OLIVER VON DOHNANYIConductor
Oliver von Dohnanyi was born in Trencin and studied violin, composition and conducting at the Bratislava Conservatory and at the Academy for Music, Vienna under Vaclav Neumann and Otmar Suitner. He has won distinctions in a number of competitions including the Resphigi Competition in Siena, the Talich Competition of the Prague Spring” and the same award from Hungarian television in 1985 and the special prize at the 1989 Salzburg Festival for the television recording of Juraj Filas’s opera MEMENTO with the Prague Symphony Orchestra. He has been, Music Director of the National Theatre Prague, Music Director and Director of the Slovak National Opera, Director of the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava, Conductor in Chief of the Slovak Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra, conductor of the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Director of the Charles University Art Ensemble and the Canticorum Iubilo Chamber Ensemble in Prague and conductor of the Czechoslovak Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bratislava. He has also conducted Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Mozart Players. The English Chamber Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, the Saarländischer Rundfunk, , Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta and the Zagreb Radio Symphony He has made many recordings with Naxos, Lyra, Opus/Audiphon, Panton, Supraphon, Novalis and Marco Polo.
Oliver von Dohnanyi’s operatic engagements include FALSTAFF, THE MERRY WIDOW and MEFISTOFELE for English National Opera, CARMEN, LA GIOCONDA, HAMLET, RUSALKA and THE BARTERED BRIDE for Opera North, ARIADNE AUF NAXOS for the Britten-Pears School, Aldeburgh, DER WIDERSPENSTIGEN ZÄHMUNG at the Wexford Festival, THE BARTERED BRIDE, RIGOLETTO, LA TRAVIATA, RUSALKA, SAMSON AND DELILAH, MACBETH, LIBUSE, DON PASQUALE, TOSCA, NORMA, THE WHIRLPOOL and THE BARTERED BRIDE for Prague National Theatre AIDA, IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA and IL TURCO IN ITALIA at the State Opera in Prague, MADAMA BUTTERFLY, AIDA, LA BOHEME, MADAM BUTTERFLY MACBETH, TOSCA, THE SPECTRE’S BRIDE, DON PASQUALE for Slovak National Theatre, Bratislava, THE MAKROPOULOS CASE and LA BOHEME at the Janacek Opera Brno, the world premiere of GOLEM by Hanus Barton, DON GIOVANNI, THE BARTERED BRIDE, FAUST, and CYRANO DE BERGERAC in Ostrava, DALIBOR for Litomysl Festival, LA BOHÈME and LA TRAVIATA in Osaka, DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER in Kassel, AÏDA at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf. EUGENE ONEGIN in Stuttgart, RUSALKA at Las Palmas, THE BARTERED BRIDE for Baltimore Opera, THE EXCURSIONS OF MR BROUCEK at the Charleston Festival, MEFISTOFELE in Basle, TOSCA and DIE LUSTIGE WITWE for Reisopera, FALSTAFF and JENŮFA for the Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen, MACBETH and ROMEO ET JULIETTE for Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe, EUGENE ONEGIN in Stuttgart and performances in Lecce, Reggio Calabria and Malaga. He has also conducted ballet at the Vienna Staatsoper, Teatro San Carlo, Naples, and the Nationaltheater, Munich.
Engagements in 2011/12 include his debut with New Zealand Opera in CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA & I PAGLIACCI, the new production of NORMA for Opera North and his return to New Zealand for THE BARTERED BRIDE as well as concerts throughout Europe.
