CLEMENS UNTERREINER
MARIA NAZAROVA
ALEXANDER KAIMBACHER
La Notte Italiana

The Russian soprano Maria Nazarova is one of the outstanding voices of her generation. She has been a member of the Vienna State Opera ensemble since 2015, where she has thrilled audiences in roles such as Pamina ("Die Zauberflöte"), Despina ("Così fan tutte"), Susanna ("Le nozze di Figaro"), Adina ("L'elisir d'amore") and Adele ("Die Fledermaus"). Her versatility, stylistic elegance and lively stage presence make her a sought-after interpreter of the lyrical repertoire.

Guest engagements have taken her to renowned opera houses such as La Scala in Milan, the state operas in Berlin, Hamburg and Stuttgart, the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, the opera houses in Lyon, Tokyo and Florence as well as the Salzburg Festival. She has worked with renowned conductors and directors and has been equally convincing in both the classical and contemporary repertoire.

Maria Nazarova studied at the Russian Academy of Theater Arts in Moscow, at the Mozarteum Salzburg and at the Music and Arts Private University Vienna (MUK). She has won prizes at several international singing competitions and won first prize at the "Primo Concorso Lirico Internazionale di Portofino" in 2015.

She enchants audiences and critics alike with her radiant voice, her fine musical intuition and her natural charisma. At the Taggenbrunn Festival 2026 Maria Nazarova will be performing for the first time - a special evening with an extraordinary artist.

Alexander Kaimbacher was born in Villach and now lives with his family in Vienna. He studied singing, acting, Waldorf education, theater, film and media studies. Alexander Kaimbacher has been working as a freelance opera and concert singer since 1998 and was a member of the ensembles of the Vienna and Bavarian State Operas. He is a professor of singing at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz and teaches singing at the opera school of the Vienna State Opera.

His particular strength lies in his intense interpretation of words and music in character roles such as Loge, Candide, Eisenstein, Celebrant, Aschenbach. In 2019, he made his role debut at Zurich Opera House as the Holy drinker Piet from the barrel in György Ligeti Le Grand Macabre. 2021 followed the Painter in Bergs LULU at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest, in Biel/Solothurn Eiger by Fabian Müller, in Bolzano Dead ice by Manuela Kerer and in Bielefeld Egmont by Christian Jost. He also made his role debut there in 2023 as Parsifalstaged in the new format of a light opera.

Most recently, he sang at the Bregenz Festival in a co-production with the Neue Oper Wien in the world premiere of The Judith of Shimoda by Fabian Panisello, at the Komische Oper Berlin Offenbach's The banditsas well as in Hamburg, Cologne and Paris The Soldiers by Bernd Alois Zimmermann.

In 2023, he also took over the role of the HIOB in the new opera of the same name by Bernhard Lang and Michael Sturminger, based on the novel by Joseph Roth, which was awarded the Austrian Theater Prize in September 2024. 2025 was all about Johann Strauss, with once Bat at the Theater an der Wien, directed by Stefan Herheim, and Indigo and the 23 robbers*inside in all 23 districts of Vienna at the Johann Strauss Festival Vienna 2025.

From 2026, he will take over the directorship of Neue Oper Wien together with his wife Anna Sushon.

The remarkable story of his life from blind child to Austrian chamber singer, author, singing teacher and artistic director is a truly extraordinary Austrian career. Clemens grew up in his hometown of Vienna as well as in Graz and Budapest and completed a private singing education with renowned teachers. In 2000, he was awarded the prestigious Richard Wagner Bayreuth Scholarship. In the following years, he took part in master classes with Bernd Weikl, Christa Ludwig, Gottfried Hornik, Renate Holm and Wicus Slabbert. He was a semi-finalist at the 21st International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in 2002 and from there was engaged by the Linz Landestheater, where he made his opera debut in October 2002 in the European premiere of The Voyage by Philip Glass under Maestro Dennis Russell Davies. He has been a soloist at the Vienna State Opera since 2005, where he has already established himself as a celebrated audience favorite in over 950 performances, 27 premieres and more than 98 different roles. As an internationally sought-after guest soloist and concert singer, he has appeared in London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Singapore, Baden-Baden, Dresden, Nice, Muscat, Bratislava, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Munich, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, etc. He regularly works with all the great colleagues, directors and conductors in the classical music world.

His famous "long voice" from deep bass-baritone to high tenor-baritone allows him to perform a wide-ranging repertoire of all eras and styles from early music, renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, new music to contemporary world premieres. He attaches great importance to a varied repertoire ranging from the lyrical Mozart repertoire to Italian, French and Russian cavalier baritone roles and German heroic baritone parts and also includes an extensive song repertoire as well as masses and oratorios. Clemens Unterreiner was appointed Austrian KAMMERSÄNGER on June 21, 2023 in the traditional tea salon of the Vienna State Opera. Since September 1, 2023, he has been INTENDANT and Artistic Director of the BURG GARS Opera, where he will open his second season in 2025 with "La Traviata". At Austria's largest unamplified opera festival, he creates a varied, top-class cultural program with top stars and newcomers from the classical music industry in addition to the open-air summer opera with the new KulturBURG. In addition to his artistic activities as a singer and artistic director, Unterreiner also supports people in need with his association HILFSTÖNE, is committed to promoting young up-and-coming artists, leads masterclasses and is active on the jury of international singing competitions.

Andrea Linsbauer, born in Vienna, studied music education with a focus on song accompaniment, singing and music conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw) and Romance studies at the University of Vienna. The pianist is passionate about song accompaniment and chamber music and regularly performs with artists such as Robert Holl, Adrian Eröd, Ildikó Raimondi, Günter Haumer, Paul A. Edelmann and Benjamin Schmid.

As a Lied accompanist, she has performed at the Wexford Festival, the National Opera in Kiev, the Teatro Carlo Felice Genova, the Austrian Cultural Forum in Tokyo and the "Semanas musicales de Frutillar" in Chile. As a proven interpreter of Fritz Kreisler's works, she is a chamber music partner of Christian Altenburger, Ekaterina Frolova and Daniel Auner.

In addition to her artistic activities, Andrea Linsbauer taught at the mdw and researched Fritz Kreisler's entire estate at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.. Her publication "The Viennese moment in the compositions of Fritz Kreisler" is considered a fundamental study of his work.