The young Finnish bass, Mika Kares, studied with Professor Roland Herman at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Mr Kares is one of the most interesting basses of our time, his career is rapidly expanding, especially in the major roles of Verdi and Wagner repertoire.
He made his operatic debut at the age of 25 as Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro. After winning second prize in the 2004 Timo Mustakallio singing competition, he started to build his international career. He was a member of the solo ensemble of the Baden State Opera from 2005 to the end of the season 2010. Subsequently, his career expanded very rapidly in Germany. In his first seasons there, he acquired a large repertoire, including: Filip II (Don Carlo), Colline (La Bohème), Massimiliano Moor (I masnadieri), Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte) and Il Commendatore (Don Giovanni). He also performed his first Der Ring des Nibelungen and debuted in the following roles for it: Fafner (Das Rheingold), Hunding (Die Walküre) and Fafner (Siegfried). Mr. Kares has made a name for himself as a Wagner and Verdi singer in particular. He made his debut at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in the title role of Boito's Mefistofele in the summer of 2008. He received an Artist of the Year prize there and sang his own concert in Savonlinna in July 2008. Kares was awarded "Der Goldene Fächer" as the best singer of the Baden State Opera 2009 and he held a Wagner scholarship in 2010. In January 2012, he made his long-awaited U.S. debut at the Seattle Opera as Attila. Guest appearences have taken him to Hong Kong, Salzburg , Rome and Valencia among other places where he has worked with such renown conductors as Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta, Paolo Carignani and Marc Minkowski, among others. Most recently, Mr. Kares has performed in Acis & Galathea at the Salzburg Mozart Week; as Landgraf Hermann in Tannhäuser at Tampere Opera, as Edvard Teller in Doctor Atomic at Finnish National opera, as Truffaldino in Ariadne auf Naxos, Angelotti in Tosca and Don Fernando in Fidelio at Palau de les Arts in Valencia, and the title role in Attila at Seattle Opera.
Mika Kares made his Italian debut as Daland in Der Fliegende Holländer at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, where he recently returned as Sarastro in Die Zauberflote. Also he gained great success as Massimiliano Moor in I Masnadieri at the Teatro Regio in Parma, Don Giovanni and Mozart's Requiem in Vienna, Le Nozze di Figaro and Dvorak's Stabat Mater in Tampere, Shostakovich's 14th Symphony, Liederabend and Ein Deutsches Requiem in Helsinki, Die Zauberfloete (Sarastro) at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, Oroveso in Norma in Munich, Don Carlo in Dresden, Le Nozze di Figaro in Zurich, Donizetti's Requiem in Copenhagen.
Other recent engagements include: Don Carlo in Bilbao; Don Giovanni, concert and recording for Sony, Teodor Currentzis conducting; Messiah in Tampere; Agrippina in Vienna; Don Giovanni in Amsterdam and Turandot in Bregenz; Die Walküre in Helsinki; Die Entführung aus dem Serail in Bologna and Reggio Emilia; Turandot in Köln; Boris Godunov in Goeteborg. He jumped in and made his debut at La Scala for Il Grande Inquisitore in Don Carlo. Moreover he permformed Eugene Onegin in Vienna; Rigoletto in Savonlinna; La favorite, Lucia di Lammermoor in Munich; Die Zauberflöte in London (ROH); I Masnadieri in Bilbao; La Bohème in Madrid; Luisa Miller in Zürich; Il Trovatore in Paris.
Future engagements: Norma at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich; Don Carlo in Madrid; Simon Boccanegra in Paris; Anna Bolena in Lausanne; Mefistofele in Stuttgart; Tannhäuser (Hermann) in Zürich.
Other roles in his repertoire include the title role in Verdi's Attila, Filippo II in Don Carlos, Ramfis in Aida, König Marke in Tristan und Isolde, Fasolt, Hunding and Fafner in Des Ring der Nibelungen, Landgraf in Tannhäuser, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, amongst many others.
August 2018