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

Tyrolean baritone Wolfgang Stefan Schwaiger has been a member of the Cologne Opera ensemble since 2016, where his roles in the current season include Guglielmo in “Così fan tutte” and Ned Keene in “Peter Grimes”. After a guest appearance with the Brahms Requiem at the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp and Ghent, he returned to this house in 2023 with great success as Falke in “The Bat”. In 2022/23 he sang Dandini in “La Cenerentola” and Papageno in “The Magic Flute” in Cologne.

In 2021/22, he also appeared as Taddeo in “L’italiana in Algeri” at the Tiroler Landestheater. He also regularly sings recitals, including “Die schöne Müllerin” with Barbara Moser at the piano in Paris and concerts of oratorios and orchestral songs.

In recent years, the young 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 with Ravel’s Don Chichotte Lieder at the Bregenz Festival, and as Figaro in “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” at the Staatstheater Darmstadt.

At the Cologne Opera, where Wolfgang Stefan Schwaiger was already a member of the Opera Studio from 2014-16, he developed a broad repertoire: Count Dominik in Arabella by Richard Strauss, the title role in Purcell’s “King Arthur” in a version for children, Freddy in “My Fair Lady”, Ping in “Turandot”, Schaunard in “La Bohème”, Hans Scholl in “White Rose”, Falke in “The Bat”, Lescaut in Massenet’s “Manon”, Valentin in Gounod’s Faust, or Frank /Fritz in the live-streamed performance of Korngold’s “The Dead City”.

During his studies, the young singer already gained a lot of stage experience: in 2011 he sang in a production of the Vienna Taschenoper and at the Graz Opera. At the Schönbrunn Palace Theatre in 2012-14 he appeared on stage as Conte di 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 attracted attention in the opera studio of the Bregenz Festival in summer 2016.

Wolfgang Stefan Schwaiger won numerous competitions at a very early age, including the Brahms Competition in Pörtschach, “Gradus ad parnassum (2011), Musica Juventutis in the Vienna Konzerthaus, won 2nd place in the International Ferrucio Tagliavini Competition, was a finalist in the 1st Otto Edelmann Competition and Lauréat of the Festival “Juventus” in Cambrais/France (2013).

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

08/2024

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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