Mika Kares Bass

Biography

Finnish bass, Mika Kares, studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and was a member of the Karlsruhe Badisches Staatstheater from 2005 to 2010. He regularly performs in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, London, Madrid, Munich, Rome, Zurich, Amsterdam, Dresden and Chicago and has taken part in various festivals, including those of Bayreuth, Ruhrtriennale, Salzburg, Bregenz and Savonlinna.

His operatic repertoire comprises the roles of Hagen (Götterdämmerung), Hunding (Die Walküre), Fafner (Siegfried), Fasolt (Das Rheingold), Hermann (Tannhäuser), King Marke (Tristan und Isolde), Heinrich der Vogler (Lohengrin), the Commander (Don Giovanni), Jacopo Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra), Zaccaria (Nabucco), King René (Iolanta), Ivan (The Khovantchina) and Bluebeard (Bluebeard’s Castle) - a part he also recorded for BIS in 2021 and for which he was nominated at the Grammy Awards.

His recordings include Boris Godunov with the Goteborg Symphony Orchestra and Kent Nagano (BIS, 2019). Mika Kares also appears on the concert platform, in a repertoire including, among other things, Mozart’s Requiem, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Beethoven’s Symphony n°9 and Missa Solemnis, Verdi’s Requiem, Mahler’s Symphony n°8 and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, as well as Chostakovitch’s Symphonies n°13 and 14.

During the 2023/24 season he appears as Daland (Der Flying Dutchman) at the Lyric Opera Chicago, Jacopo Fiesco at the Bastille Opera, and in two new productions of the at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden de Berlin: Rusalka (Vodník) and The Khovantchina (Ivan). He also returns to the Bayreuth Festival to perform the role of Hagen, and to the Savonlinna Festival, where he sings the roles of Zaccaria and the Commander.

For the 2024-2025 season, highlights include Zaccaria (Nabucco) at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, Antti (The Knight) at the Helsinki Opera, the title role of Boris Godunov at the Savonlinna Festival, Hagen and Heinrich der Vogler at the Bayreuth Festival, Paavo (The Last Temptation) in Tampere and Savonlinna. In concert performances, he appears in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in Vienna and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 in Rotterdam, Helsinki, and Copenhagen.