The Hungarian-Slovakian soprano Mária Celeng has been a member of the ensemble of the Gärtnerplatztheater Munich since the 2017/18 season and has already been very successful there, among other roles. as ‚Gretel’/“Hansel and Gretel“, ‚Baroness’/“Wildschütz“ (Alfred Eschwé; Georg Schmiedleitner), ‚Pamina’/“The Magic Flute“, ‚Iris’/“Semele“ (Rubén Dubrovsky; Karoline Gruber), ‚Zerlina’/Donna Elvira/“Don Giovanni“ (Anthony Bramall; Herbert Föttinger), ‚Despina’/Fiordiligi „Cosi fan tutte“ (Olivier Tambosi; Michael Brandstätter) and ‚Lucille Desmoulins‘ in Gottfried von Einem’s „Danton’s Tod.“ Recent successes there include her role debuts ‚Mimi’/“La Bohème“, ‚Luise‘ in Hans Werner Henze’s „Der Junge Lord“, ‚Ann Trulove’/“The Rakes Progress“, ‚Rosalinde’/“Die Fledermaus“, ‚Giulietta’/“Les contes d’Hofmann“ „Luisa Miller“/title role and outstandingly her ‚Tatjana’/“Eugen Onegin.
Guest engagements in recent seasons have taken the artist to the Royal Opera House Muscat as ‚Annina’/“A Night in Venice“ (Daniela Rustioni; guest performance of the Opéra de Lyon), for the premiere and revival of „Cosi fan tutte“/’Despina‘ (Philippe Jordan; Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker) to the Opéra de Paris Bastille, for the premiere and also revival as ‚Drusilla’/“L’incoronazione di Poppea“ to La Scala di Milano (Rinaldo Alessandrini; Robert Wilson), as ‚Amore’/’Valletto’/“L’incoronazione di Poppea“ to the Staatsoper Berlin (Andrea Marchiol), as ‚Tebaldo‘ in „Don Carlo“ (Antonio Pappano) and for the new production „Die Liebe der Danae“/’Semele‘ (Franz Welser-Möst) to the Salzburg Festival, as ‚Sophie’/“Werther“ and ‚Fiordiligi’/“Cosi fan tutte“ to the Budapest State Opera, for a new production of „L’Elisir d’amore“/“Adina“ to the Theater Augsburg, as ‚Mademoiselle Jouvenant’/“Adriana Lecouvreur“ to the Théâtre La Monnaie in Brussels as ‚Waldvogel’/“Siegfried“ to the Wagner Days in Budapest (Ádám Fischer) and in the summer of 2014 to the Théatre Antique d‘ Orange, where she was part of a gala with opera arias alongside José Cura, Ruggero Raimondi, Patricia Cioffi, etc.
In the season 2013/14 Mária Celeng was a member of the opera-studio of the Bavarian State Opera where she was heard in various productions, recitals and concerts. For her outstanding interpretation of the title role in „Mirandolina“ (studio-production at the Cuvilliétheater) and as ‚Miriam’/“Zeisls Hiob“ she received the Festival Prize of the Bavarian Opera Festival in 2014. Further roles at this company were ‚Papagena’/“Die Zauberflöte“, ‚Gianetta’/“L’elisir d’amore“, among others.
Since 2008 Mária Celeng has been a regular guest at the Palace of the Arts in Budapest, where she sang e.g. in „The Fairy Queen“, „L’elisir d’amore“ und „Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien“ as well as Haydn’s „Nelson-Messe“ with the Hungarian National Philharmonia under Zoltán Kocsis. She sang ‚Sandrina‘ in Haydn’s „L’infedeltà delusa“ at the Kolibri Theater Budapest and at the Operafestival in Miskolc, where she also performed as ‚Belinda‘ in „Dido and Aeneas. In 2010 she successfully sang the soprano solo in Mozart’s „Requiem“ under the baton of Ádám Fischer at the National Theater Budapest and returned to the Palace of the Arts in Budapest for Debussy’s „L’enfant prodigue“ as well as for various concerts like Haydn’s „Schöpfung“ and Bach’s „Kantate MWV 21“, among others.
Highlights of earlier seasons were e.g. her appearance as ‚Araspe‘ in Hasse’s „La Didone abbandonata“ at the Munich Prinzregententheater and at Versailles Palace, and the title role in Janáčeks „The cunning little vixen“ under Andreas Kowalewitz at the Prinzregententheater in Munich.
DECCA commercially released a solo CD with Hungarian Volksongs with Mária.
Mária Celeng studied with Mária Fekete at the Béla-Bartók-Conservatory and with Júlia Pászthy at the Franz-Liszt-Akademie in Budapest as well as with Gabriele Fuchs at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. She participated in masterclasses with Éva Marton, László Polgár, Gulyás Dénes, Walter Moore and Nicholas Clapton. Mária Celeng won several international competitions like ‚Francisco Viñas‘ and ‚Neue Stimmen‘, she was the finalist for Hungary at the ‚Cardiff Singer of the World‘ in June 2013 and was a member of the ‚Young Singers Project‘ of the Salzburg Festival in 2012.