Georg Nigl

Georg Nigl always delights audiences and the press with passionate and authentic performances, be it his celebrated Wozzeck at La Scala in Milan, Rihm's Lenz in Brussels and Berlin or his interpretation of the Bach cantatas with Luca Pianca. His profound and comprehensive engagement with all the works he performs, his close affinity with spoken theatre and the accompanying emphasis on text and rhetoric, as well as his expressive performing skills on stage, make Georg Nigl one of the most celebrated baritones in the world. He was already closely connected to music as a child. As a soprano soloist of the Vienna Boys' Choir he appeared on the most important stages. During his studies with Hilde Zadek he received further important impulses for his subsequent career as a baritone. His unmistakable timbre, which gives his characters special weight and character, has taken him to all the important opera stages. He has appeared at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, La Scala in Milan, the Berlin and Bavarian State Operas, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, the Zurich Opera House and the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, as well as at festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Ruhrtriennale and the Vienna Festival Weeks. He has worked with renowned conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Teodor Currentzis, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, René Jacobs, Kent Nagano and Kirill Petrenko, and with directors Andrea Breth, Romeo Castellucci, Frank Castorf, Hans Neuenfels, Johan Simons, Dmitri Tcherniakov and Sasha Waltz. Georg Nigl has gained special recognition not only as a performing soloist in numerous world premieres, but also as a source of inspiration for compositions and publications by, among others, Friedrich Cerha, Pascal Dusapin, Georg Friedrich Haas, Wolfgang Mitterer, Olga Neuwirth and Wolfgang Rihm. His chamber music repertoire shows a wide spectrum from Baroque to Viennese Classical and New Music. His recording Bach privat was awarded the Diapason d'or in November 2017. His lied record Vanitas gemeinsam musiziert mit Olga Pashchenko, with Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte, selected songs by Franz Schubert and Wolfgang Rihm's Vermischter Traum, released in spring 2020, was awarded the Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in 2021. In 2020 Georg Nigl performed Molto agitato (Nagano / Castorf) at the opening of the season of the Hamburg State Opera, followed by Orfeo and Frau ohne Schatten at the Berlin State Opera, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus at the Vienna State Opera, Dusapin's Penthesilea with the Orchestre de Paris, and concerts in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, the Elbphilharmonie, Paris, Munich, Vienna and Cologne, among others. The season ended with a new production of Reimann's Lear at the Bavarian State Opera. 2021/22 began with concerts at the Salzburg Festival and the Musikfest Berlin, followed by the new production of Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di anima e di corpo at the Theater an der Wien. Other highlights include the title role in the new production of Monteverdi's Orfeo at the Vienna State Opera, and Mozart's Magic Flute at the Berlin State Opera and the Vienna State Opera. Lieder recitals bring him to the Monnaie in Brussels, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Kölner Philharmonie and the Heidelberger Frühling. Georg Nigl has also appeared with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bach's St Matthew Passion under Sir Simon Rattle and with the Mozarteum Orchestra under Constantinos Carydis in Salzburg. For Wolfgang Rihm's 70th birthday, Georg Nigl performs Rihm's Terzinen an den Tod, as well as the Wölfl-Lieder under Ingo Metzmacher in Munich. In 2022 he can be heard at the Salzburg Festival in a concert performance of Rihm's Jakob Lenz. In the 2015 critics' poll of Opernwelt magazine, Georg Nigl was named "Singer of the Year" for his interpretation of Rihm's Lenz.