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 on December 26, 1969 in Villach and now lives with his family in Vienna. He studied singing, acting, Waldorf education, German studies, music, theater, film and media studies. After a break of almost 20 years, he resumed his studies in 2017 and completed his Master's degree in Theater, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna in 2021 with a thesis on "the magical moment and the question of its digital repeatability in the transitory work of art". He worked as a Waldorf teacher, social pedagogue, vocal coach and university professor for singing. He has worked 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 specialist in lieder and new music. Highlights of recent years include a role debut at the Zurich Opera House in György Ligeti's "Le Grand Macabre" as the holy drunkard Piet vom Fass in 2019, which was highly praised by critics and audiences, and in 2021 he sang Gustav Aschenbach again with great success in a new production at the Neue Oper Wien, 2022 the world premiere of Fanbian Müller's mountaineering drama "EIGER" at Theater Biel/Solothurn and the German premiere of "EGMONT", an opera by Christian Jost at Theater Bielefeld, as well as 2023 the world premiere of Bernhard Lang's "HIOB" at Klagenfurt Stadttheater and his debut as "Parsifal" by Richard Wagner in Bielefeld. The biggest turning point in his career to date came in the fall of 2022, when Alexander Kaimbacher was appointed Professor of Singing at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz.

Three new productions are on the versatile artist's program for the 2023/24 season. It begins with a world premiere at the Bregenz Festival as a co-production of Neue Oper Wien in summer 2023 and follow-up performances in November 2023 in Vienna with Fabian Panisello's opera based on Bertolt Brecht's play "Die Judith von Shimoda". In September 2023, the world premiere of "Wrath / Heiliger Zorn" by Thomas Desi is on the program at the Musiktheatertage Wien. In 2024, "Die Soldaten" by Bernd Alois Zimmermann will be performed again under Francois-Xavier Roth and Calixto Bieito at the Cologne, Hamburg and Paris philharmonic orchestras.

In 2023, the tenor celebrates his 25th stage anniversary. This closes a mental and artistic arc for him, as at the beginning of his career, the role of Candide became formative for his artistic work: in May 2023, the "naive pure fool" in Leonard Bernstein's CANDIDE was followed 23 years later by the "knowing through compassion, the pure" fool in Richard Wagner's PARSIFAL in the new concept of a light opera in the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle in Bielefeld.

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.