StephanZilias
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About Stephan
General Music Director: Staatsoper Hannover
Stephan Zilias is General Music Director of Staatsoper Hannover. Holding the position since 2020 he was recently invited to extend his contract until August 2026. His successful tenure has seen Stephan conduct titles including Mefistofele, Rusalka, La Juive, Carmen, Otello, Lear and Parsifal, among others. The theatre won Best Opera House at the 2020 Oper! Awards and has received multiple nominations by Opernwelt Magazine, including Best Opera House and Rediscovery of the Year for Marschner's Vampyr.
The 2024/25 season sees Stephan conduct performances of Salome, Rosenkavalier, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Martinů’s The Greek Passion in Hannover. Elsewhere, he makes his Opera Vlaanderen debut leading a production of Der Freischütz with performances in Ghent and Antwerp. In 2023, Stephan made debuts with Theater an der Wein in a production of Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are and Savonlinna Opera Festival with a production of Lohengrin.
Stephan maintains a close relationship with Deutsche Oper Berlin since stepping down as Kapellmeister and assistant to Donald Runnicles in 2020 and returns this season for performances of Fidelio and Langgaard’s Antikrist.
On the symphonic stage, Stephan continues to curate a successful concert series in Hannover and makes his debut with NDR Radiophilharmonie for the 2024 Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition. Other recent highlights include debuts with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Staatstheater Nuernberg and Teatro Lirico di Cagliari.
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Season Highlights
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Wagner, Lohengrin
Savonlinna Opera FestivalJun 2024The fact that everyone, including the stage music, came together throughout the evening is thanks to the coordination of Hanover's General Music Director Stephan Zilias, who impressed with his very fine conducting.
- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
- 23 July 2024
Wagner's music is enchanting, full of symbolism and intense emotion. At many points you feel like crying or laughing. The Savonlinna Opera Festival Orchestra, composed of Finland's top musicians, led by conductor Stephan Zilias, conveys these emotional avalanches excellently.
- Matkailulehti
- 01 July 2024
Lohengrin is an experience of a lifetime because the music is good, and it is performed with care. The conductor Stephan Zilias and the choirmaster Jan Schweiger have done - and are doing - an excellent job. The dynamics of the orchestra and choir are excellent. Despite the distances, Wagner's longitudinal flow of music keeps the whole working together, and of course, under Zilias' clear direction, nothing less can be expected.
On the podium of the Savonlinna Opera Festival, conductor Stephan Zilias – a career mainly in the German area – confidently guided the Finnish instrumentalists, drawing clear and precise sounds.
- Il Ponte
- 06 July 2024