Here We Go Again!

During the festival, Trans-Siberian Art Festival 2018

Festival Opening Concert in Novosibirsk

Beethoven, Strauss

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Overture “Die Weihe des Hauses”

Symphony No. 8



Johann Strauss (1825-1899)

Highlights from the operetta

“Die Fledermaus”

1. Overture

2. Trio Rosalinde/Eisenstein/Blind “Nein, mit solchen Advokaten”

3. Adele’s Couplets “Mein Herr Marquis”

4. Duet Eisenstein/Falke “Komm mit mir zum Souper”

5. From the Act I Finale:

“Trinke Liebchen, trinke schnell”

“Mit mir so spät im tête-à-tête”

“Mein schönes, grosses Vogelhaus”

6. Orlofsky’s Couplet “Ich lade gern mir Gäste ein”

7. Watch-Duet Rosalinde/Eisenstein

8. Rosalinde’s Csardas “Klänge der Heimat”

9. Adele’s Couplet “Spiel ich die Unschuld vom Lande”

from the Act II Finale: “Im Feuerstrom der
Reben”

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Melba Ramos
Soprano 

American soprano Melba Ramos graduated from the Pablo Casals Conservatoire in her hometown San Juan, Puerto Rico. Three times, she won the First Prize at the District Metropolitan Opera Auditions. After moving to Europe, she continued her studies at the Cologne Opera Studio and, following some years as a freelance singer, she became a permanent member of the theatre in Wuppertal, Germany. Since the 2004/05 season she has been a member of the Vienna “Volksoper”. As a guest artist, she has sung at major opera houses and festivals in the German-speaking countries and beyond. With specialist conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Christopher Hogwood and Thomas Hengelbrock Melba Ramos performed works by Mozart, Haydn and operas from the Baroque period. Over the years, her repertoire shifted from the light coloratura to more lyrical soprano roles, and more recently to parts in operas by Verdi, Puccini, Richard Strauss and even Wagner. In the current season, audiences at the Vienna “Volksoper” can hear Melba Ramos as Senta in “The Flying Dutchman”, as First Lady in “The Magic Flute” and as Gertrud in Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel”.

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Martina Mikelic
Contralto 

Martina Mikelic was born in Croatia and studied singing at the University of Music in Vienna. Admired for her intense stage presence and extraordinary alto voice, she was identified as one of the ten best talents from all Austrian art universities. Amongst others, she has worked at the Salzburg Festival in “Elektra” under Daniele Gatti, in “Die Frau ohne Schatten” (Christian Thielemann); Mozart’s Coronation Mass (Franz Welser-Möst); at the Vienna State Opera in “Elektra” and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (C. Thielemann); the “Wesendonck” songs at the Vienna Musikverein; “Carmen” at Komische Oper Berlin; Prince Orlofsky at the Tokyo Bunkakaikan and at the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow; “Das Paradies und die Peri” (D. Gatti) at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome; “Messiah” in Amsterdam. Since the age of 23, she has been an ensemble member of the Vienna “Volksoper”, where she has sung important roles from the mezzo-soprano and contralto repertoire: Carmen, Hippolyta, Orlofsky, Magdalena, Ježibaba, Zita, Florence Pike, Konchakovna, Mary and many more. Future engagements include Brangäne in Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” at the Nederlands Reisoper.

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Jörg Schneider
Tenor 

Austrian tenor Jörg Schneider first sang with the Vienna Boys Choir before studying with Elfriede Obrowsky in Vienna. He was a member of the German opera houses at Wiesbaden and Düsseldorf/Duisburg before joining the ensemble of the Vienna Volksoper for ten years. Since 2017, he has been a soloist of the Vienna State Opera. He sings a vast repertoire of roles by Mozart, Wagner and R. Strauss, but also Monteverdi, Berg or von Einem. With many of them he appears at leading opera houses all over Europe, at the Salzburg Festival, at Glyndebourne, in Japan and Hong Kong. Moreover, he is an expert in Viennese operetta, having performed in many works from this genre and having made several recordings, such as “Die Fledermaus” with Edita Gruberova, “Der Vogelhändler” at the Austrian operetta festival in Mörbisch and an operetta aria recital. On the concert platform he has sung at the Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Brucknerhaus Linz, Philharmonie Dresden, Radio France and Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Conductors Jörg Schneider worked with include Christian Thielemann, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Edo de Waart, Pinchas Steinberg and Semyon Bychkov.

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Davide Damiani
Baritone 

Baritone Davide Damiani was born in Tavullia (Pesaro, Italy). In 1993 he made his debut in the title role of “Don Giovanni” in Tel Aviv. From 1995 to 1999 he was member of the ensemble of the Vienna State Opera, where he sang Puccini’s Sharpless, Donizetti’s Belcore, Mozart’s Conte d’Almaviva, and in new productions of Enescu’s “Oedipe”, Meyerbeer’s “Le Prophète”, Giordano’s “Fedora”, in addition to Comte de Toulouse in Verdi’s “Jérusalem”, conducted by Zubin Mehta. He made his successful debuts in almost all Italian theatres and returns to most of them regularly. Outside of Italy he sang at opera houses in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Wales, Ireland, Belgium, and overseas in the U.S.A., Canada and Japan. He has worked with conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Riccardo Chailly, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Daniel Oren, Ingo Metzmacher and well-known stage directors including Daniele Abbado, Luc Bondy, Robert Carsen, Götz Friedrich, Hans Neuenfels, David Pountney, Franco Zeffirelli, Calixto Bieito, Graham Vick, Christof Loy.

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Sascha Goetzel 
Conductor

Viennese conductor Sascha Goetzel’s international reputation has been crafted during his ten year tenure as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, where he raised the ensemble’s artistic standards and earned wide-spread recognition with unique programming, CD recordings and tours to the Salzburg Festival, BBC Proms, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Royal Concertgebouw, Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus. A welcome international guest conductor, he appeared with the Mariinsky Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, NHK-Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestras, among many others, and worked with soloists such as Maxim Vengerov, Murray Perahia, Rudolf Buchbinder, Yuja Wang, Vadim Repin, Hillary Hahn and Branford Marsalis. Esteemed as an opera conductor, he has been a regular guest at the Vienna State Opera since his successful “Marriage of Figaro” in 2014. In addition to working with various youth orchestras he believes in the importance of music education, building bridges for a mutual multi-cultural understanding.