__NOTOC__
Samuel Youn (; born 1971 in
Seoul) is a South Korean
operatic bass baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing thr ...
.
Career
Samuel Youn studied voice in Seoul, in
Milan, and at the
Cologne University of Music
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...
under Arthur Janzen. He has been a member of the
Cologne Opera since the 1999/2000 season. At Cologne he has sung among other roles Kaspar in ''
Der Freischütz'', Jochanaan in
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...
' ''
Salome
Salome (; he, שְלוֹמִית, Shlomit, related to , "peace"; el, Σαλώμη), also known as Salome III, was a Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II, son of Herod the Great, and princess Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great, an ...
'', Escamillo in
Bizet's ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'', and the
Wagnerian roles of Donner and Gunther in ''
Der Ring des Nibelungen'', Kurwenal in ''
Tristan und Isolde'' and the Dutchman in ''
Der fliegende Holländer''; he has also made many guest appearances in various countries, including as the Wanderer/Wotan in Wagner's ''
Siegfried'', his début in the role, in
Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
,
["Youn folgt Nikitin nach Hakenkreuz-Affäre"]
'' Kurier'', 23 July 2012 . and Mephisto in
Gounod's ''
Faust'' in
Treviso and
Rovigo, his first appearances in Italy.
[Ensemble: Samuel Youn: Biography]
'' Deutsche Oper Berlin'', retrieved 3 October 2016 He has also sung in concert in
Brahms' ''
German Requiem'',
Mahler's ''
Symphony No. 8'', and
Beethoven's ''
Ninth Symphony'' among other works.
[
In 2004 he made his début 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 ...
as the second Grail Knight in '' Parsifal'' (conducted by Pierre Boulez
Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music.
Born in Mont ...
), and in 2005 he appeared there as Reinmar von Zweter in '' Tannhäuser'' (conducted by Christian Thielemann) and in 2010 as the Herald in '' Lohengrin'' (conducted by Andris Nelsons).[
In 2012 Youn became the first Korean to sing the Dutchman in ''Der Fliegende Holländer'' at Bayreuth, as a short-notice replacement for Yevgeny Nikitin, who withdrew days before the opening of the festival because he had a tattoo that was said in German media to resemble a ]swastika
The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...
.[
In November 2012 Youn was appointed a Musical Ambassador of Singende Krankenhäuser e.V. (Singing Hospitals).
In 2016 Youn sang Scarpia in Puccini's '' Tosca'' at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and also performed for the first time in the US, as Alberich in Wagner's '' Das Rheingold'' with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, his first performance in the role.
]
Honours
Youn was the first recipient of the Offenbach Prize of the Freunde der Oper Köln e. V., in 2005."Der Offenbachpreis"
Blog, Cologne Opera, 22 February 2011 .
He has won several international singing competitions, including the Treviso '' Toti dal Monte'', the Seoul Chung-Ang, the Genoa Franz Schubert Contest, and the Naples Francesco Albanese Contest.[
]
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Youn, Samuel
Living people
1971 births
Singers from Seoul
Bass-baritones
South Korean opera singers
21st-century South Korean male singers