Tenor Gerhard Siegel

Biography

Born in Germany, Gerhard Siegel graduated from the Leopold Mozart Conservatory in Augsburg, where he studied singing with Liselotte Becker-Egner. He was a member of the Trier and Dessau companies and was then hired in Augsburg. In 1995 he won the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition in Vienna.

From 1999 to 2006, he was a member of the Nuremberg company, where he sang Bacchus (Ariadne in Naxos), Herod (Salome), Mefistopheles (Busoni’s Doktor Faust), Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s Progress), Florestan (Fidelio), Laca (Jenůfa), Serguei (Mzensk’s Lady Macbeth), Walter von Stolzing (The Master Singers of Nuremberg), and the title roles in Parsifal and Siegfried.

He sang Max (Freischütz) at the KomischeOper Berlin, Tum Tum (Hindemith’s Das Nusch-Nuschi) in Cologne, Florestan at the Granada Festival, Parsifal in Kassel, Tannhäuser in Augsburg, the title-role in Kurt Weill’s Der Protagonist at the Bregenz Festival, Max (Krenek’s Jonnyspieltauf) in Cologne, the Captain (Wozzeck) at the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Paris Opera, New York Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera and the Salzburg Festival, Klaus Narr (Gurre-Lieder) on tour with Michael Gielen and the SWR Symphony Orchestra, Sellem (The Rake’s Progress) at the Theater an der Wien, Chouiski (Boris Godunov) in Munich, Alwa (Lulu) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Tristan (Tristan and Isolde) in Augsburg, Herod at the Vienna Staatsoper, the Zurich Opera and the Verbier Festival, Midas (Danae’s Love) at the Salzburg Festival 2017, the Witch (Hänsel and Gretel) at the Royal Opera House in London and at the Metropolitan Opera, the Emperor (Die Frau ohne Schatten) at the Verbier Festival 2019, Piet (Le Grand Macabre) in Dresden.

He made his debut as Mime at the New York Metropolitan Opera and Bayreuth Festival, as well as in Cologne with Jeffrey Tate at the New National Theatre in Tokyo, the Royal Opera House in London, the Mupa in Budapest and the Paris Opera.

Gerhard Siegel is also a composer: he composed, among others, a stage version of Heinrich Heine’s Deutschland – ein Wintermärchen, premiered in Trier. 

A central part of his repertoire today is Mime in “Rheingold” and “Siegfried”.
He sang it in his debuts at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, at the Bayreuth Festival and in the Jeffrey Tate-directed Ring at the Cologne Opera, but also at London’s Covent Garden and under Jun Märkel in Tokyo. Another artistic highlight was Schönberg’s “Gurre-Lieder” (Klaus-Narr) on a tour with Michael Gielen and the SWR Symphony Orchestra as well as with the Vienna Philharmonic under Zubin Metha.
After Mime in “Rheingold” and “Siegfried” in Barcelona, ​​Dresden, New York and Tokyo, “Lulu” in Amsterdam, “Wozzeck” (Captain) in Chicago and Salzburg (Festivals), Prince Schuisky in “Boris Godunow” in Munich, Herodes at the Vienna State Opera, Zurich Opera House, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and at the Verbier Festival under Charles Dutoit and Midas in “Love of Danae” at the Salzburg Festival was followed in 2017 by the witch at the Metropolitan Opera New York.
After the Ring in Dresden and Salome in Berlin at the State Opera, Tristan in Cleveland and recitals in New York, Staunton/Virginia and in Texas, Salome in Budapest, the Ring / Mime and also the Witch in London followed Wozzeck in New York, Le Grand Macabre in Dresden, the Ring in Paris (due to the pandemic only streamed as a concert recording).
After a break of about 19 months, things started again with a new Salome in Budapest and the opera Die Verkennung des Lucullus at the Stuttgart State Opera.
In the next years, Chowanschtschina, Wozzeck and Elektra at the Opera National de Paris will follow, as well as a concert tour as Loge in the Rheingold with the Rotterdam Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Cardillac and Salome at the Vienna State Opera, Mahagonny and Salome at the Metropolitan Opera.