The South African tenor Katleho Mokhoabane, born in 1996, will make his debut in 2026 in the title role of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito at the Vienna State Opera in a new production by Jan Lauwers under the musical direction of Pablo Heras-Casado. Since autumn 2024, he has been a member of the ensemble at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, where he sings roles such as Tamino in The Magic Flute, Jaquino in Fidelio and Uriel in a staged production of Haydn’s The Creation. He will also be singing the role of Alfredo Germont (La traviata) and the Sailor/A Young Shepherd in a new production of Tristan un Isolde in the coming season.
At the turn of the year 2024/25, he sang the tenor part in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano under Emmanuel Tjeknavorian. He made his debut as Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Staatstheater Kassel this season.
From 2022-2024 he was a member of the opera studio at the Vienna State Opera. He made his stage debut there as Kunz Vogelgesang in Keith Warner’s production of Wagner’s The Master-Singers of Nuremberg and took part in the new productions of R. Strauss’ Salome as the 4th Jew, as well as in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria as L’humana fragilita and Pisandro. In 2023/24, he appeared on stage as the 1st Priest in The Magic Flute, as Joe in La fanciulla del West, as a song seller in Il tabarro and as the 1st Knight of the Grail in Parsifal.
Katleho made his debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and appeared as the tenor soloist in the Mozart Requiem at the Bregenz Festival and the Rheingau Music Festival during the summer season as part of the Bochabela String Orchestra tour.
In the 2021-2022 season, Katleho appeared in several productions both as a soloist and as a chorus member, including at the Bonn Opera in Verdi’s Don Carlo as Count von Lerma/a Royal Herald and at the Koblenz Theatre as a solo inmate in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking.
Katleho completed his bachelor’s degree at the Tshwane University of technology in 2018, where he was heard in two Mozart roles: Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte and Basilio in The Marriage of Figaro. Shortly afterwards, he took part in the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival’s masterclass series with Professor Josef Protschka, where he was selected as a scholarship holder for postgraduate studies. Katleho completed his master’s degree (2019-2022) at the HFMT Cologne under the direction of Professor Brigitte Lindner and privately with Professor Josef Protschka.
During his studies in Cologne, Katleho was heard as Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte in a university production as a guest performance at Aachen Theatre and as Alfred in Johann Strauss’ The Bat. He has given concerts in the North Rhine-Westphalia region and has also taken part in several international singing competitions, including the CLIP in Portofino Italy (3rd prize), the Debut Singing Competition (2nd prize) and the Cologne International Music Competition (1st prize).
Katleho began singing very early as a soprano in his local church choir, which his father conducted, and later switched to tenor in school choirs.
07/2025
