Performance Database

Robert Dean Smith

Robert Dean Smith was born in Kansas, USA, and studied singing with Margaret Thuenemann at Pittsburg State University and subsequently with Daniel Ferro at the Juilliard School in New York. At the same time he studied saxophone and played in various classical and jazz ensembles. His first professional engagement was in Bielefeld, Germany, and like many heldentenors, he began his career as a baritone before changing to tenor. His international breakthrough was at the Bayreuth Festival 1997 as Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. He has also sung Lohengrin, Siegmund in Die Walküre, und since 2005 Tristan at the Festival. As soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Robert Dean Smith had the special honor of performing at the 125th anniversary of the Bayreuth Festival.

He performs regularly in the leading opera houses and concert halls of Vienna, Munich, New York, Berlin, Milan, Paris, London, Madrid and Tokyo, working with renowned conductors Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pappano, James Levine, Christian Thielemann, Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Lorin Maazel, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Pierre Boulez, Christoph von Dohnányi, Bernard Haitink, Daniele Gatti, Fabio Luisi  and Kent Nagano.

His repertoire includes Wagner’s Parsifal, Tannhäuser, and Erik; Verdi’s La forza del destino (Alvaro) and Don Carlo; Puccini’s Tosca (Cavaradossi), Madama Butterfly (Pinkerton) and Manon Lescaut (des Griuex); Giordano’s Andrea Chénier (Chénier); also Carmen (Don José) by Bizet, Fidelio (Florestan) by Beethoven, Ariadne auf Naxos (Bacchus) and Die Frau ohne Schatten (Kaiser) by R. Strauss, and Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades (Ghermann). His solo CD of Wagner arias and scenes was awarded the Orphée d’Or from the Académie du Disque Lyrique.

Engagements in Bayreuth

Year Opera Part
2012 Tristan und Isolde Tristan
2011 Tristan und Isolde Tristan
2009 Tristan und Isolde Tristan
2008 Tristan und Isolde Tristan
2007 Die Walküre Siegmund
2006 Tristan und Isolde Tristan
2006 Die Walküre Siegmund
2005 Tristan und Isolde Tristan
2004 Die Walküre Siegmund
2003 Die Walküre Siegmund
2002 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Walther von Stolzing
2002 Die Walküre Siegmund
2002 Lohengrin Lohengrin
2001 IX. Symphonie Tenor
2001 Die Walküre Siegmund
2001 Lohengrin Lohengrin
2001 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Walther von Stolzing
2000 Lohengrin Lohengrin
2000 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Walther von Stolzing
1999 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Walther von Stolzing
1998 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Walther von Stolzing
1997 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Walther von Stolzing