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Baritone

Thomas Weinhappel

Singer

Artist

Approved

Thomas Weinhappel nahm - vom lyrischen Bariton kommend - während der Corona-Zwangspause den Wechsel ins dramatische Fach vor und zählt nun Telramund, Holländer, Klingsor und Wotan zu seinem Repertoire. Daneben gehören Jochanaan, Orest, Scarpia und Kaspar zu seinen neuen Rollen.
Seine musikalische Ausbildung erhielt er bei den Wiener Sängerknaben als deren Altsolist er weltweit eingesetzt wurde. Die Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Wien schloss er als Master of Arts mit Auszeichnung ab. Dem in Niederösterreich geborenen Bariton wurde 2017 als erstem Österreicher für seine künstlerische Leistung als Hamlet der begehrte »Thalia Award« mit dem Titel »Bester Opernsänger des Jahres« verliehen. Darüber hinaus erhielt er den »Libuska Award für die außergewöhnlichste Rolleninterpretation«, den zweitwichtigsten tschechischen Opernpreis.

Michael Haneke entdeckte als Erster Weinhappels Talent, »aus Rollen Menschen zu machen«. In Hanekes 2001 preisgekröntem Film »Die Klavierspielerin« sang Weinhappel Lieder aus Schuberts Winterreise. Nach seinem Debüt bei den Bregenzer Festspielen 2016 führte ihn sein Weg 2017 an die Nationaltheater Ostrau, Pilsen und nach Prag [wo er 2018 auch den Tarquinius ( »Der Raub der Lucretia« - Britten) sang] sowie nach Paris (Don Giovanni, 2019 und 2020).
2021 war er mit Mahlers Lied von der Erde in der Philharmonie Sofia zu hören und sang im Dezember 2021 in der Philharmonie Liverpool Konzerte der BBC.
2022 gab er sehr erfolgreich bei den Festspielen Oper Klosterneuburg den Marcello in Puccinis La Boheme (Dirigent Christoph Campestrini, Regie François de Carpentries). 
Hier hat er nach dem Kaspar im Freischütz (Bremerhaven, Dezember 2022, Dirigent Davide Perniceni, Regie Wolfgang Nägele) und dem Escamillo in Carmen (Baden, Februar 2023, Dirigent Michael Zehetner, Regie Michael Lakner) als Posa in Don Carlos am 8.7.2023 (Dirigent Christoph Campestrini, Regie Günther Groissböck) debütiert.

German

Thomas Weinhappel has always set high standards for himself. Since his time as alto soloist with the Vienna Boys‘ Choir, and later at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts, where he graduated with honors as a Master of Arts, his natural optimism has sparked his determination to shape the future and to accept daunting challenges.
Encouraged by the Wagner specialist Stefan Mickisch, he took advantage of the forced Corona break to further cultivate his talents and to develop into a heroic baritone.

His career arc is proof that he enthusiastically strives for excellence and continually evolves and matures in his art. In the last few years he has appeared in numerous  roles, still as a lyrical baritone, as Figaro (Der Barbier von Sevilla, Rossini, Kirchstetten, 2018), Wolfram (Tannhäuser, Berliner Philharmonie, 2019), Marcello (La Boheme, Klosterneuburg, 2022), and Hamlet (Hamlet/Thomas, Prague and Pilsen, 2017 and 2018.

Although he received the two highest ranking Czech opera prizes for his lyrical Hamlet in 2017 (Thalia Award with the title Best Opera Singer of the Year, and the Libuska Award for the most unusual role interpretation by the critics‘ jury of the OPERA Festival), these successes were not his ultimate goal.

On the contrary, he put the lockdown time to good use, reinventing himself, especially in German roles. Thus he amplified his stage persona amid the obstacles brought on by the pandemic: Driven by his optimistic attitude – to generate something positive from what at first glance seemed negative. Therefore it is not surprising that for this reason alone he is captivated by villain roles, such as  Kaspar, Pizarro and Klingsor, and failures, such as Wotan, Telramund and Holländer or Joachanaan.
His curiosity to portray dark characters, of all things, was aroused already at the beginning of his career, which he launched as Leonetto at  the Stadttheater Bern, with directors such as Christoph Schlingenschief (Mea Culpa, Burgtheater Wien, 2008), Otto Schenk (Ralph and Carol, Berlin, 2012) and  Michael Haneke (in whose film The Piano Teacher he participated).

Haneke described the Austrian baritone‘s talent as follows: "He can make people out of roles,“ evoking Weinhappel‘s conviction that art - and opera in particular - is not just a realm beside actual life, but rather a wondrous integral component of our being. Weinhappel believes that it is the artist‘s task - and joy - to (re)unite opera and life, thereby putting them together, as one, "back on their feet,“ clear and  energetic, for the audience to touch.

Impelled and inspired by this conception of identity and purpose, he developed roles such as Lukas (Schlafes Bruder, Vienna, 2009), Escamillo (Carmen, Singapore, 2016), Tarquinius (The Rape of Lucretia, Ostrava, 2018), Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni, Paris, 2020), Mandryka (Arabella), and Donner (Das Rheingold), as well as works such as Schubert‘s great song cycles (Winterreise and Schöne Müllnerin, Vienna, 2018), Schumann‘s Dichterliebe, Vienna, 2020, and Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Budapest, 2013.

His appearances in Sofia included his role as Pater Ecstaticus in Mahler‘s 8th Symphony, 2018, and in Mahler‘s Lied von der Erde in 2021. His performances in contemporary works have been in Carmina Burana, Grafenegg, 2015, Graz, 2019, and Staatsoperette, Bregenzer Festspiele, 2016. Occasionally he made forays into the domain of  operetta (as Danilo in The Merry Widow and Count Homonay in The Gypsy Baron, Stadttheater Baden, 2019).

An increasingly important aspect of his life‘s work is his commitment to children afflicted with neurofibromatosis. Encounters with these children and their affected families led him, in 2017, to begin organizing, and performing in, benefit concerts for the International Patient Organization for Children with Neurofibromatosis. Since 2019 it is his honor and  privilege to serve as their Austrian Cultural Ambassador.

In December, 2021 he sang with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in highly acclaimed Christmas concerts in Liverpool. In summer 2022 he garnered extraordinary praise for his first interpretation of Marcello in Puccini‘s La Bohème.

At the turn of the year 2022/2023 he celebrated his debut in Bremerhaven as Carl Maria von Weber‘s Kaspar in Freischütz. This was his second role of the list of his new tasks as a heroic baritone. His convincing portrayal of Wotan at the Donaufestival 2021 paved the way for a new chapter in Thomas Weinhappel’s dynamic odyssey. 
Further on he sang in february 2023 Escamillo (Carmen) at the stage of Baden and sang in summer 2023 Posa (Don Carlos) at the festival of Klosterneuburg near Vienna (Director Günther Groissböck).
In october 2023 he will sing in Bejing's NCPA opera house and in november 2023 a benefit concert in favor of the Vienna Boys' Choir (Richard-Wagner-Evening: Flying Dutchman, Telramund, Wolfram, Wotan) in Vienna.

English

Thomas Weinhappel
»Götterklang trifft Donauklang«
Festival Donaubühne Tulln, 3.9.2021,
Leb wohl, Du kühnes, herrliches Kind (Wagner - Die Walküre)
Wotans Abschied von Brünnhilde (3.Akt)
Michael Güttler leitet die Nibelungen - Philharmonie

Thomas Weinhappel / Repertoire

Future repertoire

Repertoire

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