Tenor CHRISTIAN FRANZ studied with Hanno Blaschke at the Munich Music Academy, with his first professional engagements beginning in 1991. In 1999 Daniel Barenboim invited him to the Berlin State Opera to perform roles including Otello, Tristan, Parsifal, and Siegfried. Since 2001 he has been regularly singing all his Ring cycle roles (Siegmund and both Siegfrieds) at the Vienna State Opera. He also was Siegfried in Bayreuth between 2001 and 2004. In 2005 he debuted at the most renowned concert festivals in the United States, the Hollywood Bowl (as Siegfried in Act III of Götterdämmerung) and the Tanglewood Festival, after which James Levine engaged him to make his Metropolitan Opera debut as both Siegfrieds in the Met’s new Ring cycle in 2009. In 2006 he sang Siegmund and both Siegfrieds in the Vienna State Opera`s Ring cycle, Parsifal in Hamburg and Budapest, Tristan in Munich, as well as both Siegfried roles in the first Ring cycle at the Toronto Opera House.

04/07