Opera — Tannhäuser, Act 3

Frank studied voice in Utrecht and at the Opera Studio of the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. He subsequently studied with James McCray. After a permanent appointment at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf in roles such as Lohengrin, Florestan, Bacchus, Siegmund and Parsifal, he joined the ensemble of the Oper Frankfurt. There he sang, among others, Siegmund, Tannhäuser, Parsifal and Tristan. His repertoire includes roles such as Aegisthus, Erik, Max, Tristan, Otello and Herod. He sang Tannhäuser in Bayreuth, at the Vienna State Opera, the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Santiago de Chile, the Budapest Opera and the Semperoper Dresden. Frank made his debut at La Scala as Siegmund and sang the same role at the Metropolitan Opera.
Engagements in recent seasons have taken him to the Oper Frankfurt, De Nationale Opera Amsterdam, the Hungarian National Opera in Budapest, the Berliner Staatsoper, the Greek National Opera in Athens, the National Theatre Mannheim, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Hessisches Staatstheater in Wiesbaden. In the 2019/20 season he performed with the Orquesta Nacional de España in Madrid as Tristan and made his debut at the Atlanta Opera as Herod in Salome. He recently portrayed the role of Aegisthus in Elektra with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in Japan.

Marc studied at the Royal Conservatoire and the Utrecht Conservatoire with Udo Reinemann and Meinard Kraak, and at the Steans Institute for Young Artists in Chicago. He has been a soloist with De Nationale Opera, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Asko|Schönberg, the Netherlands Bach Society and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He contributed to a recording of Bach's Matthäus-Passion conducted by Jos Vermunt in the Dutch adaptation by Jan Rot. In 2013 his first solo CD appeared — HARRY, Heine in Holland — featuring songs by Dutch composers set to texts by Heinrich Heine. He is accompanied by pianist Rudolf Jansen. An audiobook of Heine's memoirs, read by Arnon Grunberg, is also part of the CD box.
With his opera company I Piccoli Holandesi, Pantus has created as director and singer several comic opera productions, including two collage-operas dedicated to Don Quixote. For the Coco Collectief he directed Schubert's Winterreise. For the Luthers Bach Ensemble he staged Bach's St Matthew Passion, which was performed for the third time last spring and received a five-star review in Trouw. The Netherlands Bach Society performed his staging of Bach's Coffee Cantata, which is also available on their video channel All of Bach. Last season Marc sang a notable Bottom in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream at Opera Zuid and delivered a compelling portrayal of the title role in Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle.

Merlijn graduated from the Dutch National Opera Academy, where she studied with Sasja Hunnego. She also took part in masterclasses with, among others, Doris Soffel, Dennis O'Neill, Raúl Giménez, Margreet Honig, Nadine Secunde and Ira Siff. She has portrayed roles including Cherubino, Dorabella, Orlofsky, Flora, Dido,
Sandmännchen, Zinnia (L'Étoile), Bac (Who's afraid of Orfeo), Tzippie (Where the Wild Things Are) and Philomela (Sisters).
Merlijn has appeared at the Holland Festival, as Kathy in the world premiere of Arnoud Noordegraaf's As Big As The Sky. She has sung the alto solos in Bach's St Matthew Passion, Duruflé's Requiem, Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle, Handel's Messiah, Schubert's Mass in A flat and Mozart's Coronation Mass. Merlijn was invited to perform Luciano Berio's Sequenza III at the Berio Festivals in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. She has sung Tehillim, Music for 18 Musicians and Desert Music by Steve Reich. Merlijn has worked with conductors including Patrick Fournillier, Antony Hermus, Jonathan Cohen, Etienne Siebens, Bas Wiegers, Martin Sieghart and Clark Rundell, and with directors including Laurent Pelly, Marcel Sijm, Isabel Schröder, Lotte de Beer, Marc Krone, Xander Straat, Daniël van Klaveren and Elsina Jansen.
Merlijn forms a Lied duo with pianist Mark van Nispen, and is a member of the Coco Collectief and Kasko (formerly Kameroperahuis).

Daan Boertien is a Dutch concert pianist who has specialised in Lied accompaniment. He has recently performed with internationally acclaimed singers such as Benjamin Appl and Roderick Williams. His debut CD with baritone Michael Wilmering was received with glowing praise from the international press. Since 2020 Daan has been an Associate Artist at the Dutch National Opera Studio. He won the Berenberg Prize in 2020, the DAAD Prize in 2019, and the audience prize of Dutch Classical Talent in 2018 together with baritone Raoul Steffani. He also won first prize at the Gustav-Mahler-Wettbewerb in Hamburg.
Daan studied with David Kuyken at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and at the HfMT Hamburg, with the German Lied specialist Burkhard Kehring. He has recently received important musical impulses from György Kurtág and Alfred Brendel.
Daan has performed at festivals including the Internationaal Liedfestival Zeist, the Prinsengrachtconcert, the Harmos Festival (Porto), the Achava Festspiele (Weimar), Festival Jeunes Virtuoses (Tunis) and the Delft Chamber Music Festival. He has also given concerts at the Concertgebouw, TivoliVredenburg, the Nationale Opera and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. He is regularly heard on NPO Klassiek and seen on Podium Klassiek.