DETLEF ROTH

Baritone Known for his extensive concert repertoire

One of the most multi-talented Baritones of his generation, Detlef Roth has performed in opera houses and concert halls worldwide directed by celebrated conductors and accompanied by famous musicians. From Paris to New York, Toyko to Milan, he has won heralded voice competitions and sung leading roles—tragic, sacred, and comedic—in dozens of operas and oratorios to great acclaim. His is a noble voice and he is a dynamic actor. Furthering the diversity of his multitalented skills, Detlef Roth is a polyglot, fluent in several languages and highly proficient in others. He enjoys homes in both Europe and in the United States.

German baritone Detlef Roth won the renowned Belvedere voice competition in Vienna in 1992 and the first "Concours des Voix Wagneriennes" in Strasbourg in 1994 while studying voice at the Musikhochschule of Stuttgart.

Performing regularly since his debut, Detlef is frequently requested as a concert soloist worldwide. He is equally at home in classics and modern repertoires. The breadth of his experience includes works by Beethoven, Haydn, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Orff, Schubert, Schumann or Zemlinsky, the Brahms and Fauré Requiems, as well as Bach oeuvres such as B Minor Mass, cantatas, masses, oratorios and passions. Modern composers include Britten, Henze, the world premieres of Geert van Keulen's "Five Tragic Songs"—after poems by Anna Enquist—and Wim Laman's Requiem—Songs.

Detlef has sung under the baton of many top conductors including Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Marek Janowski, Armin Jordan, Phillipe Jordan, Lorin Maazel, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Neville Mariner, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, Sir Simon Rattle, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Jeffrey Tate, Christian Thieleman, and David Zinman.

Known for his powerful acting skills in addition to his cultured voice, Detlef's opera career as a principal player began in Paris in 1995 at the Opera Comique in The Merry Wives of Windsor. He sang the role of Amfortas in the highly acclaimed production of Parsifal by Stefan Herheim in the Bayreuth Festival over five seasons, and reprised this iconic role in Geneva, Zurich, London, Berlin, and again in Madrid's Teatro Real in 2016.

Additional Wagner roles are Wolfram in Wagner's Tannhäuser, Kurwenal in Tristan and Isolde, Gunther in Götterdämmerung, Donner in Rheingold. He sang The Herald in Lohengrin in his La Scala debut; and sang there again as Kothner in Meistersinger in 2017. In 2015 Detlef added Pizarro in Beethoven's Fidelio to his repertoire.

Title roles include Hans Heiling in Strasbourg, France, Der Vampyr in Bologna, Italy and Tchaikovsky's Eugenin Onegin in Frankfurt. In more modern opera repertoire, Detlef has sung Pentheus in Henze's Bassarids in Amsterdam and Al Kasim in Henze's Upupa.

His comic roles include Magic Flute's Papageno sung in Paris, Rome and Frankfurt, Dulcamara in Donizetti's Elisir d'Amore, Graf von Eberbach and Czar Peter the Great in Lortzing’s Wildschütz and Czar und Zimmerman.

Detlef Roth's discography includes Carmina Burana with the Bamberg Symphonic Orchestra on DVD; several roles in operas on CD for DG, ERATO, Arte Nova; and, a prize-winning recording of unknown Schubert songs for NAXOS. He has participated in several TV-productions and in 2011 he sang a concert transmitted throughout Europe and the Internet on ARTE in Mozart et L'Amour with soprano Sandrine Piau and l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

He has sung at concert halls and opera houses throughout the capitals of Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, the Far East and beyond.

His U.S. performances have included Rheingold at Washington DC's Kennedy Center, Britten's War Requiem at Boston's Symphony Hall, three seasons with the Newport Music Festival, at Dallas' Meyerson Symphony Center, at New York's Lincoln Center, and with the New York Philharmonic in the Messiah at Avery Fisher Hall.

Detlef Roth lives in both his hometown of Freudenstadt in the Black Forest region of Germany, and in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he is also a legal U.S. resident. His language skills allow him to sing in English, French, German, Italian, Latin, even Russian.

