A recent graduate of the Opernstudio of Bayerische Staatsoper, Xenia Puskarz Thomas’ career was launched in the most prestigious of surroundings at the 2024 Salzburger Festspiele where her portrayal as Aglaja, conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, in Krzyzstof Warlikowski’s production of Mieczysław Weinberg’s The Idiot was met with overwhelming critical acclaim and earned her a place in the New York Times’ Top Five Breakout Artists of the Festival selection.
Across her two seasons as a member of Bayerische Staatsoper’s elite Opernstudio, Xenia Puskarz Thomas gained invaluable and diverse repertoire and production experience including as Kuchtik in Rusalka under Henrik Nánási, Sandmännchen in Hänsel und Gretel with Titus Engel, Dog/Woodpecker in Cunning Little Vixen under Lothar Koenigs, Die Vertraute in Elektra under Vladimir Jurowski, Mercédès in Carmen conducted by Daniele Rustioni and Flora in La Traviata under Francesco Lanzillotte. At the Cuvilliés Theater, Puskarz Thomas performed as Servia in Respighi’s Lucrezia under Ustina Dubitsky and the dual roles of Melanto and Minerva in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria under Christopher Moulds and at Prinzregententheater as Hänsel in a semi-staging of Hänsel and Gretel in a collaboration with the ATTACCA Jugendorchester.
The 2024/25 season for Puskarz Thomas sees several guest returns to Bayerische Staatsoper including as Lucienne in Die Tote Stadt under Lothar Koenigs, Krystina in Weinberg’s Die Passagerin under Azim Karamov and both the Woodpecker and the Dog in Barrie Kosky’s production of Cunning Little Vixen. At Munich’s Cuvilliés-Theater, Puskarz Thomas portrays Saiko in Thomas Larcher’s Das Jagdgewehr in a new production by Ulrike Schwab and conducted by Francesco Angelico and she debuts at Tiroler Festspiele Erl as The Woman in George Benjamin’s Picture a day like this, conducted by Corinna Niemeyer. On the concert stage, she tours with Twelfth Night in North America, with Juillard415, the Juillard School’s Historical performance orchestra, in China and joins the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra in Handel’s Israel in Egypt.
