Born in Biberach, Germany, the bass Markus Raab received his training from Elsa Marx and Wicus Slabbert. His career as a singer began in 2002 at the Belvedere Competition in Vienna. His performance in the contest led to engagements at St. Gallen municipal theatre (Mazolino Pedruzzi in Max von Schilling's Mona Lisa) and at the Vienna Chamber Opera (Osmin in Mozart's Zaide). In 2002 he also took part in the Marlboro Music Festival in the USA. In the 2003/04 season, he was a member of the ensemble of the Vienna Volksoper, since which time he has appeared in the roles of Alcindoro (La Bohème), the Sheriff (Martha), Yakusidé (Madame Butterfly), the Forester (Irrelohe), Micha (The Bartered Bride), the Second Armoured Man (The Magic Flute), the Night Watchman (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Masetto (Don Giovanni) as well as Antonio (The Marriage of Figaro). In summer 2004 he sang Kezal (The Bartered Bride) at the Klosterneuburg opera festival. In 2005, he made a guest appearance as Lord Syndham in Lortzing's Tsar and Carpenter at St. Gallen and sang in Schulhoff's Flammen at the reopened Theater an der Wien in summer 2006. At Bregenz Provincial Theatre, Markus Raab created the roles of the Drunken Poet and Hymen in Henry Purcell's Fairy Queen in 2007 and in the same year made his Bregenz Festival debut as John Shears in Benjamin Britten's operetta Paul Bunyan. Also in Bregenz he sang Kuno in Der Freischütz in 2008 as well as the Inn Keeper in Leigh’s musical Man of La Mancha in 2009. In the same year he made his debut in the role of Sarastro in Mozart's Magic Flute at the Musiktheater Friedrichshafen. 

Michael Laurenz, born in Halle an der Saale, initially studied the trumpet at the Berlin University of the Arts and the University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig. He performed on the trumpet in the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and was first trumpet in the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. He began to retrain as a singer in 2006. As a tenor he has appeared in a number of operas, given lieder recitals and performed in oratorios all over Europe. In the 2007/08 season, he sang Tamino at the festival in Wernigerode and took part in the Berlin event The Magic Flute in the Underground. He also made a guest appearance as Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola) with the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra and sang in concert with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra at the Philharmonie in Berlin. In 2008, Michael Laurenz was a finalist at the Federal Singing Competition in Berlin, and afterwards joined the International Opera Studio of Zurich Opera. Subsequent engagements took him to Munich Chamber Opera as Don Fracasso (La finta semplice) and Il Marchese (N. Piccinni's La Cecchina). Since then he has performed at Zurich Opera in Simon Boccanegra, in the roles of Nikolios in The Greek Passion, Siegfried in Die lustigen Nibelungen, Duke Bluebeard, Tamino in A Children's Magic Flute, Lindoro in Haydn's La fedeltà premiata under Adam Fischer, the Dancing Master in Ariadne auf Naxos as well as as Arbace in Mozart's Idomeneo under Nikolaus Harnoncourt. In the 2010/11 season he can be seen at the Opéra de Bastille, Paris, in Ariadne auf Naxos and will join the ensemble at Zurich Opera in the coming season. 

Tenor Ray M. Wade, Jr. from Texas gained his first stage experience in 1983 at Fort Worth Opera, before moving on to San Francisco Opera and Dayton Opera. In 1993, he made his European debut as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Ghent, Belgium. This was followed by a fixed engagement at the National Theatre in Mannheim, where he learned many roles in the lyric tenor repertoire. He also sang at the Bregenz Festival in Martinů's The Greek Passion. From 2004 to 2009 he was a member of the ensemble of Cologne Opera. He has received critical acclaim recently for his performances as Don Alvaro in Verdi's La forza del destino, Rodolfo in La Bohème, Laca in Janáček's Jenůfa, Turridu in Cavalleria Rusticana, Canio in I Pagliacci and Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera. In 2009 he had a great success as Samson in Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila in Cologne, as Pinkerton in Puccini's Madame Butterfly and Salvator Rosa in Antonio Gomes’ Salvator Rosa at Braunschweig State Theatre. Engagements in the near future include a return to the role of Don Alvaro and in spring 2011 his debut in the role of Otello in Verdi's Otello at Heidelberg Theatre. 

