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Kenneth RIEGEL |
Kenneth Riegel was born in West Hamburg, Pennsylvania and first came to the attention of the international music world with his performance in the New York premiere of Henze's The Young Lord. Since then, he has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival, La Scala, the Rome Opera, the Teatro Communale in Florence, the Teatro Communale in Bologna, the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden) in London, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Hamburg State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Bonn Opera, the Geneva Opera and the Brussels Opera. A frequent guest of the Paris Opera, Mr. Riegel was the first American tenor to portray the title roles of Faust and Les Contes d'Hoffmann there. Also at the Paris Opera he created the role of Alwa in the world premiere of Berg's complete three-act version of Lulu, a role he later repeated at the Met for a live nation-wide telecast. In 1983 again at the Paris Opera, Mr. Riegel created the role of the Leper in the world-premiere of Messiaen's only opera St.Francois d'Assise.
In the cinema, Kenneth Riegel has appeared as
Don Ottavio in Joseph Losey's film of Don Giovanni (sound track on Columbia
Records) and as Prince Shuisky in the movie-version of Boris Godunov,
directed by Andrzej Zulawski (sound track on Erato Records). Mr. Riegel
can also be heard on numerous other records, among them: the Grammy award-winning
record of Orff's Carmina Burana with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting
the Cleveland Orchestra; Liszt's Faust Symphony on Deutsche Grammophon
with Leonard Bernstein and the Boston Symphony, which won the Grand Prix
du Disque of 1978; the Paris production of Lulu conducted by Pierre Boulez
on Deutsche Grammophon; Mahler's Symphony #8 on Deutsche Grammophon with
Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic; on Philips records with
Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony and on Denon records with Eliahu Inbal
and the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra; Damnation de Faust on Decca Records
with Sir Georg Solti conducting the Chicago Orchestra, which won the Grand
Prix du Disque of 1982 as well as the Grammy; the first recording of Zemlinsky's
Der Geburtstag der Infantin on Schwann-Koch Records with Gerd Albrecht
conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony, which won the Preis der Deutschen
Schallplattenkritik; the first recording of Arthur Lourie's song-cycle
Little Gidding with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie on Deutsche Grammophon;
Salome with Christoph von Dohnanyi conducting the Vienna Philharmonic
on Decca Records; and most recently Gurrelieder with Giuseppe Sinopoli
conducting the Dresden Staatskapelle on Teldec.
His recent engagements include a new production of Wozzeck at the Florence
May Festival under Zubin Mehta; a revival of Salome at the Santa Fe Festival
under John Crosby; concert performances of Salome at the Teatro del Liceu
in Barcelona under Peter Schneider; a new production of Elektra at the
Teatro Real in Madrid under Garcia Navarro; concert performances of Salome
with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London at the Megaron in Athens under
Michael Schoenwand; revivals of Elektra and of Wozzeck at the Metropolitan
Opera both under James Levine; a new production of Henze’s The Bassarids
at the Teatro Real in Madrid under Arturo Tamayo; a concert performance
of Wozzeck at the Aspen Festival under James Conlon; a new production
of Wozzeck at the San Francisco Opera under Michael Boder; concerts of
Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with the Spanish National Orchestra in Madrid;
and the world premiere of Friedrich Cerha’s Nachtgesang (song cycle
for Tenor and Orchestra) at Vienna’s Musikverein with the composer
conducting the Vienna Radio Orchestra. In the season 2000/01 Mr. Riegel
appeared in a new production of Salome at the Glimmerglass Opera Festival;
performed the American premiere of Lourie’s Little Gidding at the
Kaye Playehouse at Hunter College in New York; and created the role of
“Titorelli” in the world premiere of Manouri’s K at the
Paris Opera de Bastille. In 2001/02 he appears at the Bruckner Festival
in Linz (Austria) in concert performances of Weill’s The Rise and
Fall of the City of Mahagonny under H. K. Gruber; returns to the Paris
Opera de Bastille in a revival of Wozzeck under James Conlon and appears
at the Hawaii Opera Theatre in a new production of Salome.
For additional materials, visit Kenneth
Riegel at his website:
www.operastuff.com/kennethriegel