Johannes Martin Kränzle Baritone

Biography

Johannes Martin Kränzle has become one of the leading cavalier and character baritones of his generation. He is a regular guest at major venues such as the Salzburg, Bayreuth and Bregenz Festivals, La Scala in Milan, the Glyndebourne and Lucerne Festivals, and opera houses in London, Paris, Madrid, Vienna, Zurich, Geneva, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, as well as in San Francisco, Cairo, Sofia, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Toronto. In 2014, he made his successful debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

The singer is also a composer. In 1997, his chamber opera DER WURM was awarded a prize at the composition competition in Berlin and premiered. Since 2016, his composition LIEDER UM LIEBE has been performed numerous times in Germany and abroad. His work MUTATIONES, a suite for string orchestra, is sponsored by the German Music Council and will be premiered with great success by the Hessian State Orchestra Wiesbaden in 2022.

Johannes Martin Kränzle, born in Augsburg, first studied violin and musical theatre direction, and after studying singing with Martin Gründler at the Frankfurt University of Music, he became a member of the ensemble at the opera houses in Dortmund, Hanover and Frankfurt. The baritone was twice named ‘Singer of the Year’ in the renowned OPERNWELT critics' poll, in 2011 and 2018. In 2019, he won Germany's most important theatre award, DER FAUST. He is a prize winner of the international singing competitions in Vercelli, Perpignan and Paris. Since winning the Primo Grande Premio in Rio de Janeiro in 1991, he has been an honorary visiting professor in Natal, Brazil; he is also a visiting professor at the Cologne University of Music from 2013 to 2019.

His repertoire comprises over 130 roles and ranges from Handel, Rossini, Verdi, Strauss and Lehar to Berg, Bartok, Henze and Rihm. ( -Dionysos premiere: Salzburg Festival 2010). His main focus is on Mozart, Wagner and the Slavic repertoire: Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, Janáček. He works with conductors as diverse as Barenboim, Janowski, A. and P. Jordan, M. and V. Jurowsky, Levine, Luisi, Mallwitz, Mazzola, Mälkki, Pappano, Petrenko, Pichon, Shani and Thielemann, and directors such as Brieger, Kosky, Kupfer, Laufenberg, Loy, McVickar, Tscherniakov, Warner and Wieler.

Various solo song CDs have been released: most recently Schubert's WINTERREISE in 2025, as well as DAS EWIGE RÄTSEL with Yiddish songs by R.R. Klein and works by Mahler, Frank Martin and Ravel. (Both have been awarded the German Record Critics' Prize). His song accompanist is Hilko Dumno. Numerous DVDs also document his extensive opera work.

He gives regular recitals and is a sought-after oratorio singer.

In 2015, he was diagnosed with an aggressively progressive form of the bone marrow disease MDS and had to undergo a stem cell transplant. His brother Andreas was able to be his life-saving donor.

He returned to the stage with great success in September 2016 in his debut at the Royal Opera House London as Don Alfonso in Mozart's COSI FAN TUTTE. Highlights since then have included WOZZECK at the Opéra National de Paris, Beckmesser in the new production of DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG at the Bayreuth Festival, DON PASQUALE at the Zurich Opera House, the COSI FAN TUTTE production at the Salzburg Festival during the Corona years, and DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN at the Berlin State Opera. DUKE BLUEBEARD (Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Torre del Lago, Rotterdam, Stockholm, Helsinki) is another central role in his repertoire.

At the festival in Aix-en-Provence in 2024, he will be seen in EIGHT SONGS FOR A MAD KING with a furious solo performance.

In January 2025, he will once again have to undergo a stem cell transplant due to ‘acute leukaemia’. In the same year, he will return to the stage at the Salzburg Festival in ZAIDE. In 2026, he will sing Alberich in GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG (La Scala di Milano), Dottor Bartolo in IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA (Hamburg) and Danilo in DIE LUSTIGE WITWE (Dresden), among other roles.

At Paris Opera: 2017 Wozzeck (Wozzeck), 2019 Iolanthe (Ibn Hakia), 2020 Götterdämmerung (Gunther- Radio transmission)