon Stone, Marco Marelli, Philipp Stölzl, Tatjana Gürbaca, and Fiona Shaw. Since 2022, he has been engaged as an assistant director and stage manager at the Zurich Opera House.
Nathan Haller
Nathan Haller is from Canada and studied voice at the Juilliard School in New York. In 2013, he took part in the International Meistersinger Academy in Neumarkt. From 2015 to 2017, he was a member of the OperAvenir opera studio at Theater Basel, where he sang, among other roles, Tamino ("The Magic Flute"), Romeo ("Romeo and Juliet") and Oronte ("Alcina"). In 2016, he appeared as a guest, among other engagements, as Belmonte ("The Abduction from the Seraglio") at the Acco Opera Festival in Israel and in 2017/18 as François in Leonard Bernstein’s "A Quiet Place" at Neue Oper Wien. Further engagements took him to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, the Vienna Volksoper, Malmö Opera and Deutsche Oper am Rhein. On the concert platform, he has appeared, among other places, at the New York Festival of Song at Carnegie Hall and in Handel’s "La Resurrezione" with William Christie. He made his debut at Zurich Opera House in 2018 in Schreker’s "Die Gezeichneten" and returned the following year as Albazar ("Il turco in Italia") and later in the title role of Mitterer’s "Das tapfere Schneiderlein". Since the 2021/22 season, Nathan Haller has been a member of the ensemble at Zurich Opera House. More recently, he has sung, among other roles, Mercure in Rameau’s "Platée", Gobin/Un giovane/Adolfo in Puccini’s "La rondine", Pong ("Turandot"), a Dancing Master ("Ariadne auf Naxos"), the role of Andrès in "Les contes d’Hoffmann", First Jew ("Salome"), Victorin ("Die tote Stadt"), Raoul de St. Brioche ("Die lustige Witwe"), Goro ("Madama Butterfly"), Valzacchi ("Der Rosenkavalier"), Dr Blind ("Die Fledermaus") and a Young Servant ("Elektra"). He will also appear this season in the Swiss premiere of John Adams’ "Doctor Atomic".
Stanislav Vorobyov
Stanislav Vorobyov is from Russia and studied at the Moscow Conservatory. He was a member of the International Opera Studio and has been a member of the ensemble at the Zurich Opera House since the 2018/19 season. Here, he has appeared in roles including Colline ("La bohème"), Alidoro ("La Cenerentola"), the High Priest ("Nabucco"), Reinmar von Zweter ("Tannhäuser"), Zaretsky ("Eugene Onegin"), Angelotti ("Tosca"), the Fifth Jew and First Nazarene ("Salome"), Lord Rochefort ("Anna Bolena"), Dottor Grenvil ("La traviata"), Crébillon ("La rondine"), Zuniga ("Carmen"), Roberto ("I vespri siciliani"), Roucher ("Andrea Chénier"), Marchese Calatrava ("La forza del destino"), Tom ("Un ballo in maschera"), as well as Faust ("Der feurige Engel") and Méphistophélès ("La Damnation de Faust"). Guest engagements have taken him to the Bregenz Festival as Don Basilio in "Il barbiere di Siviglia", Uncle Bonzo in "Madama Butterfly", and Il capitano/L’ispettore in Giordano’s "Siberia", to Opera Ballet Vlaanderen and Luxembourg as Nourabad in "Les Pêcheurs de perles", to the Concertgebouw Amsterdam as Ombra di Nino in "Semiramide", and in 2024 as Colline in "La bohème" at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre and the ROHM Theatre Kyōto.
Yuliia Zasimova
Yuliia Zasimova wurde in der Ukraine geboren. Sie studierte an der Tschaikovsky National Music Academy in Kiev, wo sie ihr Gesangsstudium 2016 abschloss. Während ihres Studiums war sie Mitglied des Opernstudios der Akademie und war dort als Amor in Orfeo ed Euridice und als Marfa in Rimski-Korsakows Die Zarenbraut zu erleben. 2017 nahm sie am Wettbewerb «Neue Stimmen» teil und war im gleichen Jahr Halbfinalistin beim «Le Grand Prix de L’Opéra» Gesangswettbewerb in Bukarest. 2018 war sie Preisträgerin beim internationalen Byulbyul Wettbewerb in Baku, Aserbaidschan, und debütierte im gleichen Jahr beim LvivMozArt Festival in der Ukraine als Aretea in Dmytro Bortnianskyis Alcide. Von 2018 bis 2020 war sie Mitglied des Internationalen Opernstudios Zürich. Hier war sie in Hänsel und Gretel, Rigoletto, Manon, Le nozze di Figaro, Elektra und Coraline zu hören. 2022 war sie als Solistin in Vivaldis L’olimpiade in der Moskauer Philharmonie und der Tschaikovsky Concert Hall Moskau zu hören, gab ein Konzert in Turin mit dem Orchestra Teatro Regio und war in Zürich als Anna in Nabucco zu erleben. In der Spielzeit 2023/24 gibt sie als 1. Dame in der Zauberflöte ihr Debüt an der Bayerischen Staatsoper.
