Hans Werner Henze Phaedra - Barbican

about the performers
of Linz Opera, taking on such roles as
Papageno, Guglielmo, Belcore (L’elisir
d’amore), Pantalone (The Love for
Three Oranges), Posa (Don Carlos),
Valentine (Faust), Falke (Die
Fledermaus) and Lescaut (Manon
Lescaut), among others.
He made his debut in the music of
Henze in the role of Al Kasim in
L’Upupa und der Triumph der
Sohnesliebe at the Teatro Real in
Madrid, a role he reprised in Lyon
and Geneva and in a concert version
in Tokyo.
Most recently, he has sung in Peter
Eötvös’s Three Sisters for the Hamburg
State Opera, Poulenc’s Dialogues des
Carmélites for the Teatro Real Madrid
and Tannhäuser in Hanover, and has
also taken the title-roles in
Monteverdi’s Orfeo and
Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero.
10
Emilio Brizzi
Maria Riccarda Wesseling
mezzo-soprano
The Swiss mezzo-soprano Maria
Riccarda Wesseling sprang to
international prominence when she
replaced Susan Graham in the titlerole
of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride
for Opéra de Paris in 2006. This was
followed by acclaim for her creation of
the title-role in tonight’s work at its
2007 premiere.
Other roles include Gluck’s
Eurydice, Carmen, Octavian (Der
Rosenkavalier), Idamante (Idomeneo),
Sextus (La clemenza di Tito), the titlerole
in La Cenerentola, Rosina (The
Barber of Seville), Fenena (Nabucco),
Marguerite (Berlioz’s La damnation de
Faust), Hedwig (Offenbach’s Die
Rheinnixen), Giulietta (Les contes
d’Hoffmann), Métella (La vie
parisienne), Bianca (Zemlinsky’s Eine
florentinische Tragödie), Purcell’s Dido
and Handel roles such as Rodrigo,
Rinaldo, Amadigi, Giulio Cesare and
Sesto. Her contemporary roles include
Kassandra (Aribert Reimann’s
Troades), Pilgrim (Kaija Saariaho’s
L’amour de loin) and La Malaspina
(Sciarrino’s Luci mie traditrici).
Works performed in concert include
Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été and La mort de
Cléopâtre, Ravel’s Shéhérazade,
Respighi’s Il tramonto, Chausson’s
Poème de l’amour et de la mer,
Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder and
orchestral songs by Schoenberg,
Zemlinsky, Berg, Mahler and Richard
Strauss, which she has also recorded.
Recently Maria Riccarda Wesseling
has sung at the Théâtre des Champs-
Élysées, Opéra National de Paris,
Opéra National de Lyon, La Monnaie,
Brussels, Geneva’s Grand Théâtre,
Finnish National Opera, Staatsoper
Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Zurich
Tonhalle, and the Amsterdam
Concertgebouw, as well as festivals in
Montpellier, Beaune, Bremen, Halle,
Schwetzingen and Zurich.
Her recordings have ranged from
Handel (including the title-roles in
Amadigi and Rodrigo) to Lieder and
Wagner, plus DVDs of works by