29.01.2013
Opera successes of Slovene musicians
On 19 January 2013 Marko Letonja made his highly successful opera debut in the Vienna State Opera, conducting Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades.
Letonja made his highly successful opera debut in the Vienna State Opera, conducting Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, under the direction of the famous Vera Nemirova. In this year's opera season, Letonja will conduct 4 stagings of the opera.
Letonja has conducted several prominent symphonic and opera orchestras in the world, such as the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Munich and Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphonic Orchestra, Milan's Giuseppe Verdi Symphonic Orchestra and the opera orchestras of Cagliari and Stockholm among others. Since September 2012 Letonja has worked as music director and chief conductor of the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, whilst remaining the artistic director of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
Foto: Artist Management Zürich
The Slovenian conductor has been highly acclaimed for his rendition of operatic works, such as Carmen in Munich's Prinzregententheater (2009), Die Walküre in Strasbourg Opera (2008) and Hoffmann's Tales in Milan's Scala (2012). French professional organisation for theatre, music and dance reviews (Le Syndicat Professionel de la Critique Théatre Musique Danse) awarded the Strasbourg Opera the prize of the best opera production of the 2010/11 season for Letonja's rendition of Wagner’s music drama Götterdammerung, directed by David McVicar from Scotland.
A regular performer in the Vienna State Opera is also Slovene mezzo-soprano Monika Bohinec, who became a member of this prestigious opera house in the 2011/2012 season. Bohinec performs the roles of Lola (Cavalleria rusticana), Madame Larina (Evgenij Onjegin), Ulrica (Un ballo in maschera), Marzellina (The Marriage of Figaro) and Fenena (Nabucco). She recently performed Fenena on Tuesday 22 January 2013. Monika Bohinec is the grant recipient of the Richard Wagner and Hildegard Zadek Foundations. She has studied in Salzburg and at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where she graduated in the class of Professor Claudia Visca in 2008.
Among Slovenian singers successfully performing abroad is also soprano Bernarda Bobro. Bobro, who debuted last year in the role of Violeta in Traviata in London's Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, will perform this summer as Pamina in Mozart's Magic Flute at the Austrian Bregenz Festival, where operas are traditionally performed on the floating stage (Seebühne) with the capacity of 7 000 seats on the banks of Lake Constance. In September, she will perform at George Enescu Festival with the Vienna Academy Orchestra in Bucharest within the framework of the project The Infernal Comedy. The production, under the direction of Michael Sturminger and conducted by the artistic leader and conductor of the Vienna Academy Orchestra Martin Haselböck, premiered in 2008 in Los Angeles. It has since been staged in renowned opera houses in Los Angeles, Brussels, Prague, Budapest, Berlin, and London. The dramatic performance, narrated by the famous actor John Malkovich, also features musical arias of Gluck, Mozart, Vivaldi, Beethoven and Haydn. Bernarda Bobro will perform with sopranos: Aleksandra Zamojska, Laura Aikin, Louise Fribo and Marie Arnet.
