René Pape Bass

© Jiyang Chen

Biography

René Pape was born in Dresden and has been a member of the Berlin Staatsoper since 1988. He made his performance debut in that theatre and has since sung many of the great roles from his repertoire there, including King Marke in Tristan und Isolde, King Heinrich in Lohengrin, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Rocco in Fidelio, Fasolt in Das Rheingold, Hunding in Die Walküre, Wotan in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, Leporello and the title role in Don Giovanni, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Ramfis in Aida, Orestes in Elektra, and the title role in Boris Godunov

He has also made regular guest appearances at the New York Metropolitan Opera, where he has performed each season since 1995 as, among others, Méphistophélès (Faust), Gurnemanz (Parsifal), Escamillo (Carmen), King Marke, King Heinrich, Rocco, Leporello, Pogner, and Hunding. He has sung at the Bayreuth Festival, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Paris Opera (King Marke, Philip II in Don Carlo, King Heinrich in Lohengrin, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte), Chicago’s Lyric Opera, the Salzburg Festival, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Verbier Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Chorégies d’Orange, and Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper…

Over the last few years, he has performed Heinrich der Vogler (Lohengrin), Sarastro, King Marke and Philip II (Don Carlo) at the Paris Opera. During the 2021/2022 season, he sang the title roles in Boris Godounov at the New York Metropolitan Opera, Gurnemanz (Parsifal) at the Vienna Staatsoper,  King Marke at the Liepzig Opernhaus and at the Vienna Staatsoper, Orest and Timur (Turandot) at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin.

He also sings in recital and in concert with some of the world’s great orchestras (the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker…) under the baton of Sir Colin Davis, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Daniel Barenboim, Semyon Bychkov, Franz Welser-Möst, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Zubin Mehta, etc.

His many recordings include Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser and an album devoted to Wagner with the Berlin Staatskapelle and Daniel Barenboim, Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, Die Zauberflöte, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s The Creation and The Seasons, Verdi’s Requiem.

Immerse in the Paris Opera universe

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