Thomas Thomaschke

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Thomas Michael Thomaschke (born August 2, 1943 in Pirna ) is a German opera and concert singer ( bass ).

Life

education

After training as a gardener and studying horn, he studied singing with Harry Schwickardi at the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden and interpreting songs with Kammersänger Anton Dermota in Vienna.

Operatic career

At 22 he began his professional career at the Stadttheater Freiberg, followed by an engagement at the Landesbühne Sachsen Radebeul and the Dresden State Opera , where he sang the main role of the shepherd Thibault in the 1969 premiere of the opera Maître Pathelin by Rainer Kunad (1936–1995). From 1970 to 1976 he was a member of the Leipzig Opera House ensemble . After fleeing the GDR in 1976, he was initially engaged at the Kassel State Theater from 1976 to spring 1977 and from 1977 to 1986 first bassist at the Cologne Opera House .

After his debut with the role of Hunding in Richard Wagner's Walküre at La Scala in Milan in 1974, where he sang the speaker in the Magic Flute in 1986 , he made guest appearances at all major European opera houses, including a. at the Bavarian Opera in Munich, the Vienna State Opera , the Covent Garden Opera London, the Teatro La Fenice Venice and in Amsterdam (ensembles from Così fan tutte in the Binnenhof Den Haag, October 7, 1978), Barcelona, ​​Berlin, Buenos Aires, Dresden, Hamburg, Lisbon, Madrid ( Fidelio von Beethoven under the direction of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos ), Mexico City, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Reggio Emilia, Rome, Stuttgart, Tel Aviv or Zurich. He made his debut as König Marke in Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in 1983 at the Cape Town Opera House in the first performance of this opera on the African continent, where he later appeared as an opera and concert singer.

Thomas Thomaschke has performed at international festivals. B. on June 22, 1975 under Carlo Maria Giulini at the Wiener Festwochen , 1978 and 1980 under Bernard Haitink at the Glyndebourne Festival , the Edinburgh Festival , the Prague Spring , the Maggio Musicale Florence, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, the Festival de La Chaise -Dieu, the Festival of Music and Theater in Herrenhausen, the Handel Festival in Halle and the Munich Opera Festival .

In the operatic field Thomaschke sang preferred Mozart (Sarastro, Osmin, Figaro, Don Giovanni, Don Alfonso) and Wagner subjects (Landgrave Hermann, Gurnemanz, Pogner, Hunding, König Marke, Fasold, Fafner), but often also Kaspar in Weber's Freischütz , the Mephisto in Gounod's Faust or the Rocco in Beethoven's Fidelio .

Concert career

Thomas Thomaschke is also internationally successful as a concert and lied singer. His coloratura technique predestines him in particular as a singer in Handel's oratorios and in passions and cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach (e.g. as Christ under Nikolaus Harnoncourt in Bach's St. John Passion on March 30, 1980 at the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam).

Teaching

The bassist leads international master classes for singing and works as a jury member at international singing competitions. Since the 1980s he has taught at the music academies in Lübeck and Vienna, from 2004 to 2012 at the Carl Maria von Weber music academy in Dresden.

Thomas Thomaschke is married to the Czech art historian Iva Thomaschke-Vondráková.

Prices

In 1970 Thomaschke won the Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition . In 1971 he won first prize at the 's-Hertogenbosch International Singing Competition .

  • 1975 appointment as chamber singer
  • 1976 Prize of the Munich Opera Festival for the design of the man in the world premiere of Josef Tal's opera The Temptation
  • 1994 appointment as professor
  • 1995 Euregio Egrensis Prize
  • 2004 German Cross of Merit on ribbon
  • 2010 the European Culture Prize TREBBIA 2010
  • 2014 Jan-Masaryk Medal of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Festival management

In 1990 Thomas Thomaschke and his wife initiated the Festival Mitte Europa , which for seven weeks annually linked Saxony, Bavaria and the Czech Republic with its cultural activities and was considered one of the most important cultural projects between Germany and the Czech Republic. From 1991 until February 2015, he was its artistic director.

Discography (selection)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ L'opera di Wagner alla Scala. Walkiria di Ronconi from gli specchi. In: Corriere della Sera , March 13, 1974.
  2. ↑ Uma "Valquíria" a ouvir de olhos fechados. In: Diário de Notícias, September 15, 1985.
  3. ↑ El País , October 1977.
  4. ^ Musique, Paris, October 1985.
  5. ↑ Pizzi maestro di cerimonione a Reggio Emilia nella "festa barocca" dedicata a Purcell. In: Corriere della Sera , February 23, 1986.
  6. ^ Successful guest performance of the Cologne Opera in Tel Aviv. In: Aufbau , New York, March 23, 1984.
  7. ↑ A UN in miniature. For the season opening with Alban Bergs Lulu on September 8th. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , September 5, 1979.
  8. ↑ Visual splendor in Tristan magnificent. In: Cape Times, September 3, 1983.
  9. ^ All-Star cast of locals… and one German. Thomaschke to sing in Verdi's Aida at Nico. Cape Times, September 29, 1999.
  10. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung of June 12, 1978.
  11. ↑ Arrows of Love. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung , July 30, 1979.
personal data
SURNAME Thomaschke, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thomaschke, Thomas Michael (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera and concert singer (bass)
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Pirna