Sébastien Soulès, born in Orléans (France), studied mathematics at the same time as music at the Conservatory of his home town. He then made his diploma at the Conservatory of Montreuil and studied first at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Prof. Franz Petri, and at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin with Prof. Harald Stamm. Master courses with Walter Berry, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Brigitte Fassbaender and Jose van Dam came to accomplish his studies.
In 2001 he won a price at the Willi-Domgraf-Fassbaender-competition in Munich. In 2002 he made his debut as
Graf Eberbach in Lortzing's "Wildschütz" in Hof and as
Escamillo in "Carmen" at the
Tiroler Landestheater.
In addition to his appearances with recitals and in oratorios, he has been a member of the Tiroler Landestheater since 2003/04 where he sang roles like B
elcore ("Elisir d'Amore"),
Sharpless ("Butterfly"),
Figaro,
Jochanaan („Salome“),
Don Giovanni,
Kaspar („Der Freischütz“),
Don Alfonso („Così fan tutte“),
Golaud („Pelléas et Mélisande“),
Musiklehrer („Ariadne auf Naxos“),
Scarpia ("Tosca") and most recently
Alberich („Das Rheingold“) and
Wozzeck.
Guest contracts took him to England (Bath, Norwich, Buxton Festival) and Switzerland (La-Chaux-de-Fonds).
In 2007 und 2008 he sang the role of Angelotti at the Bregenz Festival. In the James Bond movie "A Quantum of Solace" he sings and plays the role of Scarpia.
Highlights of 2009/10 were the 4 vilains in "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" at the Theatre of Linz (Austria) and the title role of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.
During the last season, Sébastien Soulès had big success as Don Giovanni and Marcello ("La Bohème") at the opera house of Halle, as well as in the role of Albert in Massenet's „Werther“ at the theatre of Koblenz. During the International May Festival in Wiesbaden, he sang the role of Humbert Humbert in Shchedrin's opera „Lolita“ under the baton of Marc Piollet, directed by Konstanze Lauterbach, at the State Opera of Wiesbaden. In Sommer 2011, he performed the role of Figaro ("Le Nozze di Figaro" at the open air festival of Klosterneuburg (Austria).
Having sung the title role of Baal in Friedrich Cerha's opera with the Neue Oper Wien, Soulès sang concerts with a selection of songs from Mahler's "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto.
2012 engagements include the role of Marco („Gianni Schicchi“) and Figaro ("Le Nozze di Figaro") at the Volksoper Wien, as well as Baron Scarpia ("Tosca") at the Landestheater Niederbayern and Escamillo in Ève Ruggiéri's "Carmen" which will tour thirteen French cities this year, including Strasbourg and Paris.