Tenor Peter Seiffert studied at the Music Academy of his native Düsseldorf and received his first engagement in 1978 from the Deutsche Oper am Rhein before moving in 1984 to the Deutsche Oper Berlin and beginning his international career. After initially singing as a lyric tenor, in 1988 he took on his first great Wagner part singing the title role in Parsifal at the Royal Opera House in London; in 1990 he subsequently made his highly acclaimed debut as Lohengrin in Berlin. Since that time Seiffert has been at home on the leading international stages, from the Vienna Staats-oper, Zurich Opera, La Scala in Milan, the Salzburg Festival, and the opera houses of Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia to the Metropolitan Opera in New York and Los Angeles Opera. He additionally enjoys a close partnership with the Bavarian Staatsoper, which appointed him Kammersänger as early as 1992. In 1996 Seiffert made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Stolzing in Die Meistersinger, appearing in subsequent years as Lohengrin. With the exception of Siegfried, he now counts all of the great Wagnerian tenor roles as part of his repertoire. In 1999 Seiffert undertook his first Tannhäuser at Zurich Opera; his role debut as Tristan followed in 2006 at the Berlin Staatsoper. Seiffert not only specializes in Wagner but also performs such Italian operatic roles as Puccini’s Cavaradossi and Calaf and Verdi’s Otello, and he has also made forays into the realm of operetta with Danilo from Lehár’s The Merry Widow. Seiffert’s extensive discography has received such awards as the Grand Prix du Disque and the Echo Klassik.
LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on 5 September 1994 in the Verdi Requiem with the Staatskapelle Berlin under Daniel Barenboim.
August 2011