Frank van Aken, a member of the ensemble at Oper Frankfurt, will be singing the title role in a new production of Verdi’s Otello during the 2011/12 season. This is a role he will also be singing in a new production at Graz Opera. He will also be repeating his memorable portrayal of Siegmund in Frankfurt’s new Walküre. He enjoyed enormous success with this role last season, alongside his wife Eva-Maria Westbroek as Sieglinde, and stepped in at short notice to sing it again at La Scala Milan. In forthcoming seasons this Dutch tenor will be singing Tristan at the Sächsischen Staatsoper in Dresden, Tannhäuser in Santiago de Chile and Siegmund at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
Frank van Aken studied singing in Utrecht and at the Royal Conservatory’s opera studio in Den Haag before taking lessons from James McCray. He won the Christina Deutekom competition and made his operatic debut singing Macduff in Macbeth at the Nederlandse Reisopera in Enschede. He made his debut in Italy in the same year, singing Cavaradossi in Rome. The first opera company he joined was the Deutschen Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf/Duisburg (1997-2000). Since joining the ensemble at Oper Frankfurt in 2006/07 he has thrilled audiences here with many roles, including Hans (Die verkaufte Braut/The Bartered Bride), Hermann (Pique Dame), Laca (Jenufa), Tannhäuser, Luigi (Il trittico), Ägisth (Elektra), Edmund (Reimann’s LearPalestrina - Oehms Classics CD to be released soon), Einsiedel (Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus), the Hunter (Sallinen’s Kullervo), Tristan and Parsifal. He has also sung Ägisth at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Laca and Erik (Der fliegende Holländer) in Stuttgart and Tannhäuser in Bayreuth, Barcelona, Baden Baden and at the Vienna State Opera and has appeared at the Komischen Oper Berlin and the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.