Michael Kraus

Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte

Biography

Education
Studies as actor and director; singing studies at the Vienna Academy of Music and the Academy of Munich.
 
Debute
First engagements at the opera houses of Aachen and Ulm.
 
Career
1987-’92: ensemble-member with the Wiener Volksoper and afterwards, with the Wiener Staatsoper.
Guest appearances at the Scala of Milan, Staatsoper and Komische Oper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper, Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Nederlandse Opera, Liceu in Barcelona and San Francisco Opera e.a.
At the Komische Oper: Enrico/Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti), Marcello/La Bohème en Lescaut/Manon Lescaut (Puccini).
 
Repertoire
Mozart roles as Papageno/Die Zauberflöte and Leporello/Don Giovanni.  Dramatic repertoire: Conte di Luna/Il Trovatore, Don Carlo/La Forza del Destino, Beckmesser/Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Faninal/Der Rosenkavalier. Specialisation in 20th-century and contemporary repertoire: Stolzius/Die Soldaten (Zimmermann); title role in José Luis Turina's Don Quijote en Barcelona in Liceu (Barcelona) e.a.
 
Recordings
Papageno/Die Zauberflöte with the Wiener Philharmoniker and Sir Georg Solti;
Intense collaboration with ‘Entartete Musik’ series with Decca label for Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Ullmann), Jonny spielt auf (Krenek), Der gewaltige Hahnrei (Goldschmidt) etc.
 
Collaborated with
Sir Georg Solti, James Conlon, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Marc Minkowski, Silvio Varviso and Lothar Zagrosek and directors like Harry Kupfner, Christine Mielitz, Willy Decker, Richard Jones and Guy Joosten
 
Recent and future productions
Der Schlachter in Rumor by Christian Jost (world creation), Vlaamse Opera, season 2011-’12;
2014: debute in Engeland as Faninal at the Glyndebourne Festival.

Last update on 22 April 2013