The Austrian baritone Thomas Essl has been a permanent ensemble member of Chemnitz Opera since 2023/24 and will be heard as Arthur de St. Barbe and Monsieur Juste in Martinu’s “The Three Wishes” and in Mahler’s 8th Symphony, among others. In 2022/23 he had introduced himself as a resident guest at this house with roles such as Escamillo, Peter Besenbinder and Wozzek.
Previously, in the 21/22 season, he appeared at Graz Opera as Halit in the world premiere of Sinan Sanamli’s opera “The Patron Saint of Liars” and as Lazar Wolf in Jerry Bock’s musical “Anatevka”, at Leoben City Theatre as Eisenstein in Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus”, at the Festival Lied in Würzburg with Schubert’s “Schwanengesang” and at the Austrian opera festival Oper Burg Gars as Dancairo in Bizet’s “Carmen”. Future engagements include gala concerts in Riga “Ein Deutsches Requiem” by Johannes Brahms in Graz, the role of Krušina in Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride” at Graz Opera and Schumann’s “Dichterliebe” again at Festival Lied in Würzburg.
In previous years he was a prize-winner in the “Zukunftsstimmen” competition organised by Elina Garanca, sang Guglielmo in “Così fan tutte”, Conte Almaviva in “Le nozze di Figaro”, Scherasmin in Carl Maria von Weber’s “Oberon” under Oksana Lyniv, the Wirt in Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Königskindern” and Frank in “Die Fledermaus” at the Graz Opera, Don Giovanni at the Ring Award at the Schauspielhaus Graz, and Count Hanschmann in Lehár’s “Die blaue Mazur” at the Stadttheater Baden.
In 2018 Thomas Essl was a prize-winner at the Nico Dostal Operetta Competition and the Accademia vocalis in Wörgl.
As Malatesta (“Don Pasquale”) he made a guest appearance at the Opera Nova in Sofia (Bulgaria). He also appears regularly on the concert stage as a lied singer and with great success in masses and oratorios by Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Brahms and Carl Orff, among others.
Thomas Essl studied trumpet and jazz piano in Graz. He received his vocal training in Graz with Susanne Kopeinig and at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Karlheinz Hanser. He attended master classes with Brigitte Fassbaender, Thomas Hampson, Christa Ludwig, Thomas Quasthoff and Krassimira Stoyanova, and took acting lessons with Chris Pichler.
10/2023
