Constantin Trinks

Conductor

Constantin Trinks is a regular guest conductor with opera houses around the world. Highlights of 2018/19 include productions of The Turn of the Screw for Seattle Opera, Lustige Witwe for Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Arabella for Bayerische Staatsoper (Arabella is also performed in Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris in January 2019), Lohengrin for National Theatre Praque (revived after a hugely successful run in 2017/18 which included a performance in the Praque Spring Festival) and Euryanthe for Theater an der Wien.

Operatic highlights of recent seasons have included Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Der Fliegende Holländer), New National Theatre Tokyo (Le nozze di Figaro), Opernhaus Zürich (The Turn of the Screw), Opéra du Rhin Strasbourg (Salome), Opéra National de Paris (Die Zauberflöte), Wiener Staatsoper, Oper Frankfurt and Staatsoper Hamburg, the Ring-Trilogie (which was developed especially for the Theater an der Wien by Tatjana Gürbaca, Bettina Auer and Constantin Trinks, with OF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien and the Arnold Schoenberg Choir), Così fan tutte and Arabella for Bayerische Staatsoper (the latter as part of the Münchner Opernfestspiele), and Tristan und Isolde for Staatstheater Kassel. Acknowledged as a major Wagner conductor, Trinks celebrated the Wagner Bicentenary conducting Der fliegende Holländer in Dresden (in Spring 2013 – premiered there 170 years before), Tannhäuser in Tokyo, Strasbourg, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Frankfurt, as well as Wagner’s early opera Das Liebesverbot at the Bayreuth Festival and for Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg.

Similarly active on the orchestral platform, upcoming engagements include Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Hessischer Rundfunk, OF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wen at the Brucknerhaus Linz, Vancouver Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, the orchestra of den Norske Opera and Salzburg Mozarteum Orchester with whom the live recording of Hans Rott’s Symphony No. 1 received an ECHO Classic in October 2017 for Profil Edition Hänssler. He made his debut in 2016/17 with the Bayerische Rundfunk and, following an acclaimed debut with the Munich Philharmonic in 2015/16, he conducted their New Year Beethoven 9 concerts in December 2016. His acclaimed recording with Dresden Staatskapelle/Semperoper of Weinberger’s Svanda dudák (Schwanda the Bagpiper) is also for Profil Edition Hänssler.

Trinks joined the Saarländisches Staatstheater in 2002 as Kapellmeister, ascending within a few years into the position of interim music director from 2006 to 2009. Whilst there he conducted Nono’s Intolleranza 1960, La bohème, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Das Rheingold, Lohengrin, Salome, Carmen, Don Carlo, La traviata, Cavalleria rusticana/l pagliacci, Kullervo (Sallinen), and the European premiere of The First Emperor by Tan Dun, thus demonstrating his interest in wide-ranging repertoire.

In 2009 Trinks was appointed Music Director at the Staatstheater Darmstadt, where his productions included not only his first critically acclaimed Der Ring des Nibelungen, but also Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Parsifal, Fidelio, Aida and the world premiere of Orff’s early work Gisei (available on DVD) in combination with De temporum fine comedia.

Constantin Trinks, born in Karlsruhe, studied conducting at the Conservatory of his hometown with Wolf-Dieter Hauschild, and piano with Günter Reinhold. Major musical influences come from Thomas Hengelbrock and Christian Thielemann, combining important insights into historically informed performance practice as well as a strong romantic line.

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