The German baritone
Michael Volle was born in Freudenstadt in the Black Forest and studied with Josef Metternich and Rudolf Piernay among others. The winner of several international
competitions, including the CIEM in Geneva and the New Voices Competition in Gütersloh, he began his stage career at the National Theatre in Mannheim in 1990, an engagement that led to subsequent
contracts with Bonn Opera, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, Cologne Opera and Zurich Opera. International engagements have taken him to Berlin, Paris, London, Milan, Strasbourg, Brussels
and Hamburg as well as to the Salzburg and Bayreuth Festivals. His extensive repertory includes Peter in
Hänsel und Gretel, Golaud in
Pelléas et Mélisande, Germont in
La
traviata, Posa in
Don Carlo, Dr Schön in
Lulu and all the leading baritone roles in the operas of Mozart, Strauss and Wagner. Among the internationally acclaimed conductors
with whom
Michael Volle has worked are Zubin Mehta,
James Levine, Riccardo Muti, Philippe Herreweghe and Valery Gergiev. He is also in worldwide demand as a concert singer and lieder recitalist. He
has been a member of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich since the start of the 2007/8 season.
Michael Volle made his acclaimed Bayreuth Festival début in 2007 as Sixtus Beckmesser in
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, a role he repeats in 2008.
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