René Pape
"René Pape’s bass showed considerable velvet sheen and elegant dynamic play; purely as singing and star presence, he impressed."
Born in Dresden, Black Diamond Bass Rene Pape has been a member of the Berlin State Opera since 1988, but considers New York’s Metropolitan Opera his operatic “home away from home.” Since his house debut in 1995, he has appeared every season at the Met, in 18 roles and more than 160 performances, including four major debuts: Méphistophélès in Faust, Gurnemanz in Parsifal, Escamillo in Carmen, and the Old Hebrew in Samson et Dalila. But it was at the famous Unter den Linden – home of the Berlin State Opera – where Pape honed most of the great roles of his career.
Music Director Daniel Barenboim was an early supporter, and the Berlin State Opera has played host to Pape’s performances as King Marke in Tristan und Isolde; King Heinrich in Lohengrin; Sarastro in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte; Pogner in DieMeistersinger; Rocco in Beethoven’s Fidelio; Fasolt in Das Rheingold; Hunding in Die Walküre; and the title role in Don Giovanni. The opera house was also the venue for Pape’s appearances as Ramfis in Verdi’s Aida; Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro; Leporello in Don Giovanni; and Orest in Strauss’s Elektra. Pape’s first CD of solo arias, Gods, Kings & Demons, was released in 2008 on Deutsche Grammophon with his hometown orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Sebastian Weigle. The disc won a coveted “ECHO” award, the German equivalent of a Grammy.
Pape performs regularly in major opera houses, concert halls, and symphony orchestras around the world, as well as opera festivals such as Bayreuth, Glyndebourne, Lucerne, Orange, Saint-Petersburg, Salzburg, Verbier and White Nights. He currently resides in Austria and Berlin.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 2.666 |
Birthday | 1964-09-04 |
Place of Birth | Dresden, Germany |
Also Known As | The Black Diamond Bass, |
2011
Faust - Covent Garden
10/1
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Faust - Covent Garden
2021
Metropolitan Opera: Boris Godunov
9/1
Bass René Pape, the world’s reigning Boris, reprises his overwhelming portrayal of the tortured tsar caught between grasping ambition and crippling pa...
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Metropolitan Opera: Boris Godunov
2021
The Metropolitan Opera: Boris Godunow
0/0
Bass René Pape, the world’s reigning Boris, reprises his overwhelming portrayal of the tortured tsar caught between grasping ambition and crippling pa...
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The Metropolitan Opera: Boris Godunow
2006
The Magic Flute
6.3/26
During World War I, in an unnamed country, a soldier named Tamino is sent by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina from the clutches of...
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The Magic Flute
1998
Samson et Dalila
0/0
Elijah Moshinsky's production of Saint-Saëns's "Samson et Dalila", recorded live at the Metropolitan Opera 28 September 1998. Plácido Domingo and Olga...
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Samson et Dalila
2010
Strauss R: Elektra
10/1
The Nikolaus Lehnhoff production of Richard Strauss's "Elektra", recorded live at the Salzburger Festspiele in 2010. Iréne Theorin stars as Elektra, w...
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Strauss R: Elektra
2011
Salzburg Festival Opening Concert
0/0
This recording features the opening concert of the Salzburg Festival in 2010, in which the Festival celebrated its 90th anniversary and the 50th anniv...
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Salzburg Festival Opening Concert
2012
Lohengrin: Opera romantica in tre atti
0/0
The people of the Duchy of Brabant are divided by quarrels and political infighting; also, a devious hostile power left over from the region's pagan p...
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Lohengrin: Opera romantica in tre atti
2003
Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio
10/1
Two years prior to the opening scene, the nobleman Florestan has exposed or attempted to expose certain crimes of the nobleman Pizarro. In revenge, Pi...
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Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio
2017
The Metropolitan Opera: Die Zauberflöte
0/0
Met Music Director Emeritus James Levine conducts Tony Award winner Julie Taymor’s production of Mozart’s masterpiece, Die Zauberflöte. Golda Schultz...
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The Metropolitan Opera: Die Zauberflöte
2014
The Metropolitan Opera: Macbeth
0/0
The Met Opera’s broadcast of Verdi’s Macbeth will be presented live in select cinemas nationwide on Saturday, October 11 at 12:55 p.m. ET / 9:55 a.m....
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The Metropolitan Opera: Macbeth
2006
The Magic Flute
6.5/2
The Queen of the Night enlists a handsome prince named Tamino to rescue her beautiful kidnapped daughter, Princess Pamina. Aided by the lovelorn bird...
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The Magic Flute
2017
Schumann - Scenes from Goethe's Faust
0/0
The Berlin State Opera is back at its place of origin: Unter den Linden! After extensive renovations, it was reopened with Schumann's scenes from Goet...
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Schumann - Scenes from Goethe's Faust
2022
Giacomo Puccini: Turandot
0/0
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Giacomo Puccini: Turandot
2014
Macbeth
0/0
Star soprano Anna Netrebko created a sensation with her riveting performance as the malevolent Lady Macbeth, the central character in Verdi’s retellin...
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Macbeth
2013
Solti Centenary Concert
0/0
Solti’s 100th birthday on October 21, 2012, featuring the World Orchestra for Peace. This unique ensemble owes its existence to the vision of its foun...
