Caroline Melzer, Simon Bode, Ulrich Eisenlohr
Biography Caroline Melzer, Simon Bode, Ulrich Eisenlohr
Caroline Melzer
dazzles with her “clear, broad, and bright soprano“ (Eleonore Büning FAZ) and her unusually wide repertoire, ranging from big lyrical and jugendlich-dramatic roles to Operetta divas and 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 took the expressive singer to the Komische Oper Berlin in 2007, where she sang numerous roles such as Contessa, Fiordiligi, Mimì, Giulietta (Tales of Hoffmann), Lisa (Queen of Spades), Lisa (The Land of Smiles), Leonore in the first version of Fidelio, and Cordelia in Aribert Reimann's Lear in the highly acclaimed new production by Hans Neuenfels. 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. In addition to her regular engagements, Caroline Melzer has appeared at the Ruhrtriennale, as First Lady at the Staatsoper Berlin and as Merry Widow at the Savonlinna Festival in Finland and in Tokyo, as well as Cordelia in Lear at the Hungarian State Opera. Last season she appeared again on the stage of the Volksoper as Donna Elvira and as Giulietta in Tales of Hoffmann, and could be heard at the Neue Oper Wien and at the Müpa Budapest as Angel in Péter Eötvös' Angels in America. She started the 2021/22 season with the world premiere of Michael Wertmüller's D • I • E at the Ruhrtriennale; she also returns to the Volksoper Wien as Mariza. Concerts and recitals will take her to Lausanne (Mahler Lieder with Michael Nagy and Cedric Péscia), to the Bozar in Brussels with the Tana Quartet, and to Vienna, where she will give New Year's concerts with the Tonkünstler Orchestra. She will also be a guest in a world premiere by Felix Leuschner at the Theater Kassel.
Contemporary music is a particular focus of her work. Important collaborators include: Aribert Reimann, who wrote for her the cycle Rilke-Fragmente and the piece Der Blick war’s, der mich ins Verderben riss; Manfred Trojahn (Zwetajewa and Nitzsche songs); and Wolfang Rihm, in connection with his Zwetajewa songs. In addition, 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. She has also worked with the pianist Axel Bauni, and ensembles such as Ensemble modern, musikFabrik, and Ensemble Intercontemporain. She also passionately devotes herself to the vocal works of György Kurtág: 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.
In the course of her activities as a lied and concert singer, Caroline Melzer has appeared in renowned European halls such as the Philharmonie Berlin, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Musikverein Vienna, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Auditorium Grafenegg, the Kunstzentrum deSingel Antwerpen, the Cité de la Musique Paris, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Tonhalle Zürich, the Philharmonie Essen, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, deDoelen Rotterdam, Tchaikovsky Conservatory Moscow, the Town Hall Birmingham, and the Liederhalle Stuttgart. The complete recording of the Schumann Lieder will be completed on the Naxos label in April 2022, on which she is featured on two CDs. Caroline Melzer has worked with conductors such as Stefan Soltesz, Peter Rundel, Péter Eötvös, Helmuth Rilling, Christoph Poppen, Friedemann Layer, Konrad Junghänel, Patrick Lange, François-Xavier Roth, Alfred Eschwé, Jac van Steen, Frieder Bernius, and Michael Sanderling.
She is a lecturer for singing in Berlin (UdK) and from autumn 2022 at the Zurich University of the Arts.
Simon Bode
is a commanding presence on the opera and recital stages throughout Europe. Born in Hamburg, his recital and concert career has taken this young tenor to prestigious international festivals including Salzburger Festspiele, Beethovenfest Bonn, Heidelberger Frühling, Kissinger Sommer, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein, and Schlossfestspiele Ludwigsburg. Mr. Bode recently sang highly praised debuts at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin and the Rheingau Musik Festival and reappeared with a solo recital at Wigmore Hall London. His regular collaborators are pianists Igor Levit, Graham Johnson and Nicholas Rimmer as well as Bajanist Elsbeth Moser. Whilst a member of the soloist ensemble at Oper Frankfurt and State Opera Hanover, he received several nominations for “Young Singer of the Year” from Opernwelt Magazine. Recent engagements include title roles at the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Théatre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, International Handel Festival Göttingen, Hannover State Opera, Theater Basel, Wiesbaden State Opera and the Bregenz Festival, singing under conductors Kent Nagano, Andrew Manze, Andrea Marcon, Constantinos Carydis, HK Gruber, Peter Eötvös and Sebastian Weigle. Simon has performed regularly with renowned orchestras and ensembles such as Wiener Philharmonikern, dem Ensemble Modern, der NDR Radiophilharmonie, dem Münchner Rundfunkorchester oder „Les Talens Lyriques“. His broad-ranging repertoire spans from Bach’s Passions and the most demanding roles of his fach, to world premieres of contemporary works. He has sung numerous world premieres. Simon Bode is scholar and recipient of numerous prizes and awards, was a former student of Charlotte Lehmann in Hannover and currently studies with Neil Semer in New York.
