German-Greek mezzo-soprano Stella Doufexis studied at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin with Professor Ingrid Figur and continues to work regularly with Anna Reynolds. She participated in masterclasses with Aribert Reimann (Lied of the 20th century) and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
From 1995 to 1997 Miss Doufexis was a member of the Theater der Stadt Heidelberg where she performed leading mezzo roles such as Cherubino, Hänsel, Gluck’s Orfeo und Rosina. She has since had guest engagements at the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie Brussels, at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, at the Scottish Operan and at the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona. At the Salzburg Festival she sang Meg Page in Falstaff under the baton of Claudio Abbado as well as under Lorin Maazel. She took on this very role in Ferrara (also televised) again under Claudio Abbado as well as the role of Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte in which she also appeared on the stages of Modena and Reggio Emilia. At the Bavarian State Opera in Munich Stella Doufexis could be heard in new stagings of Berlioz’ Les Troyens under Zubin Mehta and in Janácek’s Cunning little Vixen. This Easter she received great attention when she replaced Magdalena Kožená as Dorabella on very short notice in a concert performance of Mozart’s Così fan tutte with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle. The Berlin Morgenpost wrote: “Stella Doufexis arrived as a last minute-replacement for Magdalena Kozena and in the twinkling of an eye climbed a few rungs on the career ladder. She fired a full broadside with her first aria, the second one - seldom performed - she savoured with rightly grown self-esteem and the audience joined her in experiencing this pleasure in an admiring fashion.” This season she will begin a collaboration with the Komische Oper Berlin performing Mozart’s Figaro (Cherubino), and Così fan tutte (Dorabella) as well as Strauss’ Rosenkavalier (Oktavian).
An acclaimed recitalist, she has appeared at the Berlin Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Schubertiade Hohenems, the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Aldeburgh Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and given recitals in Brussels, Vienna, London, Amsterdam, Athens, Cologne and Berlin. With her successful and extraordinary programme “Schöne Welt, wo bist Du?” dedicted to Greece she could be heard in several recitals with pianist Axel Bauni. Stella Doufexis has recorded numerous CDs, a.o. two volumes of Schumann Lieder with Graham Johnson (Hyperion), Lieder of B. Blacher with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Orfeo) and Verdi’s Fallstaff with Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon). This June a new CD with Joseph Marx’ Orchestral Songs (ASV) was released.
In concert Stella Doufexis has appeared with all German Radio Orchestras, Berlin Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Ensemble InterContemporain, Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony and the Bachakademie Stuttgart. She has worked with such renowned conductors as Bernard Haitink, Zubin Mehta, Semyon Bychkov, Lorin Maazel, Kent Nagano, Kurt Masur, Roger Norrington, Christopher Hogwood, Carl St. Clair, Helmuth Rilling, Andrew Davis, Leonard Slatkin, Jukka Pekka Saraste, Christoph Eschenbach, Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado and appeared at famous music festivals such as BBC Proms, Berlin Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Salzburg Easter and Summer Festival and at the Händelfestspiele.
Projects of this season include Mahler's Rückert-Lieder with the Bamberg Symphony, performances of Cunning Little Vixen at the Munich opera and a performance of Berlioz' Nuits d'ete in Athens with the London Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Davis as well as songs by Szymanowski with the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg under Ivor Bolton.
Stella Doufexis lives in Berlin together with her husband Christian Jost.
