The Brazilian bass
Diógenes Randes studied singing in his home city of Săo Paulo and at the Colmar Conservatory in Germany, completing his course there with distinction in 1999. While still a
student he won third prize in the Maria Callas Singing Competition before going on to participate in other important competitions, including the International Competition for Italian Opera in
Dresden. Even at this early date he was already making his first professional appearances, impressing audiences and critics alike as the Bonze in
Madama Butterfly, Masetto in
Don Giovanni in Jacarei and Manaus and as Don Basilio in
Il barbiere di Siviglia. Among the roles he sang in France at this time were Don Alfonso in
Cosě fan tutte, Collatinus in
The Rape of Lucretia and the Portrait in Bohuslav Martinu's
Alexandre bis. He sang these last two
roles at the International Opera Studio in Strasbourg/Colmar, of which he was a member during the 2000/1 season. Already much in demand as a soloist, he sang Sarastro in
Die
Zauberflöte for the Geneva Opera Studio.
Diógenes Randes was still only twenty-four when he became a permanent member of Freiburg Opera. During the next three seasons, his repertory
there included Sarastro, Banquo in
Macbeth, Sparafucile in
Rigoletto, Guglielmo in
Cosě fan tutte and Timur in
Turandot. During the summer of 2004 he was heard as Don Bartolo in
Le nozze di Figaro at the Ludwigsburg Festival and also took part at this time in a
concert performance of
La traviata. Since the start of the 2004/5 season
Diógenes Randes has been a member of the Aalto Theatre in Essen, where his roles have included
Sarastro and Mozart's Figaro.
He made his Bayreuth Festival début in 2007 as Hans Foltz in
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and added Titurel in
Parsifal in 2008. Both roles he will
perform also in 2009.
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