Vita
The opera singer (bass) Stephan Klemm, born and raised in Saxony-Anhalt, initially signed on for German literature and fine arts at Martin-Luther-University before he decided to move to Leipzig’s Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy college to study singing with Helga Forner. Later on he worked with Brigitte Fassbaender.
While still a student he made his début at the Hans Otto Theatre in Potsdam, performing Bartolo (The Marriage of Figaro), Sarastro (The Magic Flute), the King of Egypt (Aida), Angelotti (Tosca) and Fafner (The Rhinegold), among other roles. Continuing from here, Stephan Klemm developed continuously into a serious bass.
His engagements led him to renowned German opera houses such as Theatre Dessau, Theatre Dortmund, National Theatre Weimar, National Theatre Mannheim, the Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden, the state opera Hannover, Cologne Opera, the state theatre Gärtnerplatz or to the Opera Leipzig. But also to Cagliari, Innsbruck, or Warsaw.
Important Roles
He was engaged for several roles in Wagner plays: as Fasolt/ Fafner in Rhinegold, Hunding in the Valkyrie, Fafner in Siegfried, Hagen in Götterdämmerung, King Heinrich in Lohengrin, King Marke in Tristan, Landgraf in Tannhäuser and Daland in The Flying Dutchman. He also sang de Kezal in The Bartered Bride, Gremin in Tschaikowki‘s Onegin or Ramphis in Aida as well as Sarastro in The Magic Flute.
Important productions of recent years are the productions of The Ring of the Nibelung in Dessau from 2013–2015, as Fasolt, Hunding and Hagen, as well as in the current Ring of the Nibelung at the Leipzig Opera as Fasolt in Rhinegold.
Further development
A special love connects him with the concert and song sector. Latest concerts brought him to numerous international podiums. He has performed with the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Spanish National Orchestra Madrid, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra I Musici de Montreal, and the Berliner Philharmoniker.
He collaborated with various conductors such as Stefan Sanderling, Jac van Steen, Marko Letonja, Christof Prick, Howard Aman, Antoni Wit, Jeffrey Tate or Ulf Schirmer. At the opening of the Sczceniner Philharmonie 2014, Stephan Klemm, under the baton of Jacek Kaspszyk, performed in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.
Teaching activity
For some years now, Stephan Klemm has devoted part of his time to the training and further education of young singers. Since the summer semester in 2017, he will take up a position as assistant at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe.
His next assignments will take him to the Semperoper Dresden in March 2017 and in September 2017 for his role debut as King Phillip in Don Carlos in Münster. For further dates, please have a look at the calendar.
Music
Der neue Merker
“Von den Solisten überzeugt zuerst Stephan Klemm, der nicht nur die stimmlichen Voraussetzungen für einen wirklich schwarzen Hagen mitbringt, sondern auch mit Musikalität und vorbildlicher Artikulation fesselt. Das ist ein erster Aktivposten für diesen neuen ‘Ring’.”.
