South African tenor Katleho Mokhoabane, born in 1996, enjoyed great success this season 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. In September 2026, he will also perform this role in the revival of the production in Vienna.
Since the 2024/25 season, he has been a member of the ensemble at the Hessian State Theater in Wiesbaden, where he is singing roles such as Tamino in The Magic Flute, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Alfredo Germont (La traviata), and the Sailor/A Young Shepherd in a new production of Tristan and Isolde during the current season. His role debuts in 2026/27 will be Nadir in Les Pêcheurs de Perles and Lenski in Eugene Onegin.
At the turn of the year 2024/25, he sang the tenor part in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano under the baton of Emmanuel Tjeknavorian. He made his debut as Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Staatstheater Kassel.
From 2022 to 2024, he was a member of the Vienna State Opera’s Opera Studio. He made his stage debut there as Kunz Vogelgesang in Keith Warner’s production of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and appeared in new productions of R. Strauss’s Salome as the 4th Jew, as well as in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria as L’humana fragilita and Pisandro. In the 2023–24 season, he appeared on stage as the First Priest in The Magic Flute, Joe in La fanciulla del West, the Song Seller in Il tabarro, and the First Knight of the Grail in Parsifal, among other roles.
Katleho made his debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and, during the summer season as part of the Bochabela String Orchestra’s tour, performed as tenor soloist in Mozart’s Requiem at the Bregenz Festival and the Rheingau Music Festival.
During the 2021–2022 season, Katleho appeared in several productions both as a soloist and as a member of the chorus, including at the Bonn Opera in Verdi’s Don Carlo as the Count of Lerma/a Royal Herald and at the Koblenz Theater as the Solo Inmate in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking.
Katleho completed his bachelor’s degree in 2018 at Tshwane University of Technology, where he performed in two Mozart roles: Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte and Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro. Shortly thereafter, he participated in the masterclass series of the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival with Professor Josef Protschka, where he was selected as a scholarship recipient for postgraduate studies. Katleho completed his master’s degree (2019–2022) at the HFMT Cologne under the guidance of Professor Brigitte Lindner and privately with Professor Josef Protschka.
During his studies in Cologne, Katleho appeared as Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte in a university production staged as a guest performance at the Theater Aachen, and as Alfred in Johann Strauss’s The Bat.
He gave concerts throughout North Rhine-Westphalia and also participated in several international singing competitions, including CLIP in Portofino, Italy (3rd prize), the Debut Singing Competition (2nd prize), and the Cologne International Music Competition (1st prize). In the summer of 2025, Katleho was awarded First Prize at the 22nd Concours International de Chant Lyrique de Canari and First Prize at the 3rd International UNISA National Voice Competition in South Africa.
Katleho began singing at a very young age as a soprano in his local church choir, which his father directed, and later switched to the tenor voice in school choirs.
04/2026
