Guest Lecturers 2025-26
Annette Weber, Switzerland
Previous Director of Opera, Opernhaus Zürich
Photo: Tanja Krebs
Annette Weber studied theatre and musicology in Mainz, gaining experience as an Assistant Director at the same time, and was engaged at the Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe until 2004. She then held the same position at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin until 2010.
Between 2010 and 2016, she worked regularly with Stefan Herheim in Berlin, Bayreuth and Salzburg, among other places. From 2013 to 2018, she worked as a consultant for the Artistic Administrative Director of the Semperoper Dresden, where she was responsible for artistic affairs and casting. In 2018 she became Casting Director of Staatsoper Hamburg. Weber has been the Opera Director of Opernhaus Zürich from 2021 to 2025. She is now a coach for young singers.
Jan Capiński, United Kingdom
Capinski Recordings
Jan trained as a singer and sustained a freelance operatic career in the UK before transitioning to full-time audio and video production. As a recording engineer and videographer he has worked for the Royal Ballet & Opera (formerly ROH), English National Opera, Garsington Opera, English Touring Opera, and the award-winning VOPERA film of Ravel’s ‘L’enfant et les sortilèges’. He also co-founded and co-runs London Recording Days – a collective of freelancers providing drop-in recording days for classical singers. Jan produces audition tapes and video demos for 250-300 singers each year, as well as commercial recordings of classical chamber music. He has delivered workshops on the basics of recording for the Royal Academy of Music and is scheduled to be a guest speaker on the same subject at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
Ulrike Köstinger, Austria
CEO, Operabase
Ulrike Köstinger has a strong performing arts industry background. She studied International Business Administration at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, and Arts Management at the University of Zurich. Ulrike worked in the casting office, organizing the Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival, then moved to work at L’Oréal Austria as a product manager in their marketing department. She also worked at Teatro alla Scala, as an executive assistant to Alexander Pereira. Up until 2020, Ulrike was the Director of Cooperation & Development for the classical music video-streaming-platform takt1.
Ulrike has been in the management team of Arts Consolidated (Operabase, CueTV) for two years in the position of Chief Content and Partnership Officer before becoming CEO in January 2023. Outside of Arts Consolidated, she voluntarily serves as the chairwoman of “Next Generation – Friends of the Salzburg Festival” and is a passionate marathoner.
Eric Melear, United Kingdom
Artistic Director, National Opera Studio
Eric Melear joined the National Opera Studio in July 2024 as Artistic Director, where he sets the artistic vision and oversees the planning, selection, and programming for their highly-acclaimed young artists. He also collaborates with NOS’ partner companies to lead a variety of work from the pinnacle of the artform through its introduction to the youngest of audiences.
Mr. Melear has carved out a diverse career as a conductor and pianist, working regularly on multiple continents and with a wide variety of singers and companies. A member of the music staffs at both the Vienna State Opera and The Metropolitan Opera, he has guest conducted at the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival and at numerous U.S. opera houses, including Houston Grand Opera, Arizona Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, among others. Mr. Melear has also long been a champion of young artists, having led Studios at both Houston Grand Opera and Wolf Trap Opera, as well as serving as a guest coach for programs and universities in the U.K., Italy, and the U.S.
During his tenure with the Vienna State Opera, Mr. Melear conducted performances of Das verfluchte Geisterschiff, Die Entführung ins Zauberreich, Wagner’s Nibelungen Ring for Children and Pünktchen und Anton and assisted Zubin Mehta, Peter Schneider, Simone Young, among many others. Sharing the duties of preparing the 45-50 operas a season, he conducted the full-time stage orchestra, regularly coached the ensemble of singers and the newly created Studio program, and was seen in recitals and featured on continuo.
Lucy Bradley, United Kingdom
Director
Lucy is an opera director working across the UK, Europe, and beyond. In 2024, she debuted at San Francisco Opera as Associate Director on The Handmaid’s Tale. Her directing credits include Baroque Scenes (National Opera Studio, 2025), Spring Scenes (Guildhall School, 2025), The Flying Dutchman (OperaUpClose UK Tour 2023), The Promise (UK Tour 2023), Sophie (Tête à Tête), Onegin (OperaUpClose), Belongings, Tycho’s Dream, Into the Harbour (Glyndebourne), Recital 1 (British Museum), No Sound Ever Dies (Brooklands Museum), Found and Lost (The Corinthia Hotel) and Blank Canvas (OperaUpClose). As Associate Director Lucy worked on Nixon in China (2023) and Street Scene (2018) at Teatro Real, Madrid, and on The Handmaid’s Tale at The Royal Danish Opera (2022). Lucy revived Jonathan Kent’s production of Tosca for Royal Ballet and Opera in 2022 and 2024, as well as Street Scene for Opera Koln and Opera Monte Carlo. Lucy became the first Resident Director for The National Opera Studio in Autumn 2024.
Lucy has worked extensively as an Assistant Director and Staff Director, regularly for The Royal Opera House where she has worked on Agrippina, Don Carlos, Orphee et Euridice, The Queen of Spades, Tosca, Rusalka, The Lost Thing and How the Whale Became. At Glyndebourne Festival, Lucy has worked as assistant director on Fidelio, La Finta Giardiniera, The Marriage of Figaro, Rusalka and Billy Budd and on Nothing and The Knight Crew for Glyndebourne Education. For Opera North Lucy has assisted on Giulio Cesare, From the House of The Dead and The Queen of Spades. For Garsington Opera Festival, Lucy assisted on Platée in 2024 and L’elisir d’amore in 2025.
In Europe Lucy has worked as an assistant director at Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Teatro Real, Madrid and Den Jyske Oper, Denmark. As an Assistant Director in theatre Lucy has worked for The Young Vic, The South Bank Centre, Rifco Arts, and Mahogany Opera Group.
As a practitioner, Lucy has often worked with marginalised or hard to reach groups; she has led projects for pupil referral units and with refugee groups; she has worked with vulnerable young people and those at risk of exclusion. Inclusion and empowerment are at the heart of Lucy’s work.
Torodd Wigum, Norway
Conductor
Torodd Wigum was born in Trondheim in 1970 and was principal violist with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera and the Trondheim Soloists before pursuing his dream of becoming a conductor. He is currently Music Director of Spelet om Heilag Olav at Stiklestad and Artistic Advisor to the Ringsaker Opera.
From 2007 to 2009, he served as Assistant Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 2010 to 2016 he held the position of House Conductor with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera.
In addition to conducting all of Norway’s professional symphony orchestras and military bands on a regular basis, in recent years he has also appeared as guest conductor with the Bremer Philharmoniker, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra (Poland), and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.
Torodd is also in frequent demand at Norway’s regional opera companies, having conducted several productions for Operaen i Kristiansund, Opera Trøndelag, and Ringsakeroperaen. In the autumn of 2025, he will conduct Madama Butterfly at the Ringsaker Opera.
Marcos Darbyshire, Argentina
Opera Director
Photo: Marcel Lennartz
Marcos Darbyshire was born in Córdoba, Argentina, where he trained as a pianist, specializing in chamber music and song accompaniment. In 2008, he moved to Germany, completed an internship at the Frankfurt Opera under Claus Guth, and subsequently studied opera directing at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre.
From 2012 to 2016, he worked as an assistant director at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (Flemish Opera, Belgium), where he assisted renowned directors such as Peter Konwitschny, David Alden, David Hermann, Robert Carsen, Tatjana Gürbaca, Calixto Bieito, Mariame Clément, Kornél Mundruczó, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and led numerous revivals.
Since 2017, Marcos has been working as a freelance director. His artistic focus lies both on bel canto operas and contemporary opera. His productions include Don Pasquale at the Theater an der Wien (2017), Lucia di Lammermoorat the Staatstheater Darmstadt (2019), and L’elisir d’amore at the Dutch National Opera (2021). In the 2021/22 season, he directed Nabucco at the Staatstheater Mainz and María de Buenos Aires at the Theater St. Gallen. In 2023, he staged the Austrian premiere of Philip Venables’ chamber opera Denis & Katya at the Theater an der Wien, as well as Rossini’s double bill La Scala di Seta / Il Signor Bruschino at Opera Zuid (Netherlands).
In the 2024/25 season, following the critically acclaimed Austrian premiere of Georg Friedrich Haas’ opera Liebesgesang, he will direct an open-air production of Puccini’s Tosca at the Theater St. Gallen.
Ann Hallenberg, Sweden
Mezzo-soprano
Photo: Örjan-Jakobsson
Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg regularly appears in major opera houses and festivals, including Teatro alla Scala Milan, Teatro la Fenice Venice, Teatro Real Madrid, Theater an der Wien, Opernhaus Zürich, Opéra National Paris, Théâtre de La Monnaie Brussels, Netherlands Opera Amsterdam, Bayerische Staatsoper München, Staatsoper Berlin, Salzburg Festival, Salzburg Whitsun Festival and Edinburgh Festival. Her operatic repertoire includes a large number of roles in operas by Rossini, Mozart, Gluck, Handel, Vivaldi, Monteverdi, Purcell, Bizet and Massenet, just to mention a few.
She is highly sought after as a concert singer and she frequently appear in concert halls throughout Europe and North America. She has built an unusually vast concert repertoire that spans music from the early 17th Century works up to 20th-century works.
Ann Hallenberg has regularly worked with conductors such as Fabio Biondi, Gianluca Capuano, William Christie, Teodor Currentzis, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Emmanuelle Haïm, Daniel Harding, Andrea Marcon, Cornelius Meister, Marc Minkowski, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Antonio Pappano, Evelino Pidò and Christophe Rousset.
She has recorded more than 40 CD and DVD. At the International Opera Awards in London in May 2016 her solo-CD “Agrippina” won the award for “Best Operatic Recital”. This was her second win in the category, having also won in 2014.
Toby Spence, United Kingdom
Tenor
Photo: Mitch Jenkins
Toby Spence studied at New College, Oxford and the Opera School at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He won the Royal Philharmonic Society 2011 Singer of the Year award.
Toby has sung with the ROH, Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opéra de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper, Teatro Real Madrid, Theater an der Wien and Hamburgische Staatsoper. In concert, Toby has sung with some of the most renowned orchestras such as the Berlin, Los Angeles and Vienna Philharmonics, Bavarian Radio, the London and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, and the Cleveland Orchestra, and has appeared as a soloist at the Salzburg Easter Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival.