Valentina Farcas

Valentina Farcas (born October 14, 1975 in Bucharest ) is a Romanian opera singer ( soprano ).

Life

Valentina Farcas comes from a musically educated family, both parents were singers at the National Opera of Bucharest . She attended high school "George Enescu", an educational institution with a strong musical branch, where she also graduated with a specialization in music (piano). In 1994 she began studying music at the music academy in the Romanian capital . Her professional encounter with singing dates back to this time, as she took lessons from her father, Florin Farcas, as well as from the singing teacher Prof. Rodica Creniceanu. Soon afterwards she moved to the Folkwang University of Music in Essen . She received her degree with "excellent". During the time of her university education in Essen, she already had numerous public appearances at the city's Grub Theater, where she had entered into a contractual obligation. Her next stop was in 1999 at the South Thuringian State Theater in Meiningen , where she was part of the ensemble for several years. In the following two years, various piano masterclasses followed. In 2002 she moved from Meiningen to the Komische Oper in Berlin. There she embodied many well-known but also less well-known operatic roles, such as the Queen of Schemacha in Rimski Korsakow's opera “ The Golden Cock ” and Hermione in Georg Friedrich Handel's pasticcio “ Oreste ”. Her great operatic roles can be found in the oeuvres of Mozart , Donizetti , Gluck , Verdi , Bellini and Rossini as well as many other composers from practically all musical eras. She has a special love for Jules Massenet .

Valentina Farcas is not only a soprano at the major opera houses - she is also a popular and successful concert singer. Mozart, Stravinsky , Haydn and Ravel are in the foreground.

Valentina Farcas now lives in the United States , Germany and Italy and works as a flexible freelancer . Most recently she was seen at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein as Gilda. In autumn 2013 she will give a guest performance at the Semperoper in Dresden . In May 2013 she will be seen and heard in a concert performed by Bellini in Berlin .

Appearances

As a well-known soprano, Valentina Farcas has sung about a large number of venues, including houses with longer stays (member of the ensemble) such as B. the South Thuringian State Theater in Meiningen or the Komische Oper in Berlin. After her period of permanent employment, she presented (and presented) herself as a guest singer (sometimes more often) at many well-known houses around the world. She has performed in Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam, Dallas, Miami, Palm Springs and many other opera houses. She was also represented with outstanding roles at well-known music festivals, B. at the Macau International Music Festival and at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland. She achieved international fame in 2006 at the Salzburg Festival in Mozart's "Entführung aus dem Serail". She had outstanding appearances at well-known music associations at the Wiener Musikverein, at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

In the series "Stars of Tomorrow Presented by Eva Lind", Valentina Farcas appeared in episode 3, broadcast on Arte on March 17, 2002.

Cooperation with conductors

Valentina Farcas has worked with many well-known conductors. Some of the better known include Gerd Albrecht, Fabio Luisi, Riccardo Muti, Christopher Hogwood, Ivor Bolton, René Jacobs, Kirill Petrenko and Jeffrey Tate.

repertoire

The repertoire of this singer is very extensive and includes classical operatic roles - from Adele in Johann Strauss' "Die Fledermaus", Adina in Donizetti's "L'elisir d'amore", Blonde in Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio", Queen of the Night from Mozart "Magic Flute", Gilda in Verdi's "Rigoletto", Lucia in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" and Jenny in Brechts / Weil's "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" to Liù in Puccini's "Turandot" and the Zerbinetta in Richard Strauss "Ariadne Naxos "- to name a few. In addition to the opera roles, Valentina Farcas also excels in concert appearances, oratorios and other sacred works. Mozart's "Requiem" stands out just as much as Handel's "Messiah" or the oratorios by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Awards

A look at the awards and prizes that Valentina Farcas has received over the years gives a good impression of her career.

• First prize at the national competition Romania (piano)
• First prize of the jury and first prize of the audience at the international Robert Stolz Competition, Wiener Operetta, Hamburg
• Ulrich Burkhardt Prize for Young Artists
• Special operetta prize in the "New Voices" competition of the Bertelsmann Foundation
• Finalist at the Montserrat Caballé International Singing Competition
• Finalist (fourth place) at the 3rd International Singing Competition Ferruccio Tagliavini, Austria
• Second prize in the interpretation competition of Romanian composers (piano)
• Second prize at the Mozart Competition Constanta (piano)
• Second prize at the international Johann Strauss competition, Vienna
• The Handel pasticcio “Oreste” (2006) at the Komische Oper Berlin (directed by Sebastian Baumgarten), in which Valentina Farcas sang Hermione, received the award “Production of the Year”.

Discography

The following publications on CD and DVD have been released:

CD

• Mozart Sacred Music. Camerata Würzburg. Musical director Nicol Matt (published by Brilliant Classics - 15 CD box).
• Mozart Grosse Messe KV 427 / Great Mass K 427. Valentina Farcas, Annemarie Kremer. Camerata Würzburg. Chamber Choir of Europe . Musical director Nicol Matt (published by Brilliant Classics - CD)
• Without having to worry. Vienna Johann Strauss Concert Gala. Valentina Farcas, Richard Brunner. K&K Philharmonic. Musical director Herbert Prikopa (published by DaCapo)
• New voices 1999 . Volume 6. Bertelsmann Foundation in cooperation with the directors' group of the German Stage Association and the West German Broadcasting Corporation in Cologne

DVD

• Vincenzo Bellini. I Capuleti ei Montecchi. Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna. Musical director Pietro Mianiti (Orchestra Lirica). Valentina Farcas and Paola Gardina (published by KICCO Music)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart “The Abduction from the Seraglio”. Concert Association Vienna State Opera Choir, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. Valentina Fracas, Laura Aikin, Charles Castronovo , Dietmar Kerschbaum, Franz Hawlata. Musical director Ivor Bolton. Directed by Stefan Herheim (published by Decca).

There is a professional recording of the pasticcio "Oreste" (Komische Oper Berlin) with Valentina Farcas in the role of Hermione. This has not yet been released on DVD. 3SAT broadcast the recording twice.

There is also a professional recording of Gluck's production of “Telemacho” recorded in the Theater an der Wien. It has not yet been published.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Your Majesty needs bliss. Komische Oper Berlin: "The Golden Rooster. A Pure Fairy Tale" by Nikolai A. Rimski-Korsakow and Wladimir I. Belski. In: Berliner Zeitung . April 28, 2006, accessed February 18, 2013 . 
2. ^ Andre Sokolowski: Ha (h) nebüchenes. In: Kultura extra . The online magazine. May 31, 2006, accessed February 18, 2013 . 
3. ↑ Stars of tomorrow presented by Eva Lind - episode 3. In: ave.de. AVE Gesellschaft für Fernsehproduktion mbH, accessed on February 18, 2013 . 
4. ↑ Ulrich Weinzierl: Destruction as a passion: Torsten Fischer stages Gluck's misunderstood opera seria "Telemaco" in Vienna. In: The world . February 22, 2012, accessed February 18, 2013 . 
5. ↑ Dominik Troger: Successful new discovery. In: Operinwien.at. February 19, 2012, accessed February 18, 2013 . 
6. ↑ Peter Jarolin: "Telemaco": When love hits wounds. In: Kurier.at . February 20, 2012, accessed February 18, 2013 . 
7. ↑ Bernhard Doppler: Exciting trip to Hades. In: Dradio.de. Deutschlandradio Kultur, February 19, 2012, accessed on February 18, 2013 . 
8. ^ Ljubiša Tošić: Magic Island of the Illustrated Routine. In: The standard .at. February 20, 2012, accessed February 18, 2013 .