Tomasz Konieczny

Tomasz Konieczny was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1972, and it was also there he studied acting at the Academy of Cinema, Television and Drama. He made his screen debut in the film The Crowned-Eagle Ring by the Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda. He subsequently pursued his career as an actor and director in many Polish films, as well as television and stage plays. During that time he simultaneously enrolled for voice studies at the Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw, and later carried on in Professor Christian Elsner’s class at the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden. In 1998 he became laureate at the 33rd edition of the Antonín Dvořák International Voice Competition in Karlovy Vary.

He made his debut as an opera singer in 1997, as Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) at Poznan, Poland. There followed engagements by opera companies in Leipzig, St. Gallen, Chemnitz, and Mannheim. In 2002 he became a soloist of the Nationaltheater Mannheim, where he created a formidable gallery of roles, including most notably Orestes (Electra), Pimen (Boris Godunov), King Marke (Tristan und Isolde), Amfortas (Parsifal), Wotan (Das Rheingold and Die Walküre), Pizarro (Fidelio), Jochanaan (Salome), and the Great Inquisitor (Don Carlo). In 2004, he received the Arnold Petersen Award in Mannheim, a distinction reserved for exceptionally talented young artists. Since 2006, Tomasz Konieczny has been a soloist of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf/Duisburg, where he extended his repertoire by further major parts, including those of Osmin (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Golaud (Pelléas et Mélisande), King Heinrich (Lohengrin), Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde), the Dutchman (Der fliegende Holländer), Barak (Die Frau ohne Schatten), Balstrode (Peter Grimes), and Selim (Il Turco in Italia). He has been a regular guest of the Wagner opera festival in Budapest, where he sang Amfortas (Parsifal) under Adam Fischer’s baton in 2006, and appeared as Wotan in Die Walküre in 2007 and 2009. In 2008 he made his debut on the stage of Dresden’s Semperoper, with an outstandingly successful rendition of Alberich in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, conducted by Peter Schneider. In the same year he also made his first appearance at Madrid’s Teatro Real, as Dr Kolenatý in Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair. His debut at the Prague State Opera came with the role of Procida in the company’s new production of Les Vêpres siciliennes (premiere on March 23, 2006). Tomasz Konieczny has likewise been a sought-after concert platform singer, where he puts to brilliant avail his exquisite timbre coupled with charismatic stage appeal. His most imminent commitments include performances with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London. His repertoire encompasses Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Christmas Oratorio, Handel’s The Messiah and Mendelssohn’s Elijah, the Requiems of Mozart, Verdi and Dvořák, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, Penderecki’s St Luke Passion, The Seven Gates of Jerusalem and Cosmogony, and Roman Maciejewski’s Requiem.

His triumph in the role of Alberich (Der Ring des Nibelungen) on the stage of the Vienna State Opera earned Tomasz Konieczny a place of honour in the company of outstanding baritones of his generation. Apart from Alberich, he has been invited by the Vienna State Opera to study the parts of Mandryka (Arabella), Jochanaan (Salome), Wotan in Die Walküre, Amfortas (Parsifal), Jack Rance (La fanciulla del West), and the Goldsmith Cardillac in Hindemith’s opera Cardillac. In the nearest future he is to appear on the operatic stages of Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper, Paris’ Opéra National, Milan’s La Scala, and on his home turf at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldort/Duisburg.