Hans Werner Henze Phaedra - Barbican

about the performers
debut under Sir Charles Mackerras. At
the Salzburg Festival he created the
role of The Demon in the world
premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s
L’Upupa und der Triumph der
Sohnesliebe, a role to which he
returned in Dresden last year. Other
operatic appearances include the titleroles
in Handel’s Samson for
Netherlands Opera and in Idomeneo
and Orfeo at the Munich Festival,
Captain Vere in Billy Budd in Frankfurt,
and Skuratov in From the House of the
Dead at the Amsterdam, Vienna and
Aix-en-Provence festivals. Recent and
future engagements include Billy Budd
at Glyndebourne and his debut at La
Scala, Milan, in From the House of the
Dead.
John Mark Ainsley’s extensive
discography ranges from Bach and
Handel to Britten and Brigadoon, as
well as including a series of recital
discs of Schubert, Mozart, Purcell,
Grainger, Warlock and Quilter. His
recording of Vaughan Williams’s On
Wenlock Edge was nominated for a
Gramophone Award, and he was the
winner of the Royal Philharmonic
Society Singer Award in 2007.
8
Carsten Nüssler
Axel Köhler countertenor
Countertenor and director Axel Köhler
was born in Schwarzenberg and
trained initially as a baritone, before
switching to countertenor while
studying in Berlin and London. He
made his countertenor debut as
Eustazio (Handel’s Rinaldo) at the
Handel Festival in Halle. Since then he
has established a reputation as a
Handelian, including title-roles in
Sosarme, Giulio Cesare, Orlando,
Tolomeo and Tamerlano, making his
American debut in the latter role in
1990.
Other repertoire ranges from
Monteverdi’s The Coronation of
Poppea and Orfeo and Telemann’s
Orfeo to Die Fledermaus and The
Rake’s Progress. Contemporary music
also forms an important strand in Axel
Köhler’s career, including Alexander
Goehr’s Arianna, the title-role in
Siegfried Matthus’s Farinelli, Detlev
Glanert’s Scherz, Satire, Ironie und
tiefere Bedeutung, Hans Werner
Henze’s L’Upupa und der Triumph der
Sohnesliebe and the title-role in Cantor
by Ingomar Grünauer.
He participated in the premiere of
Henze’s Phaedra at the Berlin State
Opera, creating the role he sings this
evening, and which he subsequently
performed in Brussels, Vienna,
Frankfurt and Berlin in 2008. The same
year saw productions of Ariodante in
Halle and Hasse’s Cleofide in
Dresden.
Since 2000 Axel Köhler has also been
active as a stage director, with
productions of The Coronation of
Poppea, Teseo, Amadigi, Admeto,
Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute,
Boieldieu’s La dame blanche, Lehár’s
Das Land des Lächelns, Britten’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream and Paul
Abraham’s The Flower of Hawaii.
At the start of this season he became
the artistic manager of Halle Opera.