With our collaboration with Victorian Opera on Richard Strauss' monumental final operatic masterpiece Capriccio just around the corner, lets get to know some of the incredible local and international singers who will perform alongside conductor Simone Young and the ANAM Orchestra.
In the leading role of The Countess is Lithuanian-born soprano Vida Miknevičiūtė. She received her masters in singing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater in Kaunas. In 2003, she received the Erasmus scholarship that took the young singer to Leipzig, where she continued her studies at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Academy of Music.
Between 2005 and 2007, Ms. Mikneviciute was a member of the International Opera Studio at the Zürich Opera House. She also had guest engagements with the Festival Aix-en-Provence and Theater Basel at that time.
2008 until 2010 she was engaged at the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera, where she sang Hebe and Phani Les Indes Galantes, Pamina and Papagena The Magic Flute, Zerlina Don Giovanni, Adina L’elisir d’amore, Sandman and Gretel Hänsel und Gretel, Micaëla Carmen, Wellgunde and Freia Das Rheingold, as well as Helmwige Die Walküre.
Ms. Mikneviciute was the recipient of 1st prize and 1st audience award in the Robert Stolz “Viennese Operetta” singing competition in Hamburg. She received the 3rd place prize in the “Operetta my Love” competition in Kaunas, Lithuania. She is also a fellow of the Concorso Riccardo Zandonai in Riva del Garda, as well as of the Barenberg Bank for artistic development in Hamburg.She has won many diplomas of ae singing competitions in Lithuania and Russia.
At the heart of Capriccio, subtitled a 'conversation piece in music,' is a love triangle between the Countess and her two lovers, the poet Olivier and the composer Flamand.
In the role of Flamand is the lauded international tenor, Michael Schade.
Michael Schade enjoys a close collaboration with the Vienna State Opera, where he was last seen in new productions of Mozart’s Idomeneo and La Clemenza di Tito, as Prince in Dvořák’s Rusalka and as Flamand in Strauss’ Capriccio. He frequently performs at the Metropolitan Opera, the Munich Opera and the Canadian Opera Company and has appeared at the Bavarian State Opera, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Liceu Barcelona, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Opéra Bastille in Paris. In November 2013 Michael Schade celebrated his role debut as Peter Grimes at the Hamburg State Opera. His most recent role debuts as Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus in Toronto and Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio at the Theater an der Wien under Nikolaus Harnoncourt were celebrated by audience and reviewers alike. Further highlights of the recent past included Aschenbach/Death in Venice in Hamburg, Max in Weber’s Freischütz at the Berlin State Opera and a new production at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, as well as Stolzing in Wagner’s Meistersinger at the 2016 Glyndebourne Festival and his role debut as Eisenstein in the traditional Fledermaus at the Vienna State Opera.
Overseeing the menage a trois is the Countesses husband, The Count played by the brilliant Australian Baritone, Samuel Dundas.
Samuel Dundas was a member of both Victorian Opera’s Artist Development and Opera Australia’s Moffatt Oxenbould Young Artist Programs.
He now performs leading roles with Opera Australia, all the Australian State Opera companies and New Zealand Opera and appears regularly with the major Australian symphony orchestras and choral societies.
Most recently Samuel has been heard in Mozart and Faure Requiem (TSO), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, (Auckland Philharmonia), Perth Festival Galileo excerpts (Mills), Wolfram (Tannhäuser) for Opera Australia, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle (Festival of Voices), Aphron (The Golden Cockerel) and Chamber Landscapes for Adelaide Festival, and the title role in Voss and Marcello (La Boheme) for State Opera South Australia.
Throughout the opera we hear conversations between the composer and poet debating what is more important in an opera, the words or the music. These conversations whirl around between the leading characters that also include a director and a famous actress Clairon.
In this special concert performance, Clairon will be sung by the much loved Australian mezzo soprano Deborah Humble.
Mezzo-Soprano Deborah Humble is one of Australia’s most successful international artists.
Her engagements include appearances with Edinburgh Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg Easter Festival, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
Most recently, Deborah Humble has appeared in Strauss’ Elektra and Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc du bûcher in Hamburg, Das Rheingold, Siegfried and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in Hong Kong, Siegfried in Boston and Peter Grimes for the Sydney Symphony.
Hear these incredible voices, and more on 31 August at the iconic Palais Theatre.
Presented by the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) and Victorian Opera.
By Evan Lawson.