Meeta Raval
Meeta Raval stammt aus Grossbritannien und studierte an der Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. Nach ihrem Studium war sie Mitglied des National Opera Studios in London. Sie gewann 2011 den Dame Eva Turner Prize und war Finalistin beim BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Wettbewerb. Gastengagements führten sie seither u.a. als Liù in Turandot zum Dalhalla Festival in Schweden, als Ortlinde in Die Walküre an die Opera North, als erstes Blumenmädchen in Parsifal an die English National Opera, als Micaëla in Carmen nach Banff, Kanada, sowie als Magda in La rondine zur British Youth Opera. Für diese Interpretation wurde sie mit dem Basil Turner Prize ausgezeichnet. Auf der Konzertbühne war sie als Solistin in Bachs h-Moll-Messe, in der Johannespassion, in Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem und Bruckners Te Deum zu erleben. Im Londoner Barbican Center debütierte sie ausserdem in einer Puccini Gala. Jüngst gastierte sie als Nedda (Pagliacci), Kadra in Will Todds Migrations, Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) und Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly) an der Welsh National Opera, als Cio-Cio-San am Glyndbourne Festival und an der English National Opera, als Leonora (Il trovatore) an der Ópera in Oviedo sowie als Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) an der Opera North.
Siena Licht Miller
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, the Santa Fe Opera, the Opera Theatre of St. Louis and the Aspen Music Festival. She is a recipient of a Bagby Foundation scholarship and a prizewinner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Marilyn Horne Rubin Foundation and the Gerda Lissner Foundation. Highlights of her career to date include her role debuts as Hermia in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream", Second Lady in "Die Zauberflöte" and one of the two solo roles in the world premiere of Philip Venables’ "Denis and Katya" 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 devotes herself to song recitals. She sang in the "The Song Continues" series at Carnegie Hall in honour of her mentor Marilyn Horne and went on a tour of the USA with a recital alongside pianist Kevin Murphy. From the 2020/21 season, she was associated with the Zurich Opera House, first as a member of the International Opera Studio and, since 2022/23, as a member of the ensemble of Zurich Opera House, where she most recently appeared in "La scala di seta", "Hänsel und Gretel" and "La clemenza di Tito", among others. In 2026/27, she will appear as Prince Orlofsky in "Die Fledermaus", Flora Bervoix in "La traviata", Rossweisse in "Die Walküre" and Flosshilde in "Das Rheingold" and "Götterdämmerung".
Valeriy Murga
Valeriy Murga studied at the National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv. He was a finalist both at the 41st International Singing Competition in Toulouse (1996) and at the 7th Julian Gayarre Competition in Pamplona (1998). In 1997, he won second prize at the Maria Callas Grand Prix in Athens and took part in the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 1999. From 1997 to 1999, he was a soloist at the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv, where he performed, among others, Figaro ("Le nozze di Figaro"), Escamillo ("Carmen"), Schaunard ("La bohème") and the title roles in "Jewgeni Onegin", "Don Giovanni" and "Prince Igor". His repertoire also includes roles such as the Marchese di Posa ("Don Carlo") and Shaklovity ("Chowanschtschina"). At Zurich Opera House, he was initially a member of the International Opera Studio and during this time appeared, among other roles, as Sciarrone and the Jailer ("Tosca") and as Monterone ("Rigoletto"). Since the beginning of the 2000/01 season, he has been a permanent member of the ensemble at Zurich Opera House and has since appeared here, among other roles, as Prince Yeletsky ("Pique Dame"), Moralès ("Carmen"), Second Soldier ("Salome"), Alessio ("La sonnambula"), Ali ("L’italiana in Algeri"), Wagner ("Faust"), Sacristan ("Tosca") and Bogdanowitsch ("Die lustige Witwe"), as well as in family operas including "Das Gespenst von Canterville", "Robin Hood", "Das verzauberte Schwein", "Jim Knopf" and "Wir pfeifen auf den Gurkenkönig". He has also appeared as a guest in Eugen d’Albert’s "Tiefland" at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and in "L’italiana in Algeri" at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, and has performed in concerts at the Tonhalle Zurich. In the 2026/27 season, he will appear at Zurich Opera House, among other roles, as the Old Servant in "Elektra" and as Alcindoro in Puccini’s "La bohème".
Amin Ahangaran
Amin Ahangaran, bass, was born in Iran. He completed his artistic training at the Tehran Conservatory of Music as well as in Graz. From 2020 to 2022, he was a member of the Young Artist Program at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where he appeared in the productions "Rigoletto", "Siberia", and "Ariadne auf Naxos". He also performed in Florence and in various concert halls in Italy as a bass soloist. In the summer of 2022, he participated in the competitions “Voci Verdiane in Busseto” (finalist), “Riccardo Zandonai” in Riva del Garda, and the “CLIP” competition in Portofino. From 2022 to 2024, he was a member of the International Opera Studio at the Zurich Opera House, where he was heard in productions including "La traviata", "Eugene Onegin", and "Viva la mamma". He then joined the ensemble of the Opéra de Paris, where he has been a member ever since. In the 2025/26 season, he will appear there, among other roles, as Dottor Grenvil in "La traviata" and in a new production of Philip Glass’s "Satyagraha". He returns to the Zurich Opera House as Brander in the concert version of "La Damnation de Faust".