About
The young singer does not seem to fit into a box – present on opera- and concert stages alike, he is always searching for an adequate form of artistic expression. A wide-ranging repertoire from renaissance polyphony to baroque opera, art songs from the 19th and 20th century through to contemporary music theatre reflects his broad interests. Moreover, he is acclaimed for combining his enthusiasm for playing and his acting instinct with the "radiantly fragile" (BR, 04.22) and "semi-dark" (SZ, 10.22) qualities of his countertenor.
Chasing his debut at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin as Michael in G. F. Haas' chamber opera «Thomas» (2022), the following seasons brought Elmar Hauser several important role and house debuts: He played the roles of Sorceress and Spirit in Bühnen Bern's new production of Purcell's «Dido and Aeneas» and returned to the Prinzregententheater in Munich in the role of Angel 1 / The Boy in George Benjamin's «Written on Skin». Most recently, he took on the role of Ruggiero with great success in the acclaimed new production of Handel's «Alcina» at the Frankfurt Opera under Johannes Erath and Julia Jones. The Swiss-born singer performed at the Zurich Opera House in the children's opera «A Midsummer Night's Dream» and appeared as Hanno Buddenbrook in the world premiere of Ludger Vollmer's «Buddenbrooks» at the Theater Kiel. As a cover, he is working on the roles of Orlofsky under Vladimir Jurowski and Barrie Kosky in the new production of «Die Fledermaus» and Guildenstern in Brett Dean's «Hamlet» at the Bavarian State Opera. In addition to concert appearances with ensembles specialising in historically informed performance practice, such as the Accademia di Monaco, the Finnish Baroque Orchestra and La Fontaine, he appeared with the Lautten Compagney Berlin in the new production of «Der Teufel im Lift» in the title role at the Neuköllner Oper. In 2024, he was nominated for the second time by Opernwelt magazine as Young Artist of the Year.
Elmar Hauser switched from tenor to countertenor while studying at the Winterthur Conservatory with David Thorner and Jane Thorner-Mengedoht. He completed his bachelor's degree with distinction at the Zurich University of the Arts with Werner Güra and then went on to complete his master's degree at the Bavarian Theatre Academy August Everding in the singing classes of Christiane Iven and Sabine Lahm. Masterclasses with Topi Lehtipuu, Ulrich Messthaler, Nicola Beller Carbone, Terry Wey and Kai Wessel accompanied his training. He was a scholarship holder of the Friedl Wald Foundation, the Johann Adolph Hasse Society Munich and the Yehudi Menuhin «Live Music Now» Munich e.V. In the summer of 2024, he won first prize at the Concorso Lirico Internazionale di Portofino «CLIP», being the first countertenor to reach the final round of this prestigious competition.
His own artistic projects include, for example, an interdisciplinary musical theatre project on ecological issues with the collective OTTER OTTER OTTER (2020), his current song programmes «Histoires naturelles», «Pilgrimage» and «Fra dolci catene», and 2021 a specially conceived musical theatre production «Händel kurz vor Dienstschluss – Opern im Archivkarton» (Handel shortly before closing time – operas in the archive box). In addition, he has already appeared as Orfeo in «Orfeo ed Euridice» (2019), in the title roles of Handel's «Ariodante» (2022) and F. Cavalli's «Il Giasone» (2022), and as Prince Kürtchen in the children's opera «Die Gänsemagd» by Iris Ter Schiphorst (2022). At the Prinzregententheater in Munich, he sang Achilles in W. A. Schultz's «Achill unter den Mädchen» (2023) with the Munich Radio Orchestra.