During Johannes Martin Kränzle’s 2011/12 season in Frankfurt he will take part in two new productions: Gunther in Götterdämmerung and Jaroslav Prus in Janáček’s Die Sache Makropulos/The Makropoulos Case) and repeat his unforgettable portrayal of the Earl of Gloucester in a revival of Reimann’s Lear (now available on CD – Ohems Classics). Interesting guest engagements will be taking him to the Cologne Opera for Count Andrej Bolkonski in Prokofiev’s Krieg und Frieden/War and Peace, the Music Teacher in Ariadne auf Naxos and Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and the Staatsoper Berlin and La Scala Milan (Alberich in Siegfried). With more than 80 roles in his repertoire, which range from the lyric, cavalier and, increasingly, character baritone roles, Johannes Martin Kränzle is a much sought after interpreter at important opera houses all over the world. He has enjoyed many great successes in recent seasons, including Alberich at La Scala Milan in 2009/10, the title role in the world premiere of Rihm’s Dionysos at the Salzburg Festival in 2010, Alberich at the Berlin Staatsoper in 2010/11, Danilo in Die lustige Witwe/The Merry Widow, in Geneva in 2010/11 and Beckmesser at Glyndebourne in 2011. He received tremendous applause at Oper Frankfurt for many, varied roles, including Papageno, Paolo Albiani (Simon Boccanegra), Cim-Fen, who runs an opium den (Leoni’s L’oracolo), The Herald (Lohengrin), Giovanni Morone (Pfitzner’s Palestrina), Dandini (Rossini’s Cenerentola), Don Giovanni and Don Alfonso (in Christof Loy’s award winning production of Così fan tutte). Before Johannes Martin Kränzle joined the company in Frankfurt in 1998 he was a member of the ensembles in Dortmund and Hannover. He was born in Augsburg and won many prizes at international competitions, including those in Vercelli, Rio de Janeiro, Perpignan and Paris (Plácido Domingo). His opera Der Wurm/The Worm won a prize, and was performed for the first time, at a composition competition in Berlin in 1997. Critics from Opernwelt magazine voted him Singer of the Year 2010/11.

Find out more about Johannes Martin Kränzle on his homepage.