Volker Vogel - Tenor
Biography
A native of Karlsruhe, Germany, Volker Vogel has in the meantime become Swiss citizen. He made his vocal studies at the Academy of Music and Theatre in Hannover. After two years, he broke off his vocal studies in order to become a director’s assistant at Niedersächsische Staatsoper Hannover. His next engagement as a director, singer and actor led him to the theatre in Hildesheim.
In the early eighties, he performed as a singer in Dortmund and Freiburg i.Br., and was later engaged to the Volksoper in Vienna. Since 1991, he has been a firm member of Zürich Opera House. Besides, he also made many guest appearances at the following opera houses and festivals: Grand Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Bregenz Festival, Opera Ireland Dublin, Frankfurt Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Teatro Zarzuela Madrid, Teatro alla Scala Milan, Bavarian State Opera Munich, Prinzregententheater Munich, Opéra National de Paris-Bastille and Théâtre du Châtelet Paris, Salzburg Festival, Vienna State Opera, Metropolitan Opera New York, Operetta Festival Bad Ischl. Moreover he was three times invited to Japan for concert tours.
His large opera repertoire includes roles like Monostatos/Magic Flute (including TV recording), Shuisky/BOris Godunov, Tichon/Katja Kabanova, Hexe(Witch)/Hänsel und Gretel (including TV recording), Herodes/Salome, Loge/Rheingold and Mime/Siegfried (roles which he has sung in the years 2000-2002 in Zürich with Franz Welser-Möst, conductor, and Robert Wilson, producer). In summer 2002, he participated as Mime and Loge in the Ring cycle in Limerick and Birmingham (Alexander Anissimov conducting). He also performed in operettas e.g. as Josef and Ypsheim/Wiener Blut, Boni/Csardasfürtsin, Calicot/Madame Pompadour, Ménélas/La Belle Hélène (including TV recording). He was Mime in the Ring production at Théâtre du Châtelet Paris under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach, Bob Wilson directing. He sings Monostatos/Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera New York with James Levine conducting and Vitek/The Case Makropulos at Zürich Opera House.
He collaborated with conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Nello Santi, Sir Georg Solti, Gerd Albrecht, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Bernhard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, Lorin Maazel, Eliahu Inbal, Ralf Weikert etc. In the concert field he worked together with numerous famous orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra or Oslo Philharmonics.
Volker Vogel started directing again and produced Kalman’s Csardasfürstin in Ulm and at the Operetta Festival in Bad Ischl as well as Die Perlen der Cleopatra by Oscar Strauss. He directed Wiener Blut at Schlosstheater Schönbrunn, singing at the same time the Prince of Ypsheim-Gindelbach. In November 2006 he produced Wiener Blut at Stadttheater St. Gallen.
Last updated: 17.05.2008© We kindly ask you to seek our approval for any alteration or abbreviation of the biography. Thank you for your kind understanding.