Austrian baritone Christoph Filler is equally in demand on concert and opera stages:
In 2025, he will make his role debut in the title role of Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’ under Masato Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan. He opened the 2024/25 season as Gabriel von Eisenstein in a concert performance of ‘The Bat’ with Les Musiciens du Louvre under Marc Minkowski at Musikfest Bremen. Prior to this, Christoph Filler made his debut at the Salzburg Festival in summer 2024 as part of the festival’s opening week with Schönberg’s short opera ‘Die glückliche Hand’ and Gustav Mahler’s ‘Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen’ in Arnold Schönberg’s arrangement for chamber orchestra, with the Divertimento Viennese orchestra under the direction of Vinzenz Praxmarer.
In addition to appearances at the Vienna and Graz Musikverein in Haydn’s ‘Theresienmesse’ with the Concentus Musicus Wien under Stefan Gottfried and Bach’s ‘Magnificat’ with the Orchestra Wiener Akademie under Martin Haselböck, he has recently toured Europe as a soloist in Bach’s ‘St John Passion’ (Arias/Pilatus) with the Catalan ensemble Le Concert des Nations and La Capella Nacional de Catalunya under Jordi Savall.
He also returned to the MusikTheater an der Wien in the leading role of Richard III in a pasticcio based on Shakespeare’s drama ‘Richard III’ and music by Henry Purcell, where he had already made his house debut in a new production of Vicente Martín y Solér’s ‘L’arbore di Diana’.
In 2022/23, he made his debut as Dr Falke in Strauss’ “The Bat” at the Theater St. Gallen. He returned to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf as Gabriel von Eisenstein in Axel Köhler’s production of “The Bat”. Other concert engagements include Steen Spade’s orchestral song cycle ‘Am Abend’ for baritone and orchestra in Flensburg and Sonderborg under Johannes Wildner, Schubert’s ‘Mass in E flat major’ with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Cristian Măcelaru and Bach’s ‘St John Passion’ (Christus) with the Concentus Musicus under the direction of Stefan Gottfried.
Guest engagements in Peter Eötvös‘ “Der goldene Drache”, as Haly in Rossini’s “L’italiana in Algeri” and in the title role of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” have taken him to the Innsbruck State Theatre, as well as Toni Schlumberger (’Die Zirkusprinzessin‘) and Dr. Falke (’The Bat”) to the Deutsche Oper Rhein Düsseldorf, as Belcore (‘L’elisir d’amore’) at the Daegu Opera House, as Dr Falke (‘The Bat’) at the Darmstadt State Theatre and as Figaro (‘Le nozze di Figaro’) at the Chemnitz Theatre.
His concert repertoire includes Bach’s ‘St Matthew Passion’ (arias & Christus), ‘St John Passion’ (arias & Christus), Handel’s ‘Messiah’, ‘Alexander’s Feast’, Haydn’s ‘The Seasons’, ‘The Creation’, Beethoven’s ‘9th Symphony’, Brahms’ “German Requiem” and Orff’s “Carmina Burana” – with which he has performed at the Vienna Konzerthaus, among other venues.
Christoph Filler made his debut at the Vienna Musikverein with Bach’s ‘St Matthew Passion’ with the Wiener Akademie Orchestra under Martin Haselböck, with whom he also performed in Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ and Bach’s ‘St Matthew Passion’ in Los Angeles. He also appeared as Christ in the ‘St Matthew Passion’ at the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid.
In Haydn’s ‘The Creation’ he sang the roles of Raphael and Adam with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg under Theodor Guschlbauer and on tour with the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées under Philippe Herreweghe.
Christoph Filler is also a sought-after interpreter of art song. As part of ‘Michael Schade’s Music Salon’, Christoph Filler performed Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’. His repertoire also includes Schubert’s great cycles ‘Die schöne Müllerin’ and ‘Schwanengesang’ as well as Schumann’s ‘Dichterliebe’ alongside a large number of Loewe ballads, Brahms’ songs and Mahler’s song cycles “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen” and “Kindertotenlieder”.
From 2016-2019, Christoph Filler was a permanent member of the ensemble at Munich’s Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, where he appeared as Guglielmo (‘Cosi fan tutte’), Papageno (‘The Magic Flute’), Dr Malatesta (‘Don Pasquale’), Count Eberbach (‘The Poacher’), Sir Edgar’s Secretary (‘The Young Lord’) and Danilo (‘The Merry Widow’), among others.
In 2013/14, he was a member of the Zurich International Opera Studio, where he worked on Guglielmo (‘Cosi fan tutte’), Marullo (‘Rigoletto’), Ned Keene (‘Peter Grimes’) and many other roles on stage.
Christoph Filler studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Peter Edelmann as well as Master Lied & Oratorio with Florian Boesch.
12/2024