BARITONE | BASS
Georg Nigl
Representation: World
- Helga Machreich-Unterzaucher
- +43 (0)5 06 80-012
- machreich@machreich-artists.com
GALLERY
BIOGRAPHY
Georg Nigl continues to receive critical acclaim from audiences and critics alike for his passionate and authentic performances – be it his celebrated Wozzeck at La Scala in Milan, his portrayal of Rihm’s Lenz in Brussels and Berlin, or his interpretation of Gabriel von Eisenstein in Strauß’s Die Fledermaus at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Through profound and comprehensive study of his repertoire, his affinity for spoken theatre and the resulting emphasis on text and rhetoric, as well as his expressive portrayals on stage, Georg Nigl is celebrated internationally as one of the leading baritones.
Even as a child Georg Nigl had a strong connection with music, performing on major stages as a soprano soloist of the Vienna Boys’ Choir. His studies with Kammersängerin Hilde Zadek served as a valuable stimulus to pursue his subsequent career as a baritone.
His unmistakable timbre, which lends his roles special weight and character, has taken him to the worlds most prominent opera stages. These appearances have included the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the Berlin State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam and the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, as well as the Salzburg Festival, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Ruhrtriennale and Wiener Festwochen. On such