The Austrian-born baritone Georg Nigl has become a central figure in European music and appears regularly at leading opera houses, including the Berlin, Bavarian, Hamburg and Vienna State Operas, the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, the Zurich Opera House, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, La Scala, Milan, and La Monnaie in Brussels, as well as at festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Wiener Festwochen and the Berlin Festwochen. He has worked with eminent conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Teodor Currentzis, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, René Jacobs, Kent Nagano and Kirill Petrenko, as well as with distinguished directors such as Andrea Breth, Romeo Castellucci, Frank Castorf, Claus Guth, Hans Neuenfels and Peter Sellars. He appears as a guest artist with leading European ensembles such as the Berlin and Munich Philharmonics, the Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris.
Not only does he work closely with Wolfgang Rihm and Pascal Dusapin, but Friedrich Cerha, Georg Friedrich Haas, Wolfgang Mitterer, Olga Neuwirth and Matthias Pintscher have also written compositions for him.
In the 2023/24 season he has appeared in Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre in Vienna and in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus in Munich, sang in Così fan tutte at the Théâtre du Châtelet and appeared in Sasha Waltz’s choreographed production of Bach’s St John Passion at the Salzburg Easter Festival and in Paris and Dijon. On the concert platform he sang Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in Milan and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen in Luxembourg; he also sang Iannis Xenakis’s Aïs with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
The 2022/23 season’s highlights included Alberich (Siegfried) under Simon Rattle, premieres at the Vienna and Bavarian State Operas, performances at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the development of the concert series Kleine Nachtmusiken at the Salzburg Festival.
In 2015, he was voted Singer of the Year for his performances as the title role in Rihm’s Jakob Lenz by Opernwelt magazine. His recording Vanitas received the German Record Critics’ Annual Award in 2021.
