Celebrated by the New York Times for a “beautiful lower register and his expressive power,” Wolfgang Schöne is a pre-eminent artist on the world’s greatest opera stages. Wolfgang Schöne began his career as a concert-singer, but soon entered the opera stage as well. His cooperation with the Staatsoper Stuttgart began in 1973. In 1978, he was awarded the title of "Kammersänger" in acknowledgement of his achievements. In 2007 he became honorary member of Württembergischen Staatstheater Stuttgart.

He has appeared with leading orchestras including Wiener and the Berliner Philharmonikern, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest, The Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra and under the direction of conductors like Georg Solti, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Daniel Barenboim, Rafael Kubelík, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Jeffrey Tate, Riccardo Chailly, Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann, Sir Andrew Davies, Kent Nagano, and Riccardo Chailly.

His extensive concert repertoire includes Bach’s passions, Bruch’s “Odysseus”, Handel’s “Messiah”, Mahler’s “Symphony N°8” and “Des Knaben Wunderhorn”, Haydn’s “The Creation”, Martin’s “Sechs Monologe aus Jedermann“, Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” and “Paulus”, Shostakovitch’s “Symphony N° 14”, and Zemlinsky’s “Lyrische Sinfonie op. 18” among others. He has performed at the opera houses of Dresden, Bologna, Cologne, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Geneva, Paris, Athens and Berlin and at festivals like Salzburger Festspiele, Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne. He has a vast number of recordings and more than 70 opera roles to his credit.

His most important successes have been Dr. Schön/”Lulu” at the Opéra Bastille, in Athens and at the Lyric Opera Chicago, Ludovico Nardi in Schreker’s “Die Gezeichneten” at the Salzburg Festival, the title role in „Der fliegende Holländer“ in Amsterdam, Köln, Barcelona and Hamburg, Amfortas/“Parsifal“ in Amsterdam, Hamburg, Paris, München, Tokio, Venedig und London, and Hans Sachs/“Meistersinger“ at the Hamburgische Staatsoper. He performed Borromeo/„Palestrina“ in Berlin, Kurwenal/„Tristan und Isolde“ in Montpellier and Don Alfonso/„Cosi fan tutte“ in Tokyo and at the Scala di Milano.

Highlights since the turn of the Millenium have included “Old Man” in a new production of Henze’s “L’Upupa” at the Semperoper Dresden and in Amsterdam, Mahler’s “Symphony N° 8” at the Avery Fisher Hall New York with New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Lorin Maazel, Lodovico Nardi in the US premiere of „Die Gezeichneten“ at the Los Angeles Opera with James Conlon, Moses in Schönberg’s “Moses und Aron” in Budapest, Simone Trovai in Korngold’s “Violanta” at the Teatro Colon, Schönberg’s “Gurre-Lieder” at the Lucerne Festival with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and David Zinman, and Marquis de la Force in „Dialogues des Carmélites“ at the Staatsoper Stuttgart and the Hamburgische Staatsoper.

 During the Wagner anniversary year 2013 he sang Alberich in a shortened concert version of „Götterdämmerung“ at the Niedersächische Musiktage. He sang Arkel in a new production of “Pelléas et Mélisande” at the Aalto-Musiktheater Essen, at the Opéra de Nantes and the Hamburgische Staatsoper. Since 2016, Daniel Barenboim has invited him for several productions at the Berliner Staatsoper, including a ney production of Martinůs “Juliette”, Nourabad in a new production of “Les pêcheurs des perles” (stage director: Wim Wenders), as well as Kuno in „Der Freischütz“ under the baton of Marc Minkowski. During the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, Wolfgang Schöne performed Mozart’s Requiem and Saint- Saëns Requiem in Verdun under the baton of Vladimir Spivakov.

SEASON 2023/2024