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Concerts

Composer Title
Bach, C.P.E. Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Christi
Bach, J.S. St. Matthew Passion (Christ-Words and Arias) | St. John Passion (Arias) | Solo-Cantatas 56 & 82 | Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 (Parts 1-6) | Magnificat | B-Minor-Mass | A-Major-Mass | G-Major-Mass
Beethoven Symphony No. 9 | Christus am Ölberg
Berio see Mahler
Berlioz L'Enfance du Christ
Brahms German Requiem
Britten War Requiem
Bruch Das Lied von der Glocke
Delius Sea Drift
Diepenbrock Im grossen Schweigen
Dvorak Te Deum Requiem
Faure Requiem
Gounod Mors et Vita
Gurlitt Drei politische Reden
Handel Samson | Messiah (also Mozart-Version) | Dettinger Te Deum | Apollo e Dafne
Haydn Seasons | Creation | Masses (different ones - please inquire)
Henze Richard Wagner'sche Klavierlieder für Orchester
Hindemith Requiem "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed"
Lamann Requiem
Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen | Rückert-Lieder | Wunderhorn-Lieder | Kindertotenlieder | Lied von der Erde | Das Klagende Lied Erstfassung) | VIII Symphony | Lieder in Berio-Orchestrierung
Martin Jedermann-Monologe
Mendelssohn Elijah | Paulus | Erste Walpurgisnacht
Mozart Masses (different ones - please inquire)
Orff Carmina Burana
Puccini Missa di Gloria (preferably baritone part only)
Reimann Wolkenloses Christfest
Schubert Masses (different ones - please inquire)
Schumann Faust-Szenen | Requiem for Mignon | Paradies & Peri | Balladen & Kantaten (different ones - please inquire)
Stravinski Pulcinella
Suter Cantico del Sole
Szymanowski Sabat Mater
Van Keulen Fünf tragische Lieder (after poems by Anna Enquist)
Zemlinsky Lyrische Symphonie op. 18

Opera

Composer Work Role
Beethoven Fidelio / Leonore Don Fernando (performed in Ludwigsburg, Cologne, on tour with J.E. Gardiner, Bologna, and Dallas)
Beethoven FidelioPizarro (performed in concert in Manchester; performed on stage in Geneva)
Bizet Carmen Escamillo (performed on stage in Lyon)
Donizetti L'Elisir d'Amore Dulcamara (performed on stage in Frankfurt and Ludwigsburg)
Donizetti Don PasqualeMalatesta
Gounod MargueriteValentin
Haydn Orfeo Creonte (performed on stage in Schwetzingen)
Henze The Bassarids Pentheus (performed on stage in Amsterdam)
Henze Upupa Al Kasim (performed in concert - Amsterdam)
Humperdinck Hänsel und Gretel Peter
Humperdinck Die Königskinder Spielmann (performed in concert)
Lortzing Regina Werkmeister Stephan (performed in concert)
Lortzing Wildschütz Graf Eberbach (performed on stage in Dresden)
Lortzing Zar & Zimmermann Zar (performed on stage - Hamburg)
Marschner Hans Heiling Hans Heiling (performed on stage in Strasbourg)
Marschner Vampyr Lord Ruthven (performed on stage - Bologna)
Mozart Zauberflöte Sprecher (performed on stage - on tour / J.E. Gardiner and in Toulouse, La Scala di Milano and Teatro dell'Opera Roma
Mozart Nozze di Figaro Count (performed on stage - Ludwigsburg and Tokyo)
Mozart Nozze di Figaro Figaro
Mozart Don Giovanni Masetto (performed on stage - Salzburg Festival)
Nicolai Lustige Weiber Fluth (performed on stage at the Opéra Comique Paris)
Puccini La Bohème Marcello (performed on stage in Frankfurt)
Raff Benedetto Marcello Marcello (performed in concert)
Rossini Il Barbiere Barbiere
Strauss Capriccio Graf
Strauss Salome Jochanaan
Strauss Ariadne Harlekin and Musiklehrer
Tchaikovski Eugene Onegin Onegin (performed on stage - Frankfurt)
Tchaikovski Pikowaya Dama Eletski (performed on stage - Geneva)
Verdi La Traviata Giorgio Germont
Verdi Don Carlos Posa
Wagner Die Feen Morald (performed on stage in Leipzig)
Wagner Tannhäuser Wolfram (performed semistage - Rome and on stage - Hamburg, Bern, Amsterdam & Berlin)
Wagner Meistersinger Kothner (performed on stage - Covent Garden London & La Scala Milan)
Wagner Lohengrin Heerrufer (performed on stage - Teatro Real Madrid, Teatro alla Scala Milan, Grand Théâtre de Genève, & Vienna)
Wagner Tristan Kurwenal (performed in concert in Paris; performed on stage in Salzburg)
Wagner Rheingold Donner (performed on stage - Geneva, Washington DC, Aix-en-Provence, & Salzburg Festival)
Wagner Götterdämmerung Gunther (performed on stage - Geneva)
Wagner Parsifal Amfortas (performed in concert - Rome and on stage - Bayreuth, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Zurich, Leipzig, Berlin & London)
Weber Euryanthe Lysiart (performed in concert - Brussels & Cologne)
Weber Silvana Adelhart (performed in concert - Munich)
Zemlinsky Zwerg Don Estoban (performed on stage - Geneva)

Songs / Lieder

Songs / Lieder Detlef's repertoire includes a vast variety, just a few composers are mentioned.
Beethoven  
Brahms (e.g. "Schöne Magelone" | "Vier Ernste Gesänge")
Debussy  
Dvorak  
Fortner  
Liszt  
Loewe, Carl more than 20 ballads in repertoire
Mahler (also see Concert)
Martin  
Mendelssohn  
Mozart  
Ravel  
Schubert  
Schumann  
Strauss  
Strawinsky  
Vaughan-Williams  
Wagner  
Wolf  

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