The repertoire of the Austrian baritone Claudio Otelli encompasses a wide spectrum of classical and contemporary music theatre, and he is interested in acting as much in the musical interpretation of his roles. He has been strongly influenced by working with directors like Nicolas Brieger, Klaus Michael Grüber, Alfred Kirchner, Johannes Schaaf, Adolf Dresen, Giancarlo del Monaco, Christof Nel, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Peter Mussbach, Nicolas Joel, Harry Kupfer and David Pountney as well as conductors like Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Pinchas Steinberg, Stefan Soltesz, Michael Gielen, Leopold Hager, Jeffrey Tate and Lothar Zagrosek. After completing voice studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Claudio Otelli began his operatic career as a member of the ensemble of Vienna State Opera. Since 1994 he has worked freelance, appearing at leading opera houses in Europe, the USA and Japan. Otelli's debut performances in the USA were as Jochanaan at the Festival of Santa Fe, the Count Almaviva in Los Angeles and in the Lincoln Center, New York. He made his debut in Japan in the role of Ramiro in L’heure espagnole at New National Theatre in Tokyo, where he also sang Dr. Schön and Sharpless. In Tokyo's Santori Hall he made a guest appearance as Ryuji in a concert performance of Henze's Das verratene Meer. Forthcoming engagements are scheduled for Antwerp (Trinity Moses in Mahagonny), Cologne (Fred Graham in Kiss Me, Kate), Komische Oper Berlin (Pizarro in Fidelio) as well as Stuttgart (Klingsor in Parsifal). 

Rossen Gergov was born in Bulgaria in 1981. When he was five he began receiving tuition in the piano, and later additionally took up the study of clarinet and composition, but his true passion was for conducting. At the age of 18 he went to Vienna to study in the class of Leopold Hager at the University of Music and Performing Arts. After just two years Seiji Ozawa noticed his talent and invited him to the Tanglewood Music Festival. He was an assistant and pupil of Seiji Ozawa for the next few years. Gergov completed his conducting studies with distinction in 2004 and conducted the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Vienna Musikverein. A short time afterwards he became assistant conductor of the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria, remaining in the post until 2009. In summer 2007 he made a highly successful debut at the Bregenz Festival with the contemporary opera Playing Away by Benedict Mason, and in the following year he returned to conduct Tosca on the Lake Stage with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Gergov has conducted orchestras like the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Century Orchestra Osaka, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of Norrlands Opera, the Tyrol Symphony Orchestra of Innsbruck, the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. 

Born in Kennelbach, Heide Capovilla received her training in acting in Vienna. She has worked at various theatres in German-speaking countries, among them Tübingen, Zurich, Munich, Bonn, St. Gallen and Bregenz. She has worked in film, television and radio and has lived in Vorarlberg since 1985 as a freelance stage director and actress. In the last few years she has frequently performed at the Theater Kosmos in Bregenz, in a variety of plays, e.g. Herbst und Winter, Krupp, Zwei. Recently she could be seen at Constance municipal theatre in Moonlight and Magnolias by Ron Hutchinson and in Totentanz by Bruno Epple. She has made guest appearances in Switzerland, Austria and Germany in a one-woman show about the late life of Camille Claudel, Kein Frühling kein Herbst. In 2009 she played Hanni in Stefan Vögel's Altweiberfrühling at the Vorarlberg Volkstheater. 

Born in Fohnsdorf in Austria in 1972, Wilfried Staber first studied electrical engineering and linguistics at Graz. Afterwards he spent two years at Austrian Radio as a freelance news reader. From 1998 to 2004, he studied voice at the academies in Graz and Munich (under Josef Loibl). He received a scholarship from the German Stage Association (Bühnenverein) and the Walter Kaminsky Foundation. He was a finalist at the 4th international Competition for Wagner Voices in Bayreuth and a prizewinner in the 2004 Francisco Viñas Singing Contest in Barcelona in the category of best performer of German music. Guest engagements then took him to the Herrenchiemsee Festival, the Carl Orff Festival at Andechs, the Thurn and Taxis Festival in Regensburg, to City Hall in Cape Town as well as to the Prinzregententheater Munich and the opera houses of Graz, Kaiserslautern, Bremen and Mannheim. Since 2009, Staber has been a permanent member of the ensemble at Heidelberg municipal theatre as a bass in serious roles. He was also there between 2004 and 2007. From 2007 to 2009 he was a member of the ensemble at Cologne Opera, where he continues to be a regular guest performer. His chief roles include the Landgrave (Tannhäuser), Sarastro (Magic Flute), Rocco (Fidelio), Baculus (Wildschütz), Basilio (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Bartolo (Figaro), the Water Goblin (Rusalka), Gremin (Onegin) and Il Commendatore (Don Giovanni). 

