Caroline Melzer

Brilliant: Caroline Melzer
Der Standard, Ljubisa Tosic, 27.9.2019

Caroline Melzer dazzles with her „clear, big-framed sunny soprano“ (Eleonore Büning FAZ) and her unusually wide repertoire, ranging from big lyrical and jugendlich-dramatic roles to Operetta divas to contemporary works written specifically for her. She studied singing with Rudolf Piernay and Vera Scherr and song interpretation with Ulrich Eisenlohr and Irwin Gage

Her first permanent engagement was at the Komische Oper Berlin, where from 2007 through 2010 she sang numerous roles including Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Fiordiligi, Mimì, Armida (directed by Calixto Bieito), Cordelia in Aribert Reimann’s Lear (directed by Hans Neuenfels), Lisa (Pique Dame) and Leonore in the first edition of Fidelio. From 2010 until 2017 she was a permanent ensemble member at the Vienna Volksoper, where she has sung roles such as Rusalka, Marie (The Bartered Bride), Micaela, Liù, Donna Elvira, Sieglinde in Ring in one evening (arrangement by Loriot) and the Merry Widow. During this time, she also made guest appearances at the Ruhrtriennale and as First Lady in TheMagic Flute at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, as Merry Widow at the Savonlinna Festival in Finland and in Tokyo, as well as Cordelia in Aribert Reimann’s Lear at the Hungarian State Opera. In the current season, she is back on stage at the Volksoper Vienna as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and as Giulietta in The Tales of Hoffmann, and will be heard at the Neue Oper Wien and at the Müpa Budapest as the Angel in Peter Eötvös's Angels in America. Concert appearances will take her to deDoelen Rotterdam (for Olivier Messiaen’s Harawi), the Philharmonie Berlin and the Gasteig Munich (Anton von Webern’s Orchesterlieder with the Ensemble Modern), the Town Hall Birmingham, the West Cork Chamber Music Festival as well as to London and Moscow (Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Studio for New Music).

Contemporary music is a particular focus of her work: important collaborations have included Aribert Reimann who wrote the cycle Rilke-Fragmente and the scene Der Blick war’s, der mich ins Verderben riss for her, with Manfred Trojahn (Zwetajewa and Nitzsche songs) and with Wolfang Rihm in connection with his Zwetajewa songs. Additionally, she has given many other world premieres of works by Emanuele Casale, Seán Doherty, Deidre Gribbin, Stefan Heucke, Bernhard Lang, Jüri Reinvere, Vladimir Tarnopolski, Steffen Schleiermacher and Kate Whitley and has worked with the pianist Axel Bauni, with ensembles such as Ensemble modern, musikFabrik and the Ensemble Intercontemporain. She also passionately devotes herself to the vocal works of György Kurtág with great commitment: in addition to the Kafka Fragments, which she performs together with the violinist Nurit Stark (the CD of which, released on the BIS label in 2015, has been awarded the German Record Critics' Prize), she has performed many of the composer’s chamber music works with voice.

As a concert singer, Caroline Melzer has appeared at festivals including the Rheingau Musik Festival, UltraSchall Festival Berlin, Mozartfest Würzburg, Herbstlichen Musiktagen Bad Ulrach and the Gustav Mahler Musikwochen Toblach, and she appeared in the Berlin Philharmonie, Berlin Konzerthaus, Vienna Konzerthaus, Laeizshalle Hamburg, Tonhalle Zurich, deSingel ArtCenter Antwerp and Liederhalle Stuttgart working with conductors including Stefan Soltesz, Peter Rundel, Helmuth Rilling, Patrick Lange, Konrad Junghänel, Christoph Poppen, Alfred Eschwé, Jac van Steen, Frieder Bernius, Francois-Xavier Roth and Michael Sanderling. Caroline Melzer has made several CD recordings, radio productions and live broadcasts. Numerous Lieder recitals have taken Caroline Melzer throughout Germany and to Austria, Spain, Belgium and Switzerland.

She teaches voice studies at the universities of music in Mannheim and Berlin (UdK).

Season 2019/2020

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PROGRAMME SUGGESTIONS:

KURTÁG: Kafka-Fragmente
with N. Stark, violin / I. Robson, video direction (optional)

KURTÁG: Die Sprüche des Péter Bornemisza
Combination Possibility #1: PURCELL
Combination Possibility #2: SCHUBERT
with J. P. Schulze, piano

MESSIAEN: Harawi
with C. Pescia, piano / C. Pons, video direction (optional)

HINDEMITH: Das Marienlieben
with A. Bauni, piano