David Steffens

David Steffens © Matthias Baus

BARITONE | BASS

Representation: World

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BIOGRAPHY

"You rarely find such a beautiful bass voice." - Süddeutsche Zeitung

"David Steffens captivates with immense bass-fullness" - Der Standard

"Born in 1984, bass David Steffens [...] made it unmistakably clear that he also fulfils the criteria for a successful role debut. Born in Upper Bavaria, he has the role [editor's note: of Ochs auf Lerchenau] palpably in his blood and has all the vocal and dramatic prerequisites for it. With rich depth, long breath, exemplary text comprehensibility and witty humour, he increasingly pulled out all the stops of his ability. [...] We can still have high hopes for this Ochs." -J. M. Wienecke, Das Opernglas, November 2021

David Steffens received his musical training at the Mozarteum University Salzburg with Prof. Horiana Branisteanu, Josef Wallnig, Eike Gramss and Wolfgang Holzmair. During his studies he attended master classes with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Ruggero Raimondi, Christa Ludwig, Thomas Hampson, Helmut Deutsch, Rudolf Piernay, Francisco Araiza and Thomas Moser.

Having made his stage debut at the Salzburg Landestheater as Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro, he was subsequently engaged in the International Opera Studio at the Opernhaus Zürich and debuted as Sarastro at the Salzburg Festival as part of its Young Singers Project production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. From 2012 until 2014 David Steffens was a member of the ensemble at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt.

Since the 2015/16 season David Steffens has been a member of the ensemble at the Stuttgart State Opera, where he has since appeared in a wide variety of roles, including the title role of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), Oroveso (Norma), Escamillo (Carmen), Heinrich der Vogler (Lohengrin), Fasolt (Das Rheingold), Pimen (Boris Godunov) and Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau (Der Rosenkavalier).

Alongside his ensemble engagements in Stuttgart, David Steffens appears as a regular guest on other opera stages, such as the Salzburg Mozart Week, Berlin State Opera, Dusseldorf’s Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Semperoper Dresden, Teatro Real in Madrid, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Opéra national de Lyon, Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg, the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and Volksoper Wien.

His further appearances at the Salzburg Festival have included Richard Strauss' Salome, in George Enescu's Œdipe and as Masetto in a new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni staged by Romeo Castellucci. He made his debut at the St. Gallen Festival as Quasimodo in Franz Schmidt's rarely performed opera Notre Dame, while in summer 2024 he will make his debut at the Bregenz Festival as Kaspar in a production of Weber's Der Freischütz directed by Philipp Stölzl.

As part of a new tetralogy of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen presented by Stuttgart State Opera and conducted by Cornelius Meister, David Steffen’s recent roles have included Hunding in Die Walküre, Fasolt in Das Rheingold and Fafner in Siegfried. In addition, he made important house debuts as Sarastro at the Aalto Theatre in Essen and as Ochs auf Lerchenau in Der Rosenkavalier at the Berlin State Opera, followed by role debuts as Félix in Donizetti’s Les Martyrs at the MusikTheater an der Wien and as König Marke in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Opéra de Lille.

After performing in Mahler's Symphony No. 8, with the NDR Radiophilharmonie under Ingo Metzmacher, the Orquesta Nacional de España under David Afkham and the NHK Symphony Orchestra under Fabio Luisi, David Steffens will take the work, together with the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria under Yutaka Sado, to the Vienna Musikverein in the current season. There he will also make a guest appearance in Handel's Messiah under Ivor Bolton, while in Madrid he collaborates for the first time with the Orquesta Nacional de España in Schumann's Scenes from Goethe's Faust.

A sought-after concert singer, David Steffens has appeared at Vienna Musikverein, Berlin Philharmonie, Pierre Boulez Saal, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Herkulessaal in Munich, the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid and the NHK Hall in Tokyo. In addition he has appeared as a recitalist at the Schubertiade in Hohenems, the International Hugo Wolf Academy Stuttgart and the Vienna Konzerthaus, where he will perform once again together with Austrian cabaret artist Josef Hader and pianist Yvonne Gesler in an evening of songs and texts about drunkenness entitled "Intoxication".

David Steffens has performed with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the MDR Radio Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria, the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. He has worked alongside conductors such as Ivor Bolton, Teodor Currentzis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Theodor Guschlbauer, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Cornelius Meister, Ingo Metzmacher, Franz Welser-Möst, Kent Nagano, Sir Simon Rattle and Peter Schneider.

2024 | 2025

www.davidsteffens.com

This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorized by artist management.

DISCOGRAPHY

Richard Strauss: Salome
John Daszak, Anna Maria Chiuri, Asmik Grigorian, Gábor Bretz, Julian Prégardien, Avery Amereau, David Steffens et al.
Wiener Philharmoniker
Conductor: Franz Welser-Möst
Director: Romeo Castellucci
Label: Unitel Classics | 2019

VIDEOS

CALENDAR

18Dec2024
David Steffens
ST. PÖLTEN - Händel: Messiah
Musikverein Wien | Großer Saal, 07:30 pm