July 19, 2025, 20:00
The Great Hall

Gala Concert. Most Beautiful Opera Arias

Artists:
Aleksandrs Antoņenko, tenor
Zanda Švēde, mezzo-soprano
Inga Kalna, soprano
Vittorio De Campo (Italy), bass
and other soloists
Jūrmala Festival Orchestra
Conductor Mārtiņš Ozoliņš

Performers

Aleksandrs Antoņenko

Aleksandrs Antoņenko

Tenor

The most prominent Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antoņenko has conquered the world's most famous opera-theatres and concert halls over the last ten years, performing nearly 30 roles for tenors. Since 2004, he has become the most internationally renowned Latvian tenor, who has successfully debuted in Berlin's operas, Dresden Semperoper, Oslo and Stockholm Royal Opera, Geneva, Paris, Rome and Munich Opera Houses, Vienna State Opera, London Covent Garden and New York's Metropolitan Opera House. Led by conductor Riccardo Mutti, Antoņenko’s debut as Otello in the prestigious Salzburg Festival in 2008 was a tremendous success.  A year later, he successfully debuted at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, where A. Antonenko now returns regularly, playing the leading tenor roles.

Jūrmala festival orchestra

Jūrmala festival orchestra

Zanda Švēde

Zanda Švēde

Mezzo-soprano

Zanda Švēde

Zanda Švēde

Mezzo-soprano

Latvian mezzo-soprano Zanda Švēde has been praised for her “lush timber” (Münchener Merkur) and “full-bodied, sensuous voice and arresting presence” (Post Gazette). She starts her 2024/2025 season with returning to roles of Sonjetka in Lady Macbeth of Mcensk and Maddalena in Rigoletto at her home company Oper Frankfurt. There she will also present a Recital in Holzfoyer with a title Soirée en merLater in the season Zanda will make her role debuts as Eduige in Handel's Rodelinda and Pythia in Rheiman's Melusine. This season will also include return to Latvian National Symphony to perform Beethowen's Missa Solemnis.

Mārtiņš Ozoliņš

Mārtiņš Ozoliņš is the Chief Conductor of the Latvian National Opera and Ballet and an Associate Professor at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. He is the winner of the prestigious IV International Jorma Panula Conducting Competition. He debuted at the Latvian National Opera in 2003 conducting Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Nabucco. Mārtiņš Ozoliņš has led many performances of ballets and operas, gala concerts and choral symphonies, and been the Music Director for most of the Latvian National Opera and Ballet’s new productions and renewals of previous work. The conductor has collaborated with many international orchestras: the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste, Catania Teatro Massimo Bellini Opera Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, the Georgian State Opera Orchestra and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, among others.

Inga Kalna

Inga Kalna

Soprano

Inga Kalna

Inga Kalna is a bright interpreter of baroque, classicism and, in recent years, romantic repertoire, which is in demand in Europe. Her soprano is rich and colorful, her coloratura technique is amazing, her sense of style is precise and competent. As a freelance artist, Inga Kalna performs at Hamburg State Opera, Vienna State Opera, Paris National Opera, Brussels La Monnaie, Milan La Scala, Salzburg Festival and other prestigious concert venues and festivals. Inga Kalna's repertoire includes the lyrical soprano parts, chamber music and extended works of almost all operas by the most prominent Western European composers, including the sacred works of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Berlioz, Verdi and Mahler's Fourth Symphony.

Vittorio De Campo

Vittorio De Campo studied opera singing while completing his economics studies at the Università degli Studi Milano-Bicocca. He made his debut on the opera stage in 2017 as “Sciarrone” in Tosca at the Puccini Torre del Lago Festival and in the following years worked there with artists such as director Giancarlo del Monaco and fellow singers such as Maria Guleghina and Jose Cura. In 2020 he appeared in a concert at the Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid. The following year he sang Beethoven's 9th Symphony there and in the Teatro Real as well as in Zaragoza.