International musical guests

Being on stage together with up-and-coming and already established young singers - this has already become a tradition for Elīna Garanča. On the one hand, she always brings the winner of her "ZukunftsStimmen" initiative for young singers to join her on stage, and on the other hand, she always sings with two international "friends”.

This year she has chosen a superstar of the opera world, the tenor SeokJong Baek. Eleonora Buratto, who has unfortunately fallen ill, will be replaced by Eri Nakamura from Japan. Nakamura has already stepped into the limelight as a "stand-in" when she replaced Anna Netrebko in the role of Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London. Nakamura studied singing at the Osaka Conservatory as well as in Tokyo and Amsterdam. Guest engagements have taken her to the National Theatre in Tokyo, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, and from 2010 to 2016 she was a member of the ensemble of the Bavarian State Opera. In the 2023/24 season she will make her debuts at the Royal Swedish Opera as Cio-Cio San in Madame Butterfly and at the English National Opera in 7 Deaths of Maria Callas. SeokJong Baek is from South Korea and is being celebrated as Elina Garanca's new duet partner. The tenor last appeared with Elina in a highly acclaimed performance at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

On April 11, the final audition of the most promising young talents for ZukunftsStimmen 2023 took place in the rehearsal rooms of the Volksoper Wien. This year's ZukunftsStimme is 24-year-old bass Felix Pacher, who will perform with Elīna Garanča at the Klassik Openair concerts. Standing on the impressive stage together with a world star in front of a large audience is certainly the highlight so far of a career that is still so young.

It is already a tradition that Elīna Garanča & Karel Mark Chichon rely on the Vienna Volksoper Symphony Orchestra as their sounding body and on Barbara Rett as their host.