Bjørn Waag

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Bjørn Waag (* 1961 in Sarpsborg ) is a Norwegian opera singer ( baritone ), singing teacher and publicist.

Life

Born in Norway, Waag first studied singing, conducting, musicology and philosophy. From 1979 to 1981 he was the cultural editor of Morgenbladet , Norway's oldest daily newspaper. In 1981 he became a master student of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Ernst Haefliger . After his first permanent engagement in Trier in 1984, Tobias Richter brought him to the Bremen Opera in 1987 , from where he moved to the National Theater in Mannheim in 1994 . It went to the Theater Basel in 2001 . Since then, Waag has worked with the opera houses in Saarbrücken, the Musiktheater im Revier and in Linz. In the meantime he has mastered all the common roles in his field, around 120 roles in total. Guest contracts have taken him to numerous stages at home and abroad, e. B. to the Bavarian State Opera , the State Theater Stuttgart , the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence. A long-term collaboration with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra began in 1988 and since then has produced several productions every year, starting with the opening of the new concert hall of the HR, where Waag sang the main part in Wolf-Ferrari's La Vita Nuova under Eliahu Inbal's direction, through to a number of the great Mozart operas at the Würzburg Mozart Festival under Hugh Wolf. Waag moved from Norway to Germany in 1981.

In 1995 Waag achieved his greatest success to date with his role debut as Beckmesser , after which Wolfgang Wagner invited him to Bayreuth. In 1999 he sang the title role in the Italian premiere of the opera Jakob Lenz by Wolfgang Rihm at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. This was followed by other productions in Italy. 2000/2001 Waag took part in the controversial Ring des Nibelungen - staging of the Graz Opera. He sang the roles of Alberich in Das Rheingold , Siegfried and Götterdämmerung , as well as Gunther at the same time.

In addition to his singing career, Waag took over a chair at the University of Music in Basel in October 2003 . Until March 2008 he headed the specialist group for singing / song interpretation there, was the artistic director of the music theater studio “Front Stage Basel” he developed, initiator and president of the “LiedForum Basel eV”.

One focus of Waag's work is contemporary music. Walter Zimmermann wrote his Hölderlin opera Hyperion for him , which was premiered in 1993 at the Alte Oper Frankfurt. After his success in the title role of Manfred Trojahn's Pirandello opera Enrico , Zimmermann wrote the role of the fool especially for him in the opera Was Ihr wollt, which premiered in 1998 at the Bavarian State Opera. Also Detlef Heusinger , Klaus Huber and Roland Moser wrote works for Waag. In 2012 he sang the role of the father in the world premiere of Moritz Eggert's music theater project All these days at Theater Bremen . In winter 2012/13 he took on the title role in the German premiere of Manfred Trojahn's opera Orest at the Hanover State Opera . As part of the events for " RUHR.2010 ", he was involved in new productions a. a. by Puccini, Strauss, Korngold, Ibanez, Henze and Britten. The design of the main role of the magician Cipolla in Stephen Oliver's Mario and the magician at Theater Basel completed the collaboration between university and creative-singing activities.

Awards

  • 1997 applied for membership of the Free Academy of the Arts, Mannheim

Opera repertoire (selection)

Recordings

Bjørn Waag made CD recordings of André Laporte's Kafka opera Das Schloß, (role of K.), a recording by Schönberg's Jakobsleiter under Eliahu Inbal (The Chosen One ) and Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's Dante oratorio La Vita Nuova under Günther Neuhold in front. The recording of Huber's Schwarzerde with Waag in the leading role of Parnok was suggested in the magazine Opernwelt for the award as the most valuable CD of 2001.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Waag, Bjørn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian opera singer (baritone), singing teacher and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Sarpsborg