Krešimir Stražanac
Bass-baritone KRESIMIR STRAZANAC in the 2022 /2023 season he performed, among others, with the Berlin Philharmonic and chief conductor Kirill Petrenko in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, the La Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona and the Auditorio Naciona de Musical in Madrid; he performed the title roles in the premieres of the operas Orpheus by Georg Philipp Telmann and The Liberation of Ruggiero from the Island of Alcina by Francesca Caccini at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, and other important roles in the operas Alfonso and Estrella by F. Schubert in Helsinki and the opera Three Pintos by C. M. von Weber at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, concerts at the Bach Festival in Montreal under the direction of Masaaki Suzuki and performances throughout Europe of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio under the direction of Christoph Rousset as well as the Mass in B minor and the St John’s Passion under the direction of Philippe Herrewegh.
Krešimir Stražanac, baritone
After studying in Stuttgart, Stražanac became a soloist at the Opera in Zurich, where he interpreted roles such as: Harlequin (Ariadne on Naxos by R. Strauss), Baron Tusenbach (Three Sisters by P. Eötvös), Ping (Turandot by G. Puccini), Don Fernando (Fidelio L. van Beethoven) and others, conducted by some of today’s greatest conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Franz Welser-Möst, Nell Santi and Peter Schneider. He made his debut at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 2017 with the role of Pietro Fléville in the new production of Andrea Chénier’s opera by U. Giordano, and in 2018 he made his first appearance at the Frankfurt Opera as Baron Tusenbach (Three Sisters by P. Eötvös). In 2019, he also debuted in the roles of Frank (J. Strauss Jr.’s Bat) with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and Creon (I. Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex) with the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra.
He is the winner of the international competitions Cantilena in Bayreuth (in the category of opera and operetta) and La voce of the Bavarian Radio and Television (in the category of art song) and Hugo Wolf in the composer’s hometown of Slovenj Gradec. He was also awarded at the Paula Solomon-Lindberg competition in Berlin.
As a concert soloist, he performs throughout Europe and Asia with the West German and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Royal Flemish Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Tokyo and Singapore Symphony Orchestras, the Orchester des Champs-Elysées, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Concentus Musicus Wien, Academy of Early Music Berlin, Concerto Köln, Gaechinger Cantorey, Collegium 1704 and I Barrochisti under the direction of conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Masaaki Suzuki, Diego Fasolis, Peter Dijkstra, Václav Luks and Giovanni Antonini. He is particularly happy and often collaborates with the conductor Philippe Herreweghe, with whose ensembles he regularly performs throughout Europe.
He has performed in prestigious concert halls such as the Berlin and Cologne Philharmonic Halls, Vienna Musikverein, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, London Barbican Centre, Tonhalle Zürich, Koningin Elisabethzaal in Antwerp, Konzerthaus Berlin, Suntory and Muza Kawasaki HAll in Tokyo and Victoria Hall in Singapore.
In the 2018/2019 season he made his debut at the Salzburg Summer Festival in the role of Herod in the oratorio San Giovanni Battista A. Stradella and toured China with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, while in the season 2021/2022 sang the title role in Telemann’s opera Orpheus under the direction of René Jacobs.
His rich discography includes recordings published by labels such as BR Klassik, BBC Opus Arte, Decca, Coviello, Accentus, Accent, and in 2018 alone he participated in several CD productions: Muci po Ivan J.S. Bach with Collegium Vocale Ghent and Philipp Herreweghe, the opera Three Sisters by P. Eötvös (produced by the Frankfurt Opera), the oratorio Alexanders Feast by G. F. Händel (Sony/Harmonia Mundi) and Nebo i zemlja by Tomas Cecchini (HRT). The Edition Staatskapelle Dresden label has just released his recording of Bach’s solo cantata Ich habe gung, BWV 82, with the Staatskapelle Dresden and maestro Herreweghe. Several new Lied albums are being prepared (Schubert’s cycles Winter Journey and Swan Song, songs from the collection The Boy’s Magic Horn by Wilhelm Weismann and Gustav Mahler, a CD with works by Franz Schubert, Frank Martin and Ralph Vaughan Williams and a recording of a recital from the Suntory Hall in Tokyo.