Messa da Requiem

Karina Canellakis stammt aus New York. Sie studierte Violine am Curtis Institute in Phila­del­phia und Dirigieren an der Juillard School in New York. Sie war Mitglied der Orchesterakademie der Berliner Philharmoniker, spiel­­te mit dem Chicago Symphony Orchestra und war Gastkonzertmeisterin beim Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. Als Solistin trat sie mit renommierten nordamerikanischen Orchestern und als Kammermusikerin beim Marlboro Music Festival auf. Sir Simon Rattle er­mu­tigte sie zum Dirigieren. Sie war Assistant Con­ductor beim Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Nach dem Gewinn des Sir Georg Solti Dirigierpreises 2016 stand sie bis heute bereits am Pult vieler Spitzenorchester in Nordamerika, Europa und Australien. Karina Canellakis ist die neu ernann­te Chefdirigentin des Radio-Philharmonischen Orchesters der Niederlande und Erste Gastdirigentin des Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchesters Berlin. In der vorigen Saison leitete sie sowohl die «First Night of the Proms» in London als auch das Nobelpreis-Konzert in Stockholm. Debüts führten sie zum Orchestre Philharmonique de Montréal, zum St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, zum Melbourne Symphony Orchestra und zum London Philharmonic Orchestra, zum Deutschen Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, zur Dresdner Philharmonie und zum Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Zum wiederholten Male dirigierte sie das Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, das Scottish Chamber Orchestra sowie die Sinfonie­orchester von Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit und Milwaukee. Ihre Opernprojekte umfassen Don Giovanni und Le nozze die Figaro mit dem Curtis Opera Theatre, Die Zauberflöte am Opern­haus Zürich, die Uraufführung von David Langs Oper The Loser in der Brooklyn Academy of Mu­sic sowie Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Oper The Hogboon mit dem Orchestre Philharmoni­que du Luxembourg. In dieser Saison debütiert sie beim Philadelphia Orchestra, den Sinfonieorchestern von San Francisco, Atlanta und Minnesota, dem London Symphony Orchestra, den Münchner Philharmonikern und dem NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester. Ausserdem debütiert sie beim Festival de Saint-Denis mit dem Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France sowie beim Edinburgh International Festival mit dem BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Mit den Wiener Symphonikern kehrt sie für ein Konzertprogramm mit dem dritten Aufzug von Wagners Siegfried zu den Bregenzer Festspielen zurück. Weitere Wiedereinladun­gen erhielt sie vom Orchestre de Paris, vom Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, von den Sinfonieorchestern von Houston und Toronto sowie vom Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

Fabio Luisi hails from Genoa. He is the general music director of the Opernhaus Zürich, the principal conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and music director designate of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, a post he will take up in 2020. From 2011-2017, Fabio Luisi was principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and from 2005-2013 principal conductor of the Wiener Symphoniker, as well as general music director of the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Sächsische Staatsoper (2007-2010), artistic director and principal conductor of the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig (1999-2007), and music director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (1997-2002). With the latter, he made numerous CD recordings (Poulenc, Respighi, Mahler, Liszt, a recording of the complete symphonic works of Arthur Honegger, and Verdi’s Jérusalem und Alzira). He is music director of the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca (Apulia) and has appeared as guest conductor with numerous renowned ensembles, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, the NHK Tokio, the Münchener Philharmoniker, the Filarmonica della Scala, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam, and the Saito Kinen Orchestra, as well as with various prominent opera orchestras. He appeared at the Salzburg Festival with performances of Richard Strauss’ Die Liebe der Danae und Die Ägyptische Helena. His most important appearances at the Opernhaus Zürich include, among others, the new productions of three Bellini operas, as well as Rigoletto, Fidelio, Wozzeck and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem. Important CD recordings include Verdi’s Aroldo, Bellini’s I puritani and I Capuleti e i Montecchi, and the complete symphonies of Robert Schumann, as well as the symphonies and the oratorio Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln by Franz Schmidt, the largely forgotten Austrian composer. In addition, he has recorded various symphonic poems by Richard Strauss, and a lauded reading of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3 with the Staatskapelle Dresden. His recordings of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra won Grammy awards. He received the Premio Franco Abbiati, the coveted Italian critics’ prize, in 2013, and in 2014 won the Grifo d’Oro from the city of Genoa. He was awarded the Anton Bruckner Ring by the Wiener Symphoniker, and is a Cavalier of the Italian Republic. The «Philharmonia Records» recording label, founded by the Philharmonia Zürich in 2015, has issued CD recordings of works by Berlioz, Wagner, Verdi, Rachmaninoff, Bruckner, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Frank Martin under Fabio Luisi’s musical director, as well as DVD records of Rigoletto (stage direction: Tatjana Gürbaca), Wozzeck (stage direction: Andreas Homoki), I Capuleti e i Montecchi (stage direction: Christof Loy), the Messa da Requiem (stage direction /choreography: Christian Spuck), and Das Land des Lächelns (stage direction: Andreas Homoki).

