Franz Mayer has been a member of the ensemble at Oper Frankfurt since 1977. His roles for the company have included Mozart’s Figaro, Leporello, Masetto, Papageno and Don Alfonso, Wagner’s Fritz Kothner / Night Watchman (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Reinmar in Tannhäuser and Angelo in Das Liebesverbot/The Ban on Love, Puccini’s Sacristan (Tosca), Schaunard (La Bohème) and Uncle Bonzo (Madame Butterfly), Verdi’s Monterone (Rigoletto), Barone Douphol (La Traviata) and Montano (Otello), the Music Teacher (Ariadne auf Naxos), Father in Hänsel und Gretel, Trombonok (Die Reise nach Reims/Il viaggio a Reims), Don Fernando (Fidelio), the Archbishop of Prague in Pfitzner’s Palestrina and Unto in Sallinen’s Kullervo. During the 2012/13 season his roles will include appearances in new productions of Humperdinck’s Königskinder and Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West.
Franz Mayer is also a passionate concert singer, his repertoire includes works by Bach, Handel, Mahler, Mozart and Mendelssohn, and has made appearances in Vienna, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Munich, South America (twice) and Japan. Guest engagements have included Fra Melitone (La forza del destino), Paolo (Simon Boccanegra) and the King’s Herald (Lohengrin). In 1993 he was made a Kammersänger of Oper Frankfurt.