The Croatian-born countertenor Max Emanuel Cenčić (*1976) received his musical foundation with the Vienna Boys’ Choir and subsequently began his career as a soloist. Today he is one of the most sought-after countertenors and baroque specialists of our time. In the course of his more than 35-year stage career, Cenčić has performed at numerous renowned opera houses and concert halls, including the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Semperoper Dresden and the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, the Vienna State Opera, the Vienna Musikverein and the Theater an der Wien, the Zurich Opera House, the Teatro Real Madrid as well as the Gran Theatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam or the London Barbican Centre.Born in 1976, the opera singer also regularly appears with great success as a director, for example at the Karlsruhe Handel Festival and most recently at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, where he directed Nicola Porpora’s Polifemo and at the same time shone on stage in the role of Ulisse. Cenčić is Artistic Director of the newly founded Bayreuth Baroque Festival, which successfully premiered in the magnificent, newly renovated Margravial Opera House in 2020.