Aria's Artists Management

Franz Grundheber - Baritone

Franz Grundheber was born in Trier. After graduation and three years as an officer on time at the Luftwaffe, he studied singing at the Indiana University in Bloomington,USA with Margaret Harshaw. Rolf Liebermann signed him in 1966 at the Hamburg State Opera, where he still has a permanent contract, and where he was appointed as an honorary member to celebrate his 40 years on Stage.

He sings in the repertoire of the coming seasons Barak, Macbeth, Iago, Scarpia, the Dutchman and Simon Boccanegra, where he had an outstanding success under Simone Young. In 2010 he’ll sing Gèrard in Andrea Chènier. The Vienna State Opera as well as the Hamburg State Opera, since many years the center of his artistic work, gave him the title Kammersänger.

Since 1976 he sang there Wozzeck, Orestes, Cardillac, Borromeo, Dr Schön, Guglielmo Wulf/Le Villi and most recently Moses, to the entire repertoire of Rigoletto, Iago, Macbeth, Amonasro, Scarpia, Amfortas, Dutchmen, Barak, and Mandryka Yochanan. Contracts date to 2012. Even at the Salzburg Festival he sang Scarpia (under Herbert von Karajan), Jupiter, Olivier, Orestes, Amfortas, Faninal and Speaker.

In Europe he sang his repertoire in Paris from the Palais Garnier, Châtelet to the Bastille (2011 again as Schigolch), in Barcelona (and again in 2010 as Faninal Schigolch), Madrid (2011 again as Moses), Oviedo, Athens, Rome, La Scala (Wozzeck) and Arena di Verona (where he sang as first German in Aida / Amonasro), Florence and Turin. Further he performed in Copenhagen, Helsinki, Savonlinna, Moscow, Brussels, Amsterdam and London, where he participated with great success at the Covent Garden Opera as Barak, Rigoletto and Simon Boccanegra.

Beside Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago Lyric Opera, Houston and Philadelphia he sang (as first German) Wozzeck and Rigoletto at the Metropolitan New York. For his Simon Boccanegra in Santiago de Chile he received the Critics Award in 2001 and sang there the following year also Scarpia.

In the 2002/03 season on his fifth Japan guest appearance in Tokyo he performed as Amfortas, at the Tokyo Opera Nomori as Orestes and at the Saito Kinen Festival in 2005 in Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrenliedern. 2010 he’ll return to Tokyo with Amfortas.

In addition to many other recordings Franz Grundheber was awarded with the Prix Georges Till as Alban Berg’s Wozzeck under Claudio Abbado. He also performed the same Opera with Daniel Baremoim. With Olivier, Faninal, Mandryka, Jupiter, Barak and recently under Semyon Bychkov as Orestes, he went through almost all the Strauss repertoire. His CD “Lieder einer Reise” was presented in august 2008 in Salzburg.

In Concert, Oratorio and Lieder he sang numerous concerts under Herbert von Karajan, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, Colin Davis, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Claudio Abbado and Semyon Bychkov, to name a few.

Artists Management
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