Michael Laurenz

German tenor Michael Laurenz was born in Halle an der Saale and began his career as a trumpeter, notably as a principal with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. By 2006 he was switching to singing. From 2008 to 2010 he was a member of Zurich Opera’s International Opera Studio, subsequently becoming a permanent member of the company and performing a range of roles that included Arbace (Idomeneo), Basilio (Le nozze di Figaro), Lindoro in Haydn’s La fedeltà premiata, Dr Caius (Falstaff), the Dancing Master (Ariadne auf Naxos), Valzacchi (Der Rosenkavalier), Ivan (The Nose), Pedrillo (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), the Shabby Peasant (Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District), David (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) and Pirzel (Die Soldaten).

Guest engagements have taken Michael Laurenz to the Paris Opéra for Brighella (Ariadne auf Naxos), Pedrillo and Monostatos (Die Zauberflöte), to La Scala, Milan, for Andres (Wozzeck), to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich for Pedrillo, to the Berlin State Opera for the First Jew (Salome), to the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam for Valzacchi, to the Theater an der Wien for Erich in HK Gruber’s Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald and Flute (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and to the Vlaamse Opera for Aegisth (Elektra) and Albert Gregor (The Makropulos Case).

Michael Laurenz also appears regularly at international festivals, including the Glyndebourne Festival, where he has sung the Dancing Master, the Stuttgart Music Festival, where he appeared in Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis, and the Bregenz Festival, where he has been heard in Weinberg’s The Portrait, in the world premiere of Gruber’s Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald and, in 2018, as Orsino in Goldschmidt’s Beatrice Cenci.

Michael Laurenz made his Salzburg Festival debut in 2012 as Scaramuccio (Ariadne auf Naxos) and has returned since then as Cauchon in a concert performance of Braunfels’s Jeanne d’Arc and, in 2018, as Josef K. in a concert performance of Gottfried von Einem’s Der Prozess, in which he received much critical and public acclaim. A recording of this performance has been released on CD. In 2020 he returned to Salzburg as Aegisth.

Between 2018 and 2020 Michael Laurenz was a member of the Vienna State Opera. Since the autumn of 2020 he has worked as a freelance singer. He returned to the Vienna State Opera in 2020/21 as Pedrillo and as Alfred (Die Fledermaus) and made his role debut as Baron Lummer (Intermezzo) at the Basel Theatre.

Plans for 2021/22 include further appearances as Pedrillo in Vienna and roles in four new productions: Pedrillo at the Hamburg State Opera, Aegisth at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Fool in Schreker’s Der Schatzgräber at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and Goro (Madama Butterfly) at the 2022 Bregenz Festival. Subsequent engagements will see him returning to the Vienna State Opera, La Scala and Geneva. Forthcoming role debuts include Števa (Jenůfa) and Loge (Das Rheingold).