Johannes Martin Kränzle

Trained in Frankfurt with Martin Gründler, the baritone Johannes Martin Kränzle has sung Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, and the leading role in Wolfgang Rihm's Dionysos, which he created at the Salzburg Festival in 2010. Born in Augsburg in 1962, he appears at Oper Frankfurt, the Paris Opera and the Royal Opera House as well as in Salzburg. Opernwelt named him singer of the year in 2011 and again in 2018, and he received the German theatre prize Der Faust in 2019. He teaches as well as sings. Violin, composition and conducting came before the singing lessons, and engagements in Dortmund and Hanover preceded his move to Frankfurt Opera in 1998. He first sang in Salzburg in 2009, as Valens in Handel's Theodora, and has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala and Bayreuth. His own compositions include Der Wurm, Lieder um Liebe and Mutationes.