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Solti Centenary Concert
2000
Fidelio
10/1
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Fidelio
2010
Hunter's Bride
6/1
Inspired by Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz, the film opera Hunter's Bride traces the romantic rivalry between two veterans of the Napoleonic Wa...
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Hunter's Bride
2013
Parsifal
8/2
The Met assembled an ideal cast for François Girard’s acclaimed new production of Wagner’s final masterpiece: Jonas Kaufmann in the title role of the...
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Parsifal
2001
Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg
10/1
James Morris leads an all-star cast including Karita Mattila, Ben Heppner, Thomas Allen and René Pape, in this production of Wagner's comic opera, rec...
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Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg
2013
Verdi: Requiem
9/1
This is an exhilarating experience both visually and aurally. How wonderful that Barenboim is havng such success with Verdi this late in his career.Th...
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Verdi: Requiem
2016
The Metropolitan Opera: Tristan und Isolde
9.5/2
Met audiences were fascinated by Mariusz Treliński’s gripping, visionary production of Wagner’s epic opera. In the daunting title roles of the doomed...
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The Metropolitan Opera: Tristan und Isolde
2010
The Metropolitan Opera: Boris Godunov
0/0
Stephen Wadsworth’s production of Mussorgsky’s epic masterpiece brilliantly captures the suffering and ambition of the Russian people at a critical ti...
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The Metropolitan Opera: Boris Godunov
2011
Gounod: Faust
0/0
Tenor Jonas Kaufmann is riveting as the title character of Gounod’s popular opera, seen in this Live in HD presentation of Des McAnuff’s thrilling 201...
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Gounod: Faust
2006
The Magic Flute
8/2
Tamino, a handsome prince, and Papageno, a bird-catcher, are sent by the Queen of Night to rescue her daughter Pamina from captivity under the high pr...
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The Magic Flute
2008
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
0/0
Glyndebourne's celebrated production of Nikolaus Lehnhoff's Tristan und Isolde is a supremely intelligent achievement; gravely beautiful, haunting and...
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Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
2013
Wagner : Parsifal
0/0
A young man ignorant of everything, including his own name, arrives at the Kingdom of the Holy Grail. Is he the ‘pure fool, enlightened by compassion’...
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Wagner : Parsifal
2018
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
0/0
Motivated by the love that bound him to Mathilda Wesendonck, Richard Wagner’s composition of Tristan und Isolde goes far beyond any simple operatic ge...
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Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
1999
Le nozze di Figaro
0/0
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Le nozze di Figaro
2019
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra (Salzburg Festival)
0/0
Power struggles among rival families in 14th-century Genoa, a story of tragic love, a young girl gone missing… Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra combines the p...
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Verdi: Simon Boccanegra (Salzburg Festival)
1991
Mozart Requiem
0/0
You will find this Requiem the finest on video. It certainly outshines Bohm's dated approach, and Bernstein's lethargically slow performance. (No disr...
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Mozart Requiem
2016
Mefistofele
0/0
The director, Roland Schwab, has created his version of Hell. The set is like a high iron walled hanger and the stage is continually occupied with peo...
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Mefistofele
2013
Wagner: Das Rheingold
0/0
The La Scala Rheingold in May 2010 inaugurated Guy Cassiers Ring-Cycle and introduces a completely new paradigm to this work. While before him Patrice...
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Wagner: Das Rheingold
2017
The Metropolitan Opera: The Magic Flute
0/0
Julie Taymor’s kaleidoscopic production returns to select cinemas this holiday season in an encore presentation of the company’s first-ever Live in HD...
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The Metropolitan Opera: The Magic Flute
2014
Tannhäuser
0/0
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Tannhäuser
2020
Metropolitan Opera At Home Gala
9/1
In its most ambitious effort yet to bring the joy and artistry of opera to audiences everywhere during the Met’s closure, the company presented an unp...
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Metropolitan Opera At Home Gala
1999
Tristan und Isolde
10/1
Inspired by Wagner’s own tortured affair with the wife of his patron, this searing masterwork is based on Arthurian legend and tells of an illicit rom...
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Tristan und Isolde
2013
Mozart Requiem - Claudio Abbado & Lucerne Festival Orchestra
0/0
Mozart did not write the Requiem as despairing funeral music for his impending death. Rather, the piece proclaims eternal light and redemption. Togeth...
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Mozart Requiem - Claudio Abbado & Lucerne Festival Orchestra
2013
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Requiem - Claudio Abbado
9/1
Mozart did not write the Requiem as despairing funeral music for his impending death. Rather, the piece proclaims eternal light and redemption. Togeth...
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Requiem - Claudio Abbado
2015
Verdi: Macbeth
10/1
Star soprano Anna Netrebko created a sensation in her first Met performances as the malevolent Lady Macbeth, the central character in Verdi’s retellin...
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Verdi: Macbeth
2021
Die Zauberflöte aus der Semperoper Dresden
0/0
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Die Zauberflöte aus der Semperoper Dresden
2016
Parsifal
0/0
Wagner’s mystic masterpiece Parsifal at the Staatsoper Berlin, staged by Dmitri Tcherniakov and conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Wagner’s last opera, P...
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