Sylvia Hamvasi

Born in Budapest, soprano Sylvia Hamvasi studied at the Ferenc Liszt Academy in her home city. She started her career as a soloist with Bach cantatas, Handel oratorios as well as other Baroque pieces under the direction of György Vashegyi. With the Hungarian Radio Orchestra, conducted by Tamas Vasary, she sang live concerts in Budapest (e.g. Mozart's Mass in C minor, Brahms Requiem), which were recorded for the radio archive. She also gave a recital at London's Wigmore Hall with songs by Schubert, Schumann and Brahms.

She made her operatic debut as Gilda (Verdi "Rigoletto") and Pamina (Mozart "The Magic Flute") at the Hungarian State Opera and won several prizes at international singing competitions such as Lucia Popp, Francesco Vignas or Placido Domingo.

Since 2001/02 she has been a member of the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and has performed important Mozart roles such as Konstanze ("Die Entführung aus dem Serail"), Countess Almaviva ("Le nozze di Figaro"), Donna Anna ("Don Giovanni"), Fiordiligi ("Cosí fan tutte"). She celebrated a great success as Louise (Charpentier) under the direction of Christoph Loy. She has also sung roles such as. Cleopatra (Handel "Giulio Cesare in Egitto"), Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti), Juliette (Gounod "Roméo et Juliette"), Antonia (Offenbach "Les Contes d'Hoffmann"), Elsa (Wagner "Lohengrin"), Mimì (Puccini "La Bohème"), Suor Angelica (Puccini), Donna Clara (Zemlinsky "Der Zwerg") and Katja Kabanova (Janáček), The Governess (Britten "The Turn of the Screw") and Ellen Orford (Britten "Peter Grimes").

In addition to concert tours throughout Europe, guest engagements have taken her to the Hamburg State Opera, the Frankfurt Opera, the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, the Spoleto Festival, as well as to Tokyo and the Bern Opera.

Most recently, Sylvia Hamvasi appeared on stage at the Rheinoper as Countess Almaviva, Alice (Verdi "Falstaff"), Donna Anna and Liù (Puccini "Turandot"), among others. In the 2023/24 season, her roles include The Infanta Isabella in Abraham's "Fairy Tale in the Grand Hotel" and again Blanche (Poulenc "Dialogues des Carmélites"), Liù and 1st Lady.