Wolfgang Stefan Schwaiger

Born in

Innsbruck/Austria

Education

• University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna (K.-H. Hanser, F. Boesch)
• Opera Studio Cologne
• Opera Studio Bregenz Festival

Engagements

• Oper Köln
• Teatro Real Madrid
• Vlaamse Opera
• Bregenz Festival
• Staatstheater Darmstadt
• Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck
• Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe
• Staatstheater Hannover
• Oper Graz
• Konzerthaus Vienna

Important Roles

• Il barbiere di SivigliaFigaro
• La CenerentolaDandini
• Le nozze di FigaroConte Almaviva
• Don GiovanniDon Giovanni
• Così fan tutteGuglielmo
• The BatFalke
• The Magic FlutePapageno
• ManonLescaut
• Weiße RoseHans
• L'elisir d'amoreBelcore
• La CalistoGiove
• The Dead CityFrank/Fritz
• FaustValentin

Website

The Tyrolean baritone Wolfgang Stefan Schwaiger enjoyed great success this season in the title role of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Opera Ballett Vlaanderen in Antwerp and Ghent. Since 2016, he has been a member of the Cologne Opera ensemble, where his upcoming roles this season and in 2026/27 include Ping (Turandot), Papageno (The Magic Flute), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), and Sharpless (Madama Butterfly).

Prior to Don Giovanni, the baritone had already made several guest appearances at Opera Ballett Vlaanderen: in 2024/25 as Thaos in Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride in a production by Rafael Villalobos under the baton of Benjamin Bayl, as Doktor Falke in The Bat under Alexander Joel, and in Brahms’s German Requiem. At the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Wolfgang Stefan Schwaiger appeared on stage as Heger in Dvořák’s Rusalka and as Schaunard in Puccini’s La bohème.

In the 2021/22 season, he also appeared as Taddeo in L’italiana in Algeri at the Tiroler Landestheater. Furthermore, he regularly performs recitals, including Die schöne Müllerin with Barbara Moser at the piano in Paris, as well as concerts featuring oratorios and orchestral songs.

In recent years, the baritone has made guest appearances as Giove in La Calisto at the Teatro Real in Madrid, as Maximilian in Bernstein’s Candide at the Hanover State Opera, as Marullo in Verdi’s Rigoletto, as Moralès in Bizet’s Carmen and in songs from Ravel’s Don Chichotte at the Bregenz Festival, as well as in the role of Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Darmstadt State Theater.

At the Cologne Opera, where Wolfgang Stefan Schwaiger was already a member of the opera studio from 2014 to 2016, he further developed a broad repertoire, including roles such as Lescaut in Massenet’s Manon, Valentin in Gounod’s Faust, Frank/Fritz in Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, Dandini in La Cenerentola, Ned Keene in Peter Grimes, Figaro in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Count Dominik in Richard Strauss’s Arabella, the title role in Purcell’s King Arthur in a version for children, Freddy in My Fair Lady, and Hans Scholl in Die Weiße Rose.

During his studies, the young singer already gained extensive stage experience: in 2011, he sang the role in a production by the Vienna Taschenoper and at the Graz Opera. At the Schönbrunn Palace Theater from 2012 to 2014, he appeared on stage as the Count of Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, as Frank and Falke in J. Strauss’ The Bat, and in the title role of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, a role with which he also drew attention to himself in the summer of 2016 at the Bregenz Festival Opera Studio.

From a very early age, Wolfgang Stefan Schwaiger won numerous competitions, including the Brahms Competition in Pörtschach, Gradus ad Parnassum (2011), Musica Juventutis at the Vienna Konzerthaus, took second place at the International Ferrucio Tagliavini Competition, was a finalist in the 1st Otto Edelmann Competition, and was a laureate of the Juventus Festival in Cambrai, France (2013).

Born in Innsbruck in 1991, the young baritone received a well-rounded musical education as a child (recorder, trumpet, piano) and was a member of the Wiltener Sängerknaben, where he was soon featured as an alto soloist. From 2010 to 2014, he studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MDW) under Prof. Karlheinz Hanser; in 2019, he successfully completed his master’s degree in Lied and Oratorio under Florian Bösch.

04/2026

Berlioz, Hector

• Benvenuto Cellini Pompeo

Bernstein, Leonard

• Candide Maximilian, Captain

Bizet, Georges

• Carmen Moralès

Blacher, Boris

• Romeo and Juliette Capulet

Britten, Benjamin

• Peter Grimes Ned Keene
• The Rape of Lucretia Junius

Cavalli, Francesco

• La Calisto Giove

Charpentier, Marc Antoine

• David et Jonathas Saul

Dallapiccola, Luigi

• Il prigionero 2nd Priest

Dean, Brett

• Hamlet Horatio

Donizetti, Gaetano

• L'elisir d'amore Belcore

Dvořák, Antonín

• Rusalka Gamekeeper

Goldschmiedt, Berthold

• Beatrice Cenci Marzio

Gounod, Charles

• Faust Valentin

Haendel, Georg Friedrich

• King Arthur König

Korngold, Erich Wolfgang

• The Dead City Fritz/Frank

Lehar, Franz

• The Merry Widow Bogdanowitsch

Loewe, Frederick

• My Fair Lady Freddy

Massenet, Jules

• Manon Lescaut

Montsalvatge, Xavier

• The booted Tomcat King

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

• The Magic Flute Papageno
• Le nozze di Figaro Conte Almaviva
• Don Giovanni Don Giovanni
• Così fan tutte Guglielmo
• La finta giardiniera Nardo

Naske, Elisabeth

• Little I am Me

Orff, Carl

• The Wise Girl Mule Owner

Puccini, Giacomo

• La Bohème Marcello, Schaunard
• Madama Butterfly Yakuside
• Turandot Ping

Rossini, Gioacchino

• Il barbiere di Siviglia Figaro
• La Cenerentola Dandini
• L'italiana in Algeri Taddeo

Soyka, Ulf-Dieter

• The little Ghost

Strauss, Johann

• The Bat Falke, Frank

Strauss, Richard

• Arabella Count Dominik

Stravinsky, Igor

• The Nightingale The Emperor

Verdi, Giuseppe

• Rigoletto Marullo
• Un ballo in maschera Silvano

Weber, Carl Maria von

• Der Freischütz Ottokar
• Oberon Scherasmin

Zeller, Carl

• The Bird Seller Schneck

Zimmermann, Bernd Alois

• The Soldiers Mary

Zimmermann, Udo

• White Rose Hans Scholl

Bach, Johann Sebastian

• Christmas Oratorio
• St. John's Passion
• Cantata "Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele", BWV 69

Beethoven, Ludwig van

• Christ on the Mount of Olives

Bernstein , Leonard

• Arias and Barcaroles

Brahms, Johannes

• Ein deutsches Requiem
• Lieder und Gesänge op. 32
• 4 Lieder op. 96

Einem, Gottfried von

• An die Nachgeborenen

Fauré, Gabriel

• Requiem

Orff, Carl

• Carmina Burana

Mahler, Gustav

• Rückert-Lieder

Ravel, Maurice

• Don Quichotte à Dulcinée

Schubert, Franz

• Die schöne Müllerin
• Die Winterreise

Schumann, Robert

• Paradies und die Peri
• Liederkreis op. 39
• Dichterliebe

Vaughan Williams, Ralph

• Songs of Travel

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