Dietrich Henschel

Baritone Dietrich Henschel’s repertoire extends from the beginning of baroque opera to modern day avant-garde. He debuted at the Münchener Biennale in 1978 with the title role in Michaels Reverdy´s opera Le Precepteur. In his first and only permanent engagement, at the opera in Kiel, he performed classics such as Papageno, the count in Nozze de Figaro, Pelleas in Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande, Monteverdi´s Orfeo and Henze´s Prinz von Homburg. Mr Henschel´s international career began with Busoni´s Doktor Faust in Lyon and Henze´s Prinz von Homburg at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Invitations followed from most of the important opera houses in Europe to sing in (amongst others) Rossini´s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Wagner´s Tannhäuser (Wolfram), Monteverdi´s Il ritorno d´Ulisse in Patria, Krenek´s Karl der V, Mozart´s Don Giovanni, Wagner´s "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Beckmesser), Berg´s Wozzeck, in Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande (Golaud), and in Stawinsky´s The Rake’s Progress (Nick Shadow). His most recent engagements were the title roles in Enescu's Oedipe (La Monnaie) and Manfred Trojahn's Orest (De Nationale Opera). In addition to opera, a wide range of acclaimed recordings testifies to Dietrich Henschel’s success as a lied interpreter and an oratorio singer (with a special focus on the music of Bach). Mr. Henschel has sung with the world’s most famous orchestras, and his collaboration with great conductors such as Gardiner, Harnoncourt and Herreweghe is documented on many CD's and DVD's.  Mr. Henschel is currently extending his artistic profile beyond his original vocal calling. Being a trained pianist and conductor, Dietrich Henschel has led several ensembles and orchestras this last decade, collaborating in particular with the Sinfonietta Leipzig. In a daring attempt to visualize the literary and emotional content of the lieder he sings, Mr. Henschel has also been exploring the intersection between art music, theatre, and the visual media. In 2010 he performed a staged version of Schubert’s Schwanengesang, which was featured in major European theatres such as La Monnaie, Theater an der Wien, and der Komische Oper. In his most ambitious project up to now, Mr. Henschel will be starring in Irrsal, a movie (directed by Clara Pons) which envisages the ramifications of love, guilt and sacrifice in the symphonic songs Hugo Wolf set to the haunting poems by Eduard Mörike. The Irrsal project – in which the movie is combined with a live performance of the songs – will be premiered in Düsseldorf and Rotterdam in September 2013. Dietrich Henschel has recently been signed to the Belgian record label Evil Penguin Classics, with whom he is scheduled to record the integral Wunderhorn songs by Gustav Mahler.