“Schöne has performed this role in other significant productions of Lulu, such familiarity surely elucidating the depth of his interpretation and his ability to interact on varying levels with individual characters.“ Opera Today
Wolfgang Schöne began his career as a concert-singer, but soon entered the opera stage as well. His 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.
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He has sung under the direction of conductors like 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, Athens and Berlin as well as festivals like Salzburger Festspiele, Aix en Provence, Glyndebourne, among others.
His opera repertoire includes Barak/”Die Frau ohne Schatten”, Borromeo/”Palestrina”, Dr. Schön/”Lulu”, Jochanaan/”Salome”, Amfortas/”Parsifal”, the title roles in “Der fliegende Holländer”, “Hans Heiling” and “Król Roger”, Germont/”La Traviata”, Athanael/”Thaïs”, the Bad Guys/“Les contes d’Hoffmann”, Wanderer/”Siegfried”, Moses/”Moses und Aron”, Gyges/”König Kandaules” 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 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”, and Zemlinsky’s “Lyrische Sinfonie op. 18” among others.
Highlights in the last two years were his debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Dr. Schön/”Lulu”, the Old Man” in a new production of Henze’s “L’Upupa” at the Dresdner Semperoper (directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff), Mahler’s “Symphony N° 8” at the Avery Fisher Hall New York with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Lorin Maazel, his LA Opera debut as Lodovico Nardi in the U.S. premiere of Franz Schreker’s “The Stigmatized” (Die Gezeichneten) as well as Moses in Schönberg’s “Moses und Aron” in Budapest.
In 2010/11 he performed Schönberg’s “Gurre-Lieder” at the Lucerne Festival with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and David Zinman. On the opera stage he performed Simone Trovai in Korngold’s “Violanta” at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires as well as Marquis de la Force in a new production of „Dialogues des Carmélites“ at the Stuttgart State Opera.
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