Wolfgang Schöne
Baritone
The German baritone studied in Hannover and Hamburg. He began his career as a concert-singer, but soon entered the opera stage as well. Schöne’s long cooperation with the State Opera of Stuttgart began in 1973. In 1978 he was awarded the title of "Kammersänger" in acknowledgement of his achievements. In 2007 he became honorary member of the State Opera of Stuttgart.
He has appeared with leading orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
He has sung under the direction of leading conductors such as Georg Solti, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Daniel Barenboim, Rafael Kubelik, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Jeffrey Tate, Riccardo Chailly, Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann, Sir Andrew Davies, and Kent Nagano. He is a regular guest at the opera houses of Dresden, Bologna, Cologne, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Geneva, Paris, and Berlin as well as festivals like Salzburger Festspiele, Aix en Provence, Glyndebourne among others.
He had a triumphant success in Stuttgart in the role of the Wanderer in Jossi Wieler’s production of Siegfried. Recent successful performances include the title part in Hans Heiling in Berlin, Gyges/König Kandaules by Zemlinsky at the Salzburg Festival, Moses/Moses und Aron in Stuttgart as well as Hans Sachs/Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Hamburg and Essen.
His opera repertoire includes Barak/Die Frau ohne Schatten, Mandryka/Arabella, Borromeo/Palestrina, Dr. Schön/Lulu, Jochanaan Salome, Amfortas/Parsifal, the title roles in Der fliegende Holländer and Król Roger, Germont/La Traviata, Athanael/Thaïs, the “Bad Guys”/Les contes d’Hoffmann and Hans Sachs/Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. He has a vast number of recordings and more than 70 opera roles to his credit.
Recent important projects included Dr. Schön/Lulu at the Opéra Bastille and in Athens, Jochanaan/Salome, Kurwenal/Tristan und Isolde in Stuttgart, Hans Sachs at the Hamburg State Opera, Amfortas/Parsifal at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, furthermore Ludovico Nardi in Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten at the Salzburg Festival and in Stuttgart, Sprecher/Die Zauberflöte in Athens, as well as Don Alfonso/Così fan tutte at the New National Theatre in Tokyo and Marquis de la Force/Dialogues des Carmelites at the Hamburg State Opera.
His extensive concert repertoire includes Bach’s passions and cantatas, Bruch’s Odysseus, Handel’s Messiah, Mahler’s Symphony N°8 and Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Haydn’s The Creation, Martin’s Sechs Monologe aus „Jedermann“, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Paulus, Shostakovitch’s Symphony N° 14, Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Sinfonie op. 18. His song repertoire includes Lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Beethoven, to name but a few.
Important engagements in 2008/2009 were his debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Dr. Schön/Lulu, and a new production of Henze’s L’Upupa at the Dresdner Semperoper (directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff) where he performed the role of “Der alte Mann”. In June 2009 he sang Mahler’s Symphony N° 8 at the Avery Fisher Hall New York with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Lorin Maazel.
He makes his LA Opera debut as Lodovico Nardi in the U.S. premiere of Franz Schreker's The Stigmatized (Die Gezeichneten) in April 2010.
SEASON 2009/2010
