Julia Juon - Mezzosoprano
Biography
Today the Swiss singer Julia Juon is one of the most renown in the dramatic mezzo-soprano field. Following her début in St. Gallen, she was engaged in Karlsruhe and Kassel, where from the start she was able to develop the large Wagner parts of Fricka, Kundry, Ordrud, Venus and Waltraude. In Saarbrücken, she sang her first Brangäne. Since then she has also sung this part regularly in the famous Ruth Berghaus production at the Hamburg State Opera. Here Julia Juon has also had the parts of the Nurse in “Die Frau ohne Schatten”, the Countess in “Pique Dame” and Waltraute in “Götterdämmerung” in Günter Krämer’s “Ring” production under Gerd Albrecht. As Countess Geschwitz she played in the “Lulu“ production at the Copenhagen Opera, which was recorded by Chandos and is available on CD. She also sang Geschwitz at the Paris Opéra Bastille. Here at the side of Placido Domingo, she was also celebrated as Kundry.
Other high points have been Kundry at the Semperoper Dresden; “Der ferne Klang” by Schreker at the Viennese State Opera (director Jürgen Flimm); concert performances under Gerd Albrecht at the Berlin Philharmonic (recorded on CD); Baba the Turk in “The Rake’s Progress” and Countess in “Pique Dame” in Hamburg; Ortrud in Bonn and Oslo; the Nurse in Frankfurt, Madrid, at the New York Metropolitan Opera, in Barcelona and Helsinki; Jocaste in “Oedipus Rex” in Montpellier; Herodias in Bologna, Triest, Dublin, Leipzig, Wiesbaden und Montpellier. At the Komische Oper Berlin, Julia Juon gave her début as the Mayor’s Wife (“Jenufa”), at the Bregenz Festival she could be heard as Magdalone in Nielsen’s “Maskerade”, at the Opéra Bastille as the Nurse in “Ariane et Barbe-Bleue”, at the Frankfurt Opera as Principessa in “Suor Angelica”, at the Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona as Rosalia in “Tiefland”, at the Teatro Real Madrid as Kabanicha in “Katja Kabanova”.
Additional guest performances have taken Julia Juon to Essen, the Deutsche Oper Berlin (most recently with Klytämnestra), the Milan Scala, Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile. In Switzerland, she has been a guest at the Zurich Opera House as well as the houses of St. Gallen, Bern and Basel. Also she has made a name for herself here as a lieder and concert singer.
Further stations on Julia Juon’s calendar are Barcelona (Frau Marthe in „Faust“), Strasbourg (Kabanicha), Frankfurt (“Königskinder”) and Antwerp (new creation by Christian Jost)
Last updated: 06.04.2011© We kindly ask you to seek our approval for any alteration or abbreviation of the biography. Thank you for your kind understanding.