Peter Kálmán Joins Wiener Staatsoper's 'La Fille du Régiment'

The Wiener Staatsoper has announced that Hungarian bass-baritone Peter Kálmán will sing Sulpice in its production of Donizetti's "La fille du régiment," running Nov. 1–13, 2026.

Kálmán steps into a cast led by soprano Erin Morley as Marie and tenor Xabier Anduaga as Tonio. Evelino Pidò conducts.

The supporting ranks are filled out by mezzo-soprano Stephanie Houtzeel as the Marquise de Berkenfield, Marcus Pelz as Hortensius, and Brigitte Kren as the Duchess of Crakentorp.

What does the casting change for Vienna?

The announcement matters mostly for calendar-watchers. Sulpice, the regiment's sergeant and the opera's comic anchor, now rests with a singer whose 2026-27 season shows the Vienna house trusting him across repertoire. Kálmán returns to the Wiener Staatsoper later that same season for "L'elisir d'amore," also by Donizetti.

His season stretches well beyond Vienna, and across four countries:

• The title role of "Falstaff" at Teatr Wielki – Opera Narodowa in Warsaw
• "Katia Kabanová" at Teatro Real in Madrid
• "Siegfried" with Opéra de Monte-Carlo
• "L'elisir d'amore" at the Wiener Staatsoper

That spread — Verdi, Janáček, Wagner, Donizetti — marks Kálmán as a bass-baritone moving between comic character work and heavier dramatic parts in a single season.

What the announcement leaves open

The statement names the cast and dates and stops there. It does not say whom Kálmán replaces, nor why the change occurred — the phrase "cast change" implies a substitution, but the house has not disclosed the outgoing singer or the reason.

It also does not say whether Kálmán has sung Sulpice before, or whether these performances mark a role debut. The production itself goes unnamed in its staging team; no director or designer appears in the notice.

For audiences holding tickets to the Nov. 1–13, 2026 run, the practical effect is simple: a bass-baritone with a growing Vienna footprint will sing Sulpice under Pidò, alongside Morley and Anduaga. Whether his "Falstaff" in Warsaw later that season confirms the trajectory this casting suggests will be visible soon enough.