Ensemble, Guests, Opera Studio & Teams

Liviu Holender

Baritone

Liviu Holender
© Barbara Aumüller

Liviu Holender joined the ensemble at Oper Frankfurt in 2019/20, making his house debut singing Leone in a new production of Tamerlano in the Bockenheimer Depot. During the 2024/25 season roles include Marullo (Rigoletto), the Count of Lusignan in the first ever performances in Frankfurt of Reimann's Melusine and Faninal (role debut) in Der Rosenkavalier. He started last season off singing his first Malatestas in a new production of Donizetti's Don Pasquale, which was followed by Hans in a new production of Zemlinsky's George the Dreamer and Moaralés / Dancaïro in Carmen. Other roles for the company in recent seasons have included the Helmsman in a new Tristan und Isolde, Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Marullo in Rigoletto, Henrik (role debut) in a new production of Nielsen's Maskerade, Marco in Gianni Schicchi and Olivier (role debut) in Strauss Capriccio, Peter (the Father) in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Der Graf in Schreker's Der ferne Klang / The Elusive Sound (get the CD! Oehmsclassics) and Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. He also sang Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus at the Teatro Felice Genua and the Musikverein in Graz, a role with which he recently made his debut in Italy at the Teatro Maggio Musicale in Florence, which was followed by Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos. Other recent engagements have included Silvano (Un ballo in maschera) at La Scala Milan, the Herald (Lohengrin) at the Tokyo Spring Festival under Marek Janowski, Donner (Rheingold) at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Marcello in La Bohème at Croatian National Opera in Zagreb, Silvio (Pagliacci) at the National Opera in Bucharest, Ottokar (Der Freischutz) in Bregenz and the Brahms Requiem in the Musikverein in Vienna. This Austrian musician was a member of the ensemble at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich for two years, during which time roles included Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Schaunard (La Bohème), Oberjustizrat Hasentreffer (Henze's Der junge Lord) and Hans Scholl in Zimmermann's Die Weiße Rose / The White Rose. He sang Papageno in a Zauberflöte for children while a member of the Salzburg Festival's 2018 Young Singers Project and his first Marullo in a new production of Rigoletto at the 2019 Bregenz Festival. He sang  Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) at the National Opera in Bucharest and in My Fair Lady at the Volksoper in Vienna. He also enjoys a busy career as a recitalist, appearing at places including the Philharmonie de Paris and Schubertiade in Hohenems, and oratorio singer, most recently in the Brahms Requiem with the Basel Symphony Orchestra under Marek Janowski and the Maggio musicale fiorentino uner Daniele Gatti and, as Jesus, in the Matthew Passion with the Vienna Philharmonic under Franz Welser-Möst. He gave a wonderful recital in Oper Frankfurt's Holzfoyer in April 2024, of works by Jewish composers, whose works were deemed »degenerate art« by the Nazis.