Following his debut at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden as Michael in G. F. Haas’ opera Thomas in June 2023, Swiss countertenor Elmar Hauser started his career with a series of significant house and role debuts. He appeared at the Zurich Opera House in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as Hanno Buddenbrook in the world premiere of Ludger Vollmer’s Buddenbrooks at Theater Kiel, and as the Sorceress/Spirit in Dido and Aeneas at Theater Bern. In 2025, he made a highly acclaimed debut at Oper Frankfurt as Ruggiero in Alcina and at Munich’s Prinzregententheater as Angel 1/The Boy in George Benjamin’s Written on Skin.
In addition to concert appearances with the Espoo Sinfonietta, Accademia di Monaco, and Finnish Baroque Orchestra, he sang Handel’s Messiah at the Cuvilliés Theater in Munich and performed at the Hidalgo Festival. He is also committed to his own artistic projects, including an interdisciplinary music theatre production addressing ecological themes with the collective OTTER OTTER OTTER, as well as his recital programs Fra dolci catene, Pilgrimage, and Histoires naturelles. He also created a concept-driven music theatre piece titled Händel kurz vor Dienstschluss – Opern im Archivkarton, developed in collaboration with Theater zur Waage Elgg.
Winner of the 2024 Concorso Lirico di Portofino
Highlights of the 2025/26 season include new productions of Alcina and Orlando with Accademia Bizantina under the musical direction of Ottavio Dantone at the Ravenna Festival, a new staging of J.C. Bach’s Zanaida with the Kammerakademie Potsdam under the baton of Johanna Soller, as well as numerous concert appearances in Bern, Basel, Crema, and Winterthur.
Elmar Hauser completed his bachelor’s degree at the Zurich University of the Arts in 2021 under Werner Güra with distinction, followed by a master’s degree at the Theaterakademie August Everding in 2023 in the vocal classes of Christiane Iven and Sabine Lahm. He was a scholarship recipient of the Friedl-Wald Foundation, the Johann-Adolph-Hasse-Gesellschaft Munich, and Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Munich.
In August 2024, Elmar Hauser won the first prize in the Concorso Lirico Internazionale di Portofino (CLIP competition) in Portofino.
