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"As Mimì, she had a quietly compelling intensity, and the sort of fragility and serenity which make the character utterly credible."
– Rian Evans, Opera
Juanita Lascarro's began her studies in biology before moving to Cologne to pursue her singing career at the Cologne Musikhochschule and the Opera Studio of the Cologne Opera.
Notable operatic roles to date include Lulu, Manon, Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Poppea (L'incoronazione di Poppea) and Violetta for Oper Frankfurt, Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) for Oper Frankfurt and Bayerische Staatsopera, Daphne under Christian Thielemann for Deutsche Oper Berlin, Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) for the Opera Bastille and Deutsche Oper Berlin, Liù (Turandot), Mimì (La boheme) & The Cunning Little Vixen for Welsh National Opera, Fiorilla (Il turco in Italia), Pelléas et Mélisande at La Monnaie, Euridice (L’Orfeo) for Netherlands Opera and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival under René Jacobs, Aura in Calderon’s Celos aun del aire Matan at the Teatro Real Madrid, Cavalli’s La didone for Opera de Lausanne & Operas de Montpellier, Mimì in Leoncavallo’s La boheme for KlangBogen Festival and Xenia (Boris Godunov) for Netherlands Opera. She is a a regular guest at the Teatro Colon, Bogota where her roles have included Adina (L'elisir d'amore), Michaela (Carmen), Susanna and Juliette. Last season she made her house débuts at Opernhaus Zürich as Poppea and Wiener Staatsoper as Juliette.
In concert Juanita Lascarro’s performances include appearances with the Leipzig Gewandhaus under Lothar Zagrosek, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under both Zagrosek and Vladimir Ashkenazy, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Antonio Pappano, and the Gürzenich Orchestra under James Conlon. She made her Proms debut in Weill’s Der Silbersee conducted by Markus Stenz and performed Villa Lobos’ ‘Bachiana Brasileira No 5’ with the 12 Cellists of the Berlin Phiharmonic Orchestra also at the Proms, for the opening concert of the Tempodrom in Berlin and at the Salzburg Spring Festival.
In recital she has made appearances at the Bath International Festival, the Steensgard Festival, at the Cork Chamber Music Festival and Wigmore Hall. Her discography includes Les contes d’Hoffmann and Alcina for Erato, Der Silbersee for BMG, Die Verlobung im Traum for Decca, Der Zwerg for EMI and La Senna Festeggiante for Opus III.
Concert highlights this season include: a tour to Japan with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo for performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 4, Mendelssohn's St Paul oratorio with Gulbenkian Orchestra. Opera performances will include the role of Clorinda (Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda) and Agrippina both for Oper Frankfurt.
2005/06 season only. Please contact HarrisonParrott if you wish to edit this biography.
Stefan Irmer was trained as a pianist at the Detmold Academy of Music under Prof. Friedrich Wilhelm Schnurr and at Cologne Music Academy under Prof. Günter Ludwig. In Cologne he also studied song accompaniment under Prof. Wilhelm Hecker and Prof. Hartmut Höll. Irmer himself has taught at the Cologne Academy of Music since 1992.
Stefan Irmer has gained renown as an outstanding interpreter of unknown and rarely performed works of the piano literature. In concert series, discussion concerts, radio features and radio productions he has presented the piano music of Muzio Clementi and Gioacchino Rossini to the public, for instance at the anniversary of Rossini´s 200th birthday at West German Broadcast 1992 and during the Clementi Concert Series 1994 in Köln and Essen. His recordings of Clementi´s most important sonata cycles on the MDG label received the CHOC French recording prize. 1997 he started the first complete recording of the piano music of Rossini. Until November 2005 five recordings will be published and the whole edition will be completed in 2008. All these recordings are highly recommanded by reviewers from all over the world.
In other programs Irmer has turned to the music of Erik Satie, Giacomo Meyerbeer, John Field and Gabriel Fauré and initiated projects with singers, actors and painters on the occasion of the anniversaries of the birth of Friedrich Nietzsche in 1994 and Heinrich Heine in 1997.
As a song accompanist, Irmer has appeared with numerous renowned singers and taught and accompanied at master classes and competitions. He has performed together for many years with the bass Kurt Moll, with whom he has presented song recitals in the Hamburg State Opera, Lausanne Opera, Cologne Philharmonic Hall, Milan Scala, Bonn Opera, Prinzregententheater München, in China and in Central America.
Extended tours have taken Irmer to Sweden, Finland, France, Great Britain, Austria, Hungary, South Corea and several times to Colombia and Japan. He has received invitations for numerous international festivals like West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Ireland 1998 and 2000, Cervantino Festival, Guanajuato Mexico 1999, Schwetzingen Festival 2001, Münchener Opernfestspiele 2005, Schleswig-Holstein Festival 2005.