The Croatian mezzo-soprano Nina Tarandek will perform as Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb in early 2025. After that, she will appear at the Frankfurt Opera in a new production of Wagner’s Parsifal. Additionally, she will perform Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 with the Holst Sinfonietta in Freiburg.
In the summer of 2024, she appeared in Die Walküre at the Tyrolean Festival Erl and performed songs by Franco Alfano at the MITO Settembre Musica Festival in Turin. At the Ultraschall Festival in Berlin, she sang a portrait concert dedicated to Jean Barraqué, which was broadcast on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Furthermore, she performed in a CD release concert in Freiburg featuring works by Franco Alfano, whose recording was nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award.
Recent engagements have seen Ms. Tarandek perform the roles of Mercédès (Carmen) at the open-air venue, “Oper im Steinbruch” in Austria, as well as the role of Beppe in Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz and Ortlinde in die Walküre at the Tiroler Festspiele in Erl. She has previously performed there in Bach’s St.Matthew Passion, which was broadcast on ORF.
Elsewhere, Nina has appeared with the Varaždin Baroque Orchestra in Varaždin Cathedral, and in the Sultans of Opera concert with the Pera Ensemble at the Croatian National Theater in Varaždin.
While a member of the Ensemble of Oper Frankfurt, she enjoyed great success in the roles of Angelina (La Cenerentola), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Sesto (Giulio Cesare in Egitto), Kate (Owen Wingrave). Guest engagements have seen Ms Tarandek perform as Sesto at Theater Freiburg, in Dido and Aeneas at the Semperoper Dresden, in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Volksoper Wien, as the Zweite Hofdame (Der Prinz von Homburg) at Theater an der Wien, Dorabella at Vilnius City Opera and with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra. She also inspired audiences as La Malaspina in the Italian premiere of Sciarrino’s Luci mie traditrici (CD by Stradivarius, DVD by EuroArts) at Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte Montepulciano.
Nina Tarandek has performed in concert with, among others, the hr-Sinfonieorchester; as Anna Kennedy (Maria Stuarda) with the Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester in Frankfurt’s Alte Oper; in The Cunning Little Vixen with the BR-Sinfonieorchester under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst at the Gasteig in München; with the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg in Mozart’s C-Minor Mass and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9; with the Wiener Philharmoniker on tour in China; with the Prague
Radio Symphony Orchestra; the Zagreb Philharmonic; and in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Wiener Virtuosen in the Vienna Musikverein.
The song interpretation stylings of Ms Tarandek have inspired audiences in Kassel, Germany, at the Kasseler Musiktagen, in Koblenz, Germany, at the Koblenzer Kammerkonzerten, in the hr-Sendesaal performing Wagner Wesendonck-Lieder with the Frankfurt String Sextet, at Oper Frankfurt, at the Chamber Music Festival in ÄŒakovec, Croatia, and in Abu Dhabi
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Ms Tarandek studied voice with Ute Schwabe and Julia Conwel, as well as Song and Oratorio interpretation with Carolyn Hague and Birgid Steinberger at the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität of the city of Vienna.
In 2018 she was a "Singer of the Year" nominee in Opernwelt magazine. In 2006, she won First Prize in the Fidelio Competition in Vienna.