Tora Augestad: Wonderful Town in Oslo

On 10 April 2026, the Norwegian mezzo-soprano Tora Augestad will perform for the first time on the mainstage of the Den Norske Opera in Oslo. She will make her debut in the main hall as Ruth Sherwood in Leonard Bernstein‘s outstanding musical Wonderful Town (1953) in the direction of Garrett Keast who will lead the Opera Orchestra and Opera Chorus. Further performances of this musical in concert will take place on 11/21/23 April 2026. Next to Wonderful Town the programme also presents the Overture to Bernstein’s Candide and the Symphonic Dances from his West Side Story. Soloists on stage will include Rory Green (Robert Baker), Eli Kristin Hanssveen (Eileen Sherwood) and others. Tora Augestad already sang several of Leonard Bernstein’s songs in concert with orchestra, for example his world-famous Somewhere.

(published on 1 April 2026)

Lavinia Dames: Opera Roles in Spring

On 6 April 2026 and 10 May 2026, the soprano Lavinia Dames will perform Lauretta in Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. Stefano Ranzani will conduct the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker in the full staging of Il Trittico by Dietrich W. Hilsdorf and in the set and costume design by Johannes Leiacker. Colleagues on stage will include Sergej Khomov (Gherardo), Anke Krabbe (Nella), Riccardo Romeo (Rinuccio), Eva Vogel (Zita) and Alexey Zelenkov (Gianni Schicchi).

On 12 April 2026, the premiere of Richard Strauss‘ Elektra will be presented at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf.  Further performances are scheduled on 18/24/30 April 2026, 3/29 May 2026 and on 4 June 2026. Lavinia Dames will sing the 4. Magd in the stage direction of Stephan Kimming, the set has been designed by Katja Haß and the costumes by Anja Rabes. Vitali Alekseenok will lead the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker. Liana Aleksanyan will slip into the role of Chrysothemis, Magdalena Anna Hofmann of Elektra, Cornel Frey of Aegisth, Linda Watson of Klytämnestra and Richard Sveda into the role of Orest.
Toi toi toi to the whole team and cast!

(published on 31 March 2026)

Vanessa Porter: Solo-Concert MaerzMusik

On 28 March 2026, the percussionist Vanessa Porter will present Samir Odeh-Tamimi’s new piece Éndropía for percussion solo, live-electronics and video projections at the Radialsystem Berlin at MaerzMusik and will make her debut as soloist at this renowned contemporary festival. Andrei Cucu will be the responsible for the sound direction and video projections. The successful world premiere of this piece has been presented in February 2026 by the Eclat Festival at the Theaterhaus Stuttgart. In artistic processes, entropy is significant for the balance between structure and dissolution, order and chaos. These contrasting elements converge in εντροπία to form a polyrhythmic, multisensory performance. 

(published on 25 March 2026)

Sofia Jernberg: Premiere No! in Vienna

On 27 March 2026, the vocal artist Sofia Jernberg will perform the Austrian premiere of Chaya Czernowin’s No! A Lament for the Innocent at the Musikverein Wien. Sofia will make her debut with the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien in the musical direction of Maxime Pascal who already led the world premiere in Cologne in 2025 to great acclaim. The second soloist will be the soprano Keren Motseri and further works on the programme will be Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and Nikolai Rimskij-Korsakov’s Scheherazade Op. 35. In the current season No! has already been premiered successfully with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop in Katowice as well as with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Alan Gilbert in Paris.

(published on 24 March 2026)