Hans-Peter König is a German

operatic bass A bass is a type of Classical music, classical male singing Human voice, voice and has the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', a bass is typically classified as having a vocal range extendi ...

best known for his roles in

Wagnerian opera Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

Career

Hans-Peter König studied singing at the

Dortmund University TU Dortmund University (german: Technische Universität Dortmund) is a technical university in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany with over 35,000 students, and over 6,000 staff including 300 professors, offering around 80 Bachelor's and ...

Institute of Music, taking lessons from Gladys Kuchta in Düsseldorf. He then trained at the International Opera Studio of the Zürich Opera House. His first engagements took him to various German opera houses, including the Staatsoper Hannover. Other appearances in Germany were Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden and Munich. He has been a member of the

Deutsche Oper am Rhein The Deutsche Oper am Rhein (German Opera on the Rhine) is an opera company based in Düsseldorf and Duisburg. The opera also has an associated classical ballet company. Axel Kober has been its Music Director since 2009. The resident orchestra, th ...

Düsseldorf ensemble since the 2001/2002 season. In 2009 he received the honorary title Kammersänger. König is said to have an effortless range spanning low D to the high baritone G.Hans-Peter König, A Singular Bass
/ref> He is best known as a Wagner singer, playing numerous bass parts in Wagner operas, including Gurnemanz in '' Parsifal'' , King Heinrich in '' Lohengrin'', Pogner in Die Meistersinger, and Daland in '' The Flying Dutchman''. From 2006 to 2009 he appeared as Hagen in '' Der Ring des Nibelungen'' at the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived ...

. Other roles include Sarastro in Mozart's ''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that inclu ...

'' and Philip II in Verdi's ''

Don Carlos ''Don Carlos'' is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the dramatic play '' Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Friedri ...

''. Starting in 2006, he has appeared in international venues. An engagement at

La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

in Milan was followed by appearances at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...

in Covent Garden and the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

in New York, again there as Hagen. Since 2010, he has been seen in Spain at the

Gran Teatre del Liceu Gran may refer to: People *Grandmother, affectionately known as "gran" * Gran (name) Places * Gran, the historical German name for Esztergom, a city and the primatial metropolitan see of Hungary * Gran, Norway, a municipality in Innlandet coun ...

, and France at the Opéra Bastille, in Wagnerian roles. International engagements have also taken him to Stockholm, Helsinki, Taipei, Tokyo and São Paulo. In 2012 he shared a Best Opera Recording

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

for the Metropolitan Opera's ''Ring Cycle''.Hans-Peter König
Recording Academy Grammy Awards

Personal life

Appreciative critics describe König as reserved and modest, comparing him to the great basses Frick and

Moll Moll can refer to: As a name * Moll (surname) * Moll Anderson, interior designer, life stylist, author, and former national iHeart Radio host * Moll Anthony, aka Mary Lesson (1807–1878), Irish ''bean feasa'' (wise-woman) * Moll Cutpurse, a ...

. Like them, he is an avid hunter.

References

External links

Hans-Peter König
Operabase
Opera On-Line

Discography
discogs.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Konig, Hans-Peter Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) German operatic basses Grammy Award winners Living people Technical University of Dortmund alumni