2025-26 Season Highlights
Soprano Elbenita Kajtazi opened the Hamburg Staatsoper season in concert before debuting as Alice Ford (Falstaff) and later this season returns to Hamburg as Violetta (La traviata) and in another role debut as Luisa Miller. She also returns this year as Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte, Zurich), Violetta (La traviata, Deutsche Oper Berlin) and Mimi (La bohème, Dresden).
Lithuanian mezzo-soprano Justina Gringytė begins her season with a role debut as Eboli (Don Carlo) for the Lithuanian National Opera, followed by Mahler 3 with the Georg Enescu Philharmonic. Praised for her “knockout technique” (Gramophone), she released her debut album Bizet Arias on Ondine in September 2025, with a Verdi disc to follow in Spring 2026. Recent engagements include Paris Opera, Tonhalle Zurich and Strasbourg Philharmonic.
Baritone and director Zhengzhong Zhou, Associate Professor of Singing at the Shanghai Conservatory, continues his dual career. Recent highlights include Renato (Un ballo in maschera, NCPA Beijing) and directing ECO Opera’s European debut of Don Giovanni in Almagro, Spain. “To guide singers both on stage and in the classroom is the most rewarding balance of my career,” Zhou reflects.
Conductor Gary Matthewman builds on his growing reputation with recent performances of L’elisir d’amore in London and Don Carlo for Opéra de Baugé. Following his debut with Cape Town Opera — conducting Fauré’s Requiem with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra earlier this year — he returns to the company and looks ahead to his US debut conducting Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park in 2026 at Jacobs School of Music Opera and Ballet Theater. “My role is always to support singers — to give them freedom while holding the music’s structure,” he says.
Following the recent success of her Royal Ballet & Opera debut as Michelle in the world premiere of Turnage’s new opera Festen, Kitty Whately’s 2025–26 season features her Margret in Wozzeck with the LPO and Irene in Tamerlano at the London Handel Festival. She also continues to champion the works of female composers with the release of 3 discs: Horizons (Chandos Records, BBC Radio 3’s “Album of the Week”), a disc of Rebecca Clarke songs (Signum) and Vaughan Williams & His Circle with pianist William Vann (Albion).
This season also sees Sir Simon Keenlyside in recital across Europe with his longstanding recital partner Malcolm Martineau. They perform Schubert’s “Winterreise” at the Vienna Konzerthaus, and further recitals take them to the Musikverein Graz, Barcelona, Seville, Zeist Festival and a return to London’s Wigmore Hall.
And SR Creative is delighted to announce the worldwide management of award-winning Dutch mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn who performs Shostakovich’s Marina Tsvetaeva Songs (Screams of Despair) with the New European Ensemble at the Stadsschouwburg in Leuven; Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder on tour with the Penta Quintett; Schubert’s Winterreise with pianist Hans Eijsackers in The Hague and in Bergen; and returns to the Concertgebouw for the celebrated televised New Year’s Day Concert with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble.
25-26 Recording Releases:
