Mika Kares

Mika Kares is one of the most in-demand basses of our time. In addition to Mozart and the great Verdi and Wagner roles his wide-ranging repertory encompasses significant Slavic and Finnish works. He appears at the most renowned opera houses and concert halls and at leading festivals, and has worked with conductors such as Teodor Currentzis, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Hannu Lintu, Fabio Luisi, Marc Minkowski, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Klaus Mäkelä, Kent Nagano, Kirill Petrenko, Christian Thielemann, Franz Welser-Möst and Simone Young.

Recent opera highlights have included Fasolt, Hunding and Hagen in Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Berlin State Opera, Hagen (Götterdämmerung) at the Vienna State Opera and the Bayreuth Festival, Ivan Khovansky (Khovanshchina) and Vodník (Rusalka) in Berlin, Landgrave Hermann (Tannhäuser) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and at the Zurich Opera House, Commendatore (Don Giovanni) at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and at the Salzburg Festival, Daland (Der fliegende Holländer) in Chicago, Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra) at the Paris Opéra, King Marke (Tristan und Isolde) and Heinrich der Vogler (Lohengrin) at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Zaccaria (Nabucco) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Inquisitor (The Fiery Angel) at the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Grand Inquisitor (Don Carlo) at La Scala, Milan, and Ramfis (Aida) at La Monnaie in Brussels. He most recently appeared at the Salzburg Festival as Bluebeard (Bluebeard’s Castle) in 2022. In concert he has sung King René (Iolanta) with the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko, Prince of Bouillon (Adriana Lecouvreur) with Anna Netrebko under Marco Armiliato at the 2019 Salzburg Festival and Bluebeard in a concert performance with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra under Susanna Mälkki, the CD recording of which (BIS Records) was nominated for a Grammy in 2021.

His wide-ranging concert repertory includes works such as Mozart’s Requiem, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Missa solemnis, Verdi’s Requiem, Mahler’s Eighth Symphony and Shostakovich’s Symphonies Nos 13 and 14.

Following his return to the Salzburg Festival as La Roche in Capriccio, in the 2024/25 season Mika Kares will return to the Bayreuth Festival as Hagen, and to the Paris Opéra as Fafner (Das Rheingold) in a new production of the Ring conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado and directed by Calixto Bieto. He will also perform the role of Antti in Aulis Sallinen’s The Horseman at the Finnish National Opera and will sing Ivan Khovansky in concert performances of Khovanshchina with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen.