Angels in America

The German conductor Oscar Jockel served as assistant conductor to Kirill Petrenko with the Berlin Philharmonic from 2022 to 2024 and was a conducting fellow at the Karajan Academy after being named one of the winners of the "Siemens Conductors Scholarship" at the conducting competition in the Philharmonie Berlin in 2021. In the same year, he held a two-year position as assistant conductor with the Ensemble intercontemporain at the Philharmonie de Paris. As a composer and conductor, he received the Herbert von Karajan Prize in 2023. In the same year, he appeared, among others, at the Salzburg Easter Festival in a production at the Felsenreitschule and at the Gewandhaus Leipzig. In 2024/25, he conducted, among others, the Sächsische Staatskapelle, Munich Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Bremen Philharmonic, Handel Festival Halle with the Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum des Gewandhaus Orchesters, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and Ljubljana Radio Orchestra. He also performs with the Camerata Salzburg in Salzburg and Munich, the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, and the Tonkünstler Orchestra Vienna. In 2025/26, he will conduct, among others, at the Strom Festival of the Berlin Philharmonic, and lead the hr-Sinfonieorchester, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Warsaw Philharmonic, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra with the Regensburger Domspatzen, and the SWR Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he will conduct Alban Berg’s "Lulu" at the New National Theatre Tokyo with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2021, Angela Denoke made her debut as a director at the Theater Ulm with Janáček’s "Katja Kabanova". This was followed by productions of "Salome" (Innsbruck), "Macbeth" (Regensburg), "Don Giovanni" (Hagen), "Tosca" (Bremerhaven), "La bohème" (Lübeck), "Les Contes d’Hoffmann" and "Die tote Stadt" (Staatstheater Mainz). In 2026, she will stage the opening production of the season at the Semperoper Dresden with "Un ballo in maschera". After her studies at the University of Music and Theatre in Hamburg, Angela Denoke was a member of the ensemble at Theater Ulm and the Stuttgart State Opera. She subsequently appeared at the Vienna State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, the Opéra National de Paris, the Berlin State Opera, and at the Salzburg Festival, where she performed roles such as Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Shostakovich), Katja Kabanova and Jenůfa, Arabella and Salome, and also sang in "Pique Dame", "Die tote Stadt", "Parsifal", "Lohengrin", "Tannhäuser", "Der Rosenkavalier", "Fidelio", "Cardillac", "Wozzeck", "Die Sache Makropulos", as well as in Schoenberg’s "Erwartung". She has performed, among others, at the Royal Opera House in London, the Met, the Dutch National Opera, the Semperoper, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, the Zurich Opera House, the Théâtre du Châtelet Paris, and La Scala in Milan. Her discography includes, among others, "Die Sache Makropulos" (DVD Salzburg 2011), "Salome" (DVD Baden-Baden), a Lehár Gala (Dresden New Year’s Concert, Christian Thielemann CD and DVD), "Die tote Stadt", "Die Walküre", "Katja Kabanova", "Cardillac" and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Mikhail Pletnev; Daniel Barenboim), "Wozzeck" (Ingo Metzmacher at EMI), and "Fidelio" (Simon Rattle at EMI). With various song, jazz, and chanson programs, she appeared as a guest at the Kurt Weill Festival Dessau as well as at various opera houses and philharmonic halls across Europe. She also presented her Weill song recital "Two Lives to Live" at the Salzburg Festival in 2011 and, among other venues, at the Vienna State Opera and the Gran Teatro Barcelona, Paris Garnier, and "Städtebewohner", a program of songs related to the Weimar Republic, at the Salzburg Festival in 2015 and the Vienna State Opera in 2016. At the invitation of Christian Gerhaher, she most recently presented an Eisler/Heymann/Weill evening at Schloss Elmau. In 1999, she was named Singer of the Year by Opernwelt and in 2007 received the prestigious theatre prize "Faust" for her portrayal of Salome. In February 2009, she was appointed Kammersängerin of the Vienna State Opera. In September 2023, the artist won the Austrian Music Theatre Prize in the category "Best Director" for her production of "Salome" at the Tiroler Landestheater.

Dino Strucken stammt aus Zürich. Er absolvierte nach seiner Ausbildung zum Elektromonteur den Meister für Veranstaltungstechnik in Hamburg. Seit 2011 arbeitet er als Beleuchtungsmeister am Opernhaus Zürich, wo er bisher Lichtdesigns für u.a. Hexe Hillary geht in die Oper (Regie: Anja Horst), Der geduldige Sokrates und Konrad oder das Kind aus der Konservendose (Regie: Claudia Blersch), Fälle (Regie: Jan Essinger), Der Traum von dir, Die Gänsemagd und Gold (Regie: Nina Russi), Last Call (Regie: Chris Kondek), Das tapfere Schneiderlein (Regie: Kai Anne Schumacher), Il mondo della Luna (Regie: Tomo Sugao) und Jakob Lenz (Regie: Mélanie Huber) kreierte. Ausserdem entwarf er Lichtkonzepte und Designs von Events, beispielsweise für das Kostümfest am Opernhaus Zürich. Mehrere Opernproduktionen aus Zürich betreute er lichttechnisch an den Opernhäusern in Napoli, Madrid, Monte Carlo und Paris.

Kathrin Brunner was born in Zurich. She studied German, Musicology, and French in her hometown and at the Humboldt University in Berlin. After various assistant directorships (including "The Threepenny Opera" at the Lucerne Theater, directed by Vera Nemirova) and dramaturgy internships, she has been a dramaturge at the Zurich Opera House since 2008. There, she has worked with directors such as Achim Freyer ("Moses und Aron"), Harry Kupfer ("Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg", "Tannhäuser"), Stephan Müller, Guy Joosten, Damiano Michieletto, Christof Loy ("La straniera", "Alcina", "I Capuleti e i Montecchi", "Don Pasquale", "La rondine"), Willy Decker ("Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria", "The Turn of the Screw"), Andreas Homoki ("Wozzeck", "Das Land des Lächelns", "La forza del destino"), Christoph Marthaler ("Il viaggio a Reims", "Orphée et Euridice"), Barrie Kosky ("Die Gezeichneten", "Boris Godunov"), Nadja Loschky, Nina Russi, Jan Essinger, and Jetske Mijnssen ("Idomeneo", "Hippolyte et Aricie", "Platée").
At the 2012 Salzburg Festival, she worked on "La bohème" with Damiano Michieletto. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she co-founded the concert series "Altchemie live" at the Alte Chemie in Uetikon. In 2025, she served as dramaturge for Jetske Mijnssen’s production of Francesco Cavalli’s "La Calisto" at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.