Christian Spuck is from Marburg and was trained at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart. He began his dance career with Jan Lauwers’ Needcompany and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s ensemble "Rosas". In 1995 he joined the Stuttgart Ballet and served as the company’s resident choreographer from 2001 to 2012. In Stuttgart, he created fifteen world premieres, including the narrative ballets "Lulu. Eine Monstretragödie" after Frank Wedekind, "Der Sandmann", and "Das Fräulein von S." after E.T.A. Hoffmann. In addition, Christian Spuck has worked with numerous prominent ballet companies across Europe and the USA. For the Royal Ballet of Flanders, he created "The Return of Ulysses" in 2006, and at the Norwegian National Ballet in Oslo, "Woyzeck" after Georg Büchner was premiered. His ballet "Die Kinder" at Aalto Ballett Essen was nominated for the Prix Benois de la Danse; the ballet "Leonce und Lena", also premiered in Essen and based on Georg Büchner, was taken up by the Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Charlotte Ballet, USA, the Czech National Ballet in Prague, and the Stuttgart Ballet. The premiere of "Poppea//Poppea" for Gauthier Dance at Theaterhaus Stuttgart in 2010 was selected by Dance Europe magazine as one of the ten most successful dance productions worldwide and was awarded the German theater prize Der Faust 2011 as well as the Italian "Danza/Danza Award." Christian Spuck has also directed operas: following Gluck’s "Orphée et Euridice" at the Stuttgart State Opera, he staged Verdi’s "Falstaff" at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden, as well as Berlioz’ "La damnation de Faust" and Wagner’s "The Flying Dutchman" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. From 2012 to 2023, Christian Spuck was director of the Zürich Ballet. There he created choreographies for "Romeo and Juliet", "Leonce und Lena", "Woyzeck", "Der Sandmann", "Messa da Requiem", "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Monteverdi". The ballet "Anna Karenina", premiered in Zurich in 2014 and based on Leo Tolstoy, was added to the repertoire in Oslo, at the Moscow Stanislavski Theatre, by the Korean National Ballet, and the Bavarian State Ballet. In 2018, Spuck’s ballet "Winterreise" premiered in Zurich, earning him the Prix Benois de la Danse in 2019. In 2019, the Zürich Ballet staged Helmut Lachenmann’s "Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern", recognized as "Production of the Year" and "Company of the Year" by tanz magazine. For the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre, he created the ballet "Orlando" after Virginia Woolf in 2021. His "Messa da Requiem" was not only invited to the Adelaide Festival in Australia but also adopted by Het Nationale Oper & Ballet Amsterdam and the Finnish National Ballet. Since the beginning of the 2023/24 season, Christian Spuck has been the artistic director of the Staatsballett Berlin.

Christian Schmidt studied stage design with Erich Wonder at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. In 1992, he collaborated for the first time with Claus Guth, leading to an intensive artistic partnership. He has since designed sets and costumes for numerous Guth productions, including "Iphigénie en Tauride" and "Le nozze di Figaro" at the Salzburg Festival, "The Flying Dutchman" at the Bayreuth Festival, "Fierrabras", "Radamisto", "Ariane et Barbe-Bleue", "Tristan und Isolde", and "Parsifal" at the Zurich Opera House, as well as Mozart’s "Lucio Silla" at the Vienna Festival Weeks. The team has also gained recognition for world premieres, including Czernowin’s "Pnima" and Staud’s "Berenice" at the Munich Biennale, Ruzicka’s "Celan" in Dresden, Oehring’s "Unsichtbar Land" in Basel, and Czernowin’s "Heart Chamber" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. For Hans Neuenfels’ productions of Zemlinsky’s "Der König Kandaules" at the Vienna Volksoper (1997) and "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" in Stuttgart (1998), Schmidt created the award-winning designs. In 2003, Opernwelt named him "Set Designer of the Year" and in 2005 "Costume Designer of the Year". He received the Rolf-Mares-Preis in 2006 for the set of "Simon Boccanegra" in Hamburg. In 2010, he worked for the first time with Christof Loy ("Die lustige Witwe" in Geneva). For Christian Spuck, he created the sets for Gluck’s "Orphée et Eurydice" in Stuttgart and for "Romeo and Juliet" and "Messa da Requiem" in Zurich. Since 2011, he has also collaborated with Andreas Homoki and, together with him, directed the Zurich "Ring of the Nibelung" from 2022 to 2024.

Emma Ryott is from England and works internationally as a costume and set designer. Since 2003, she has collaborated with Christian Spuck in ballet and opera. Their joint ballet projects include "The Little Match Girl", "Winterreise", "Messa da Requiem", "Anna Karenina", and "Romeo and Juliet" in Zurich; "Lulu. Eine Monstretragödie" and "Das Fräulein von S." in Stuttgart; "Woyzeck" in Oslo and Zurich; "Leonce und Lena" in Montreal, Stuttgart, Zurich, and Prague; "Der Sandmann" in Stuttgart and Zurich; and "The Return of Ulysses" in Antwerp. In opera, they have worked on "The Flying Dutchman" and "La damnation de Faust" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, "Falstaff" in Wiesbaden, and "Orfeo ed Euridice" in Stuttgart. Other opera productions include "Mathis der Maler" at the Theater an der Wien, "Manon Lescaut" at the English National Opera, "Otello" at the Salzburg Festival, "La damnation de Faust" and "The Great Gatsby" at the Semperoper Dresden, "Marco Polo" at the Guangzhou Opera, "Das Rheingold" and "Die Walküre" at the Longborough Festival, "La bohème" at the Copenhagen Opera Festival, "Roméo et Juliette" in Malmö and at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, and "Orfeo" at the Opéra du Rhin. Their theater work has taken them from the Royal Shakespeare Company through Toronto and the National Theatre London to London’s West End and the New York Broadway. For the globally broadcast 2020 New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, Emma Ryott designed the ballet costumes. Additional ballet projects include "Cinderella" at the Finnish National Ballet, as well as Christian Spuck’s "Orlando" and Yuri Possokhov’s "The Seagull" at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre.

Martin Gebhardt was lighting designer and master electrician for John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet. From 2002 onward he collaborated with Heinz Spoerli and Ballett Zürich. Ballet productions of both companies took him to renowned theatres across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. At Zurich Opera House he created the lighting design for productions by Jürgen Flimm, David Alden, Jan Philipp Gloger, Grischa Asagaroff, Matthias Hartmann, David Pountney, Moshe Leiser/Patrice Caurier, Damiano Michieletto, and Achim Freyer. At the Salzburg Festival he designed the lighting for "La bohème" and for a new version of Spoerli’s "Der Tod und das Mädchen". Since the 2012/13 season Martin Gebhardt has been Head of Lighting at Zurich Opera House. He maintains a close collaboration with choreographer Christian Spuck (including "Winterreise", "Nussknacker und Mausekönig", "Messa da Requiem", "Anna Karenina", "Woyzeck", "Der Sandmann", "Leonce und Lena", "Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern"). He has also worked as lighting designer for choreographers Edward Clug (including "Strings", "Le Sacre du printemps" and "Faust" in Zurich), Alexei Ratmansky, Wayne McGregor, Marco Goecke, and Douglas Lee. He collaborated with Christoph Marthaler and Anna Viebrock on Handel’s "Sale" and Rossini’s "Il viaggio a Reims" in Zurich as well as on "Lulu" at the Hamburg State Opera, and with Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito at the Grand Théâtre de Genève for "Les Huguenots". In 2023 he designed the lighting for Spuck’s ballet "Bovary" at Staatsballett Berlin and in 2024 for Rossini’s "Tancredi" at the Bregenz Festival. He was also the lighting designer for Cathy Marston’s "Atonement" at Zurich Opera House.

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 Salzburg Mozarteum. From 1983 to 1986, he was Kapellmeister of the Vienna Boys’ Choir. During this time, he led the ensemble in Vienna and on tours throughout Europe, South Africa, Canada, and the USA. Starting in 1986, Ernst Raffelsberger served as Chorus Director and Kapellmeister at the Landestheater Salzburg (participating in the Salzburg Mozart Week and the Salzburg Festival). In 1989, he moved to the theater in Freiburg im Breisgau as Chorus Director and Kapellmeister. Since autumn 1993, Ernst Raffelsberger has been engaged as Chorus Director at the Zurich Opera House. By now, he has overseen around 150 premieres and countless revivals, collaborating 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. Beginning in the summer of 2012, he additionally started a 10-year tenure as Chorus Director of the Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus at the Salzburg Festival. Here, he successfully collaborated with, among others, Riccardo Muti, Mariss Jansons, and Sir Simon Rattle. After concluding this work with the 2021 festival summer, he has once again been responsible—since 2025 and at the request of Maestro Muti—for the choral preparation for his festival concerts in Salzburg.

Numerous CD and DVD recordings document his work in both Zurich and Salzburg.