Michael Volle (; born 1960)
Life
Volle was born in
Freudenstadt in the
Black Forest in 1960, the son of a Protestant pastor and the youngest of eight siblings.
His brothers are the actor and the opera singer Dietrich Volle. He studied voice at the and Musikhochschule Stuttgart with Josef Sinz and
Georg Jelden, and also studied with
Josef Metternich and
Rudolf Piernay.
He was first engaged at the Nationaltheater Mannheim in 1990, where leading roles included Guglielmo in Mozart's
Così fan tutte and Papageno in
Die Zauberflöte, Wolfram in Wagner's
Tannhäuser, and Albert in Massenet's
Werther.
He belonged to the ensemble of the
Bonn Opera from 1994, where he appeared as Mozart's
Don Giovanni, Silvio in Leoncavallo's
Pagliacci, and the Count in Lortzing's
Der Wildschütz.
He was engaged by the Deutsche Oper am Rhein from 1996, and by the
Cologne Opera from 1998, where he appeared as Marcello in Puccini's
La Bohème and as Ford in Verdi's
Falstaff.
He was a member of the ensemble of the Opernhaus Zürich from 1999 to 2007.
He then moved to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where he appeared as Alfonso in
Così fan tutte, Amfortas in Wagner's
Parsifal, and in the title roles of Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin and Alban Berg's
Wozzeck, among others.
For his portrayal of Wozzeck, he was awarded the theatre prize
Der Faust in 2009.
Since 2011, he has worked freelance.
Volle appeared as a guest at major German and European opera houses, as Heerrufer in Wagner's Lohengrin at the Opéra National de Paris in 1996, as the Speaker in Mozart's Zauberflöte at La Scala in 1998,
Volle also appeared at the Salzburg Festival as Tamare in Schreker's Die Gezeichneten, in the double role of Dr. Schön and Jack the Ripper in Berg's Lulu, and in 2013 as Hans Sachs in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Volle lives in Berlin; he is in his second marriage, to the Swiss opera singer Gabriela Scherer.
Awards
-
2014: nominated for the International Opera Awards in the category Best Singer
Discography
CD
-
Zemlinsky: Der Traumgörge. EMI
-
Schubert: Winterreise. Animato
-
Schubert: Schwanengesang. Naxos
-
Bach: St Matthew Passion. EMI
-
Songs by Great Conductors. Oehms
DVD
-
Schreker: Die Gezeichneten. Euroarts
-
Bellini: Beatrice di Tenda. TDK
-
Weber: Der Freischütz. Constantin Film 2010
-
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. EMI
-
Puccini: La Bohème. EMI
-
Wagner: Parsifal. Deutsche Grammophon
-
Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande. TDK
-
Schubert: Fierrabras. EMI
-
Richard Strauss: Salome. Opus Arte
-
Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos. TDK
Notes
External links