An Italian born in Germany, Roberto Saccà studied at the School of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart as well as Karlsruhe. His international breakthrough came with a new production of L'Orfeo at the Vienna Festwochen. From 1993 to 2002 he was a member of Zurich Opera. He has worked with many distinguished conductors and is a regular guest at all the great opera houses of the world. He has appeared as the Demon in Henze's L’Upupa at Hamburg State Opera, in La clemenza di Tito at Berlin State Opera and Zurich Opera, in Daphne at Vienna State Opera, in Roberto Devereux at Bavarian State Opera, in Idomeneo at the Liceu Barcelona and in Berlin as well as in Rigoletto and Die Entführung aus dem Serail in Turin. Special highlights of recent seasons were his debuts as Florestan in Fidelio (Zurich Opera under Haitink), Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos (Zurich), the title role of Peter Grimes (Dusseldorf), the Emperor in Die Frau ohne Schatten (Zurich), the title role of Prokofiev's The Gambler at the Royal Opera House under Pappano – as well as the gradual alteration of his voice category. The tenor also regularly performs as a concert singer. Among the concerts he has given in the recent past are The Creation Requiem under Adam Fischer, Beethoven's 9th Symphony under Christoph von Dohnányi in London, Verdi's under Jiri Kout in Prague and a concert at the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. 

After studying voice in South Africa and London, Michelle Breedt moved to Germany, where she joined of the Opera Studio in Cologne. Later she was engaged by Braunschweig State Theatre, where her collaboration with Brigitte Fassbaender as stage director and teacher began. Today she works freelance and is a regular guest at major opera houses in Germany and abroad, including Zurich Opera, Vienna State Opera, Opéra Bastille in Paris, Semperoper in Dresden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg State Opera, in London, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Her opera repertoire includes bel canto roles such as Adalgisa and Romeo, but also roles like Charlotte, Carmen, Octavian, the Composer and Brangäne. In 2000, she made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Magdalena in Meistersinger and in 2006 she sang Fricka in a new production of the Ring Cycle under Christian Thielemann (available on CD). In 2008 and 2009, she returned to Bayreuth for the role of Brangäne in Tristan (available on DVD). Her repertoire also features the mezzo roles in Hector Berlioz's operas Beatrice et Benedict, La Damnation de Faust and Les Troyens. Michelle Breedt is much in demand as a concert singer and lieder recitalist, and regularly appears at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, the Konzerthaus and the Musikverein in Vienna, at London's Wigmore Hall and at the Salzburg Festival. She has worked with conductors like Gerd Albrecht, Christoph von Dohnányi, Harnoncourt, Jansons, Ozawa, Schneider and Welser-Möst. Her extensive discography ranges from Mozart to modern music and includes revivals of works by composers ostracised during the Second World War – among them a recording of the film score to A Midsummer Night's Dream by E. W. Korngold (conductor: G. Albrecht), which won the German Critics' Prize. Michelle Breedt is a professor at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. 

Karine Babajanyan was born in Armenia and studied voice at the state conservatory in Yerevan, graduating with distinction. After her first engagement at the Armenian National Opera she made her debut in Koblenz in 1999. In 2001 she became member of the ensemble at Bielefeld Theatre. Since 2003 she has been a member of the ensemble at Stuttgart State Opera. Her roles include Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Elettra in Idomeneo, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Leonore in Il Trovatore and Forza del Destino, Mimì in La Bohème, Manon Lescaut, Maria in Mazeppa and Norma. In the 2005/2006 season, Karine Babajanyan triumphed in the role of Cio-Cio San in a new production of Madame Butterfly at Stuttgart State Opera. She is a regular guest in Hamburg, Hanover, Oslo, Wiesbaden, Cologne, Mannheim, Frankfurt, Essen, at Komische Oper Berlin, in Greece and in Israel. In December 2006 she made her acclaimed debut in Tokyo and made her first appearance at the Bregenz Festival in summer 2007 and 2008 when she performed Tosca. She has had notable successes in recent years as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin in Mexico City and Stuttgart, Madame Butterfly at the New National Theatre in Tokyo, Fiordiligi in Helsinki and at Berlin State Opera, Madame Butterfly and Elisabetta in Don Carlos at Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp, Liù in Turandot in Stuttgart, Madame Butterfly in Dusseldorf and Rachel in La Juive under the direction of David Pountney in Tel Aviv. She also appeared in the James Bond film A Quantum of Solace in the Tosca sequence, which was shot at Bregenz. Among her future projects are Mimì in Dusseldorf and at Semperoper, Dresden.