Krešimir Stražanac

The Croatian bass-baritone Krešimir Stražanac studied at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Stuttgart. After graduating, he became a permanent member of the Zurich Opera, where he developed a wide-ranging repertory. In 2017 he made his debut at the Bavarian State Opera in Andrea Chénier and in 2018 he made his debut at the Frankfurt Opera in Eötvös’s Three Sisters. His repertory also includes roles such as the title role of Telemann’s Orpheus under René Jacobs, Creon in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, Ping (Turandot), Harlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Frank (Die Fledermaus).

Highlights of the 2023/24 season include Devil in Weinberger’s Švanda dudák at the Theater an der Wien, a staged Messiah directed by Robert Wilson at the Gran Teatre del Liceu and Elijah with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2022/23 he sang Ambrosio in Weber’s Die drei Pintos at the Mahler Festival in Leipzig, Froila in Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella with the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and Ruggiero in Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina at the Theater an der Wien.

Krešimir Stražanac has performed with orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the WDR and the MDR Symphony Orchestras, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Manfred Honeck, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Jonathan Nott. Since 2016 he has performed regularly with Philippe Herreweghe. In 2023 he made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko.

He is renowned for his performances of the Baroque repertory, especially the works of Bach, and has appeared with ensembles such as Concerto Köln, the Gaechinger Cantorey, Collegium 1704, Concentus Musicus Wien, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and I Barocchisti, as well as with conductors such as Hans-Christoph Rademann, Diego Fasolis, Peter Dijkstra, Giovanni Antonini and Václav Luks. In 2018 he appeared for the first time at the Salzburg Festival in Stradella’s San Giovanni Battista under Václav Luks.

Krešimir Stražanac’s discography includes more than twenty recordings, the most recent of which is of Fauré’s Requiem with the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and Collegium Vocale Gent under Philippe Herreweghe.