Georg Nigl (Baritone)
Born in Vienna, Austria. He was the soloist with the Vienna Boys' Choir, than he
was a student of Hilde Zadek.
He has sung Mozartian opera roles in
France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Austria. Among his most important
roles are Papageno, Don Alfonso (with Thomas Hengelbrock 1999 and 2000 at the
Summer Festival in Baden-Baden) and Don Giovanni (in the production of Tobias
Moretti in 2002).
He appeared at Teatro alla Scala, Staatsoper Unter den
Linden Berlin, Theatre de la Monnaie Brussels, Festival Aix-en-Provence,
Salzburg Festival and the Vienna Festwochen.
On the opera stage he has
worked with such distinguished directors as Andrea Breth, Frank Castorf, Jurgen
Flimm and Peter Mussbach; and at both opera and concert venues he has performed
with renowned conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Daniele Gatti, Michael
Boder, Rene Jacobs, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Jordi Savall, Thomas Hengelbrock and
Giovanni Antonini.
In 1994 George Nigl began working with Nikolaus
Harnoncourt with performances at the Wiener Festwochen (Haydn's L'anima del
filosofo in 1994, Schubert's Alfonso and Estrella in 1997) and the
Styriarte Graz (Offenbach's La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein in 2003).
He subsequently received invitations to work with other period-instruments
ensembles, among others from Christophe Coin, Thomas Hengelbrock (Mozart's
Cosi fan tutte in 1999, Der Winterkonig (Schubert’s
Winterreise and Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad
King) in 2004), Jordi Savall as well as Giovanni Antonini and Luca Pianca
with Il Giardino Armonico (Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in 1999,
Haydn's Agrippina in 2000).
Georg Nigl has become one of the
most sought-after singers in the performance of contemporary music. This is
documented by numerous world and local premieres such as Greek by
Mark-Anthony Turnage (Jeunesse Festival 1995), Gloria vom Jaxtberg by
HK Gruber (Wien modern 1996), Luci miei traditrici by Salvatore
Sciarrino (Wiener Festwochen and Schwetzinger Festspiele 1998), Nacht
und Die Schone Wunde by Georg Friedrich Haas (Bregenzer Festspiele
1998 and 2003), Un re in ascolto by Luciano Berio's (Grand Theatre de
Geneve 2002), Massacre by Wolfgang Mitterer (Wiener Festwochen 2003),
Landschaften mit entfernten Verwandten by Heiner Goebbels (Grand
Theatre de Geneve, Berliner Festwochen, Holland Festival 2003), Lost
highway by Olga Neuwirth (steirischer herbst 2003, Stadttheater Basel
2004). Other of new opera parts are the title roles in Pascal Dusapin's
Faustus the last Night (A Story of Faustus) (debuts at the Staatsoper
Unter den Linden Berlin, and at the Opera House Lyon (director: Peter Mussbach),
2005-2006).
His recent engagements include:
the title role in Berg's Wozzeck at La
Scala (conductor Daniele Gatti, director Jurgen Flimm, 2008) the
title role in Wolfgang Rihm's Jakob Lenz at Wiener Festwochen
(2008) He (Dusapin's Passion) at the Festival
Aix-en-Provence, at the International Festival of Contemporary music in
Strasbourg (2008), in Rouen and Paris (2009) Anastasio
(Legrenzi's Il Giustino) in Luxembourg (2008) The
Husband (Schoenberg's From Today to Tomorrow) at La Fenice
(Venice, 2008) Mercurio (Cavalli's La Calisto) at
Theatre de la Monnaie (2009) the title role in Monteverdi's
L'Orfeo at La Scala (conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini, director Robert
Wilson, 2009)
As a lied singer Georg Nigl has performed with lutenist
Luca Pianca and pianist Gerard Wyss all over Europe and in the USA. His
partners in Brahms's Die schone Magelone were Sir Peter Ustinov and
Anne Bennent. Moreover, he has been very successful with his own series of
lied recitals at the Wiener Konzerthaus, in which he followed the tracks of the
lied through five centuries.
He has made numerous radio and television
recordings, and DVD and CD releases are available on the Deutsche Grammophon,
ECM, Passacaille, col legno and Naive labels.
In 2009, he made his
Bolshoi Theatre debut as Wozzeck (Berg's Wozzeck).
|