Wicus Slabbert

Wicus Slabbert (born October 9, 1941 in Kroonstad ) is a South African opera singer ( baritone ) who also works as a singing teacher.

Life

After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in art history and painting at the University of Pretoria , Slabbert moved to Cologne to have his voice trained privately with Josef Metternich . During his studies he regularly sat in on Metternich. After a short time, in 1968 he got his first engagement at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf , where he initially sang smaller roles, but then quickly got to the important ones via Zar Peter in Zar und Zimmermann and Fluth in Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor parts of the lyrical compartment , such as the title role in Eugen Onegin highly worked.

In 1972 he took an engagement at the Essen Opera House (still in the Grillo Theater ) and stayed there until 1978. He sang there between sixty and seventy evenings a year and worked on the more difficult dramatic roles. His roles in Essen included the title roles in Don Giovanni and Rigoletto , the title role in Nabucco and Conte Luna in Il trovatore , Scarpia in Tosca , Jago in Otello , Michele in Il tabarro and the title role in Gianni Schicchi , and finally the German character roles Subject like Jochanaan in Salome , the music teacher in Ariadne on Naxos , Mandryka in Arabella and his first Beckmesser in the Mastersingers of Nuremberg .

In 1978 he became a member of the ensemble as one of the main baritons at the Staatstheater Kassel , where he expanded his repertoire to include roles in the more difficult subject such as Alberich in Rheingold and the four villains in Hoffmann's stories , but he also sang the standard parts of the lyric field such as Don Giovanni, Rigoletto and the Count of Le nozze di Figaro .

After having made regular guest appearances at the Vienna Volksoper since 1982 , he was engaged there in 1989 as a permanent member of the ensemble . In 1991 the permanent position at the Vienna State Opera followed . At both houses he sang the most important roles in the hero baritone field: Scarpia, Pizarro ( Fidelio ), Falstaff , Jochanaan, Alfio ( Cavalleria rusticana ), Amonasro ( Aida ), the title roles in Verdi's Nabucco and Macbeth , the title role in Der fgende Holländer , Telramund ( Lohengrin ), the Kurwenal in Tristan and Isolde , the Amfortas in Parsifal and the Alberich in Rheingold , Siegfried and Götterdämmerung from Richard Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung .

From the repertoire of the 20th century Slabbert interpreted roles in operas by Zemlinsky ( A Florentine Tragedy , The King Kandaules ) and Shostakovich ( Lady Macbeth of Mzensk ) as well as Dr. Nice in Lulu and Balstrode in Peter Grimes .

During his long career as a singer he made guest appearances at the following theaters, among others: Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich, Staatstheater Stuttgart , Oper Köln , at all three major theaters in Berlin ( Staatsoper Unter den Linden , Komische Oper , Deutsche Oper Berlin ), at the State Opera Hamburg , as well as in Turin, Rome, Buenos Aires, Portland and at the international music festivals in Edinburgh , Florence, Stockholm, Warsaw and Zagreb as well as the Bregenz Festival .

Slabbert has been teaching for many years, and his students include Moritz Gogg and Clemens Unterreiner .

In 2005 Slabbert ended his active career.

Voice and demeanor

Slabbert has a wide range and a safe height with lots of Squillo; nevertheless his voice is dark and versatile. In addition, his stage presence is considered outstanding.

Awards

• 1996: Austrian chamber singer
• 2005: Honorary member of the Vienna Volksoper
• 2007: Laureate award for alumni of the University of Pretoria

literature

• Herbert Hauck : Theater in Essen 1974 - 1978. A documentation. Photo review of the 1974-1978 seasons. Birker & Hederich 1978, Wuppertal
• Klaus Bachler : The Volksoper, the Viennese music theater . Holzhausen, Vienna 1998, IX, ISBN 3-900518-89-0

Web links

• Wicus Slabbert on the website of the Vienna Volksoper
• Wicus Slabbert portrait on the South African Classical Singers site