Klaus  Kuttler   ~   Bariton

Born in Wels (Austria) Klaus Kuttler was a pupil of the Linz Musical Secondary School before pursuing his studies of piano, oboe, composition and singing at the Linz Bruckner Conservatory. In 1992 he was awarded the Schiff-scholarship receiving several composition orders. Klaus Kuttler maintained composing until today while pursuing his career as a vocal artist. He continued his vocal studies in opera and oratorio at the Vienna Musical High School joining classes held by KS Walter Berry and KS Robert Holl and graduating with first class honours in 2002. Already while studying the young singer emerged successfully from numerous vocal competitions, among those 1st prize and special award from the "Jugend musiziert" Competition in 1993 and 1995, 1st prize from the Competition "Gradus ad parnassum" in Graz 1997, Wagner-Scholarship 1997, four special awards from the Vienna International Belvedere-Competition 1998. 

 

Already as a student Klaus Kuttler made guest-appearances within oratorios conducted by Franz Welser-Möst in London, Lausanne and Den Haag. He sang his first lieder-recital ever containing Robert Schumann's cycle "Dichterliebe" at the Wildberg Castle in 1994. He made his opera debut as Papageno in Mozart's "The Magic Flute" in St. Pölten in 1995. In 1998 he first appeared at the Vienna Chamber Opera singing in Cavallis "La Calisto"; the same theatre also heard him sing Dr. Falke in Johann Strauß' operetta "The Bat", a production which he also joined on tour to Japan. In 1999 he sang with the Vienna Konzerthaus performing within the Johann-Strauß-operetta "Der lustige Krieg" and the Richard-Strauss-opera "Daphne" in concert version; the same year he also appeared at the Austrian Moerbisch-Festival performing the Strauß-operetta "A Night in Venice". 2000 he made his debut with the Zurich Opera House as Papageno, in 2001 he sang Orff's "Carmina burana" with the Vienna Konzerthaus. Throughout the following years he made guest-appearances in St. Gallen, with the St. Moritz Opera Festival and with the Bregenz Festival (2005). After having been a member of the Vienna Volksoper as from 2000 until 2005, he proceeded to perform at this theatre frequently as a guest artist achieving great success as Papageno, Dandini in "La Cenerentola", Marcello and Schaunard in "La Bohème", Peter in "Haensel and Gretel", Sharpless in "Madama Butterfly", Kothner in "Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg" as well as when singing the role of Figaro in both Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" and in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro".

Guest performances throughout the last years made him appear at the Berlin Komische Oper (Eisenstein in "Die Fledermaus", Guglielmo in "Così fan tutte", Faninal in "Der Rosenkavalier"), at Berlin's Deutsche Oper (Peter in "Hansel and Gretel" and Faninal), the Hamburg State Opera (Peter), the Stuttgart State Opera (Papageno), the Cologne Opera (Rossini's Figaro), the Dresden State Opera (Barber in Strauss' "Die schweigsame Frau"), at the Zurich Opera House (Eisenstein), with Glyndebourne Festival (Peter), the Teatro Sao Carlos in Lisbon (Valentin in Gounod's "Faust"), the Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla (Barber in Strauss' "Die schweigsame Frau"), the Opéra de Lyon (Peter), the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Baden-Baden Festival, the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival.

CD-Recordings: 

Carl Orff's "Trionfo di Afrodite" (conductor: Franz Welser-Möst, Munich 1995) 

Johann Strauß' "A Night in Venice" (conductor: Rudolf Bibl, Eisenstadt 1999)

Johann Strauß' "Der lustige Krieg" (conductor: Ulf Schirmer, Vienna 1999)

Werner Brüggemann's "St. Matthew's Passion" (conductor: Peter Schneeberger, Linz 1994)

Klaus-Peter Bruchmann's "Der Flaschenteufel" (conductor: Walter Rescheneder, ORF 2002)

DVD-Recordings:

Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel" (conductor: Kazushi Ono / director: Laurent Pelly / Decca 2008)

Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel" (conductor: Martin Haselböck / director: Michael Sturminger / NCA 2009)

Carl M. v. Weber´s "Der Freischütz" (conductor: Thomas Hengelbrock / director: Robert Wilson, Baden Baden 2009)

( January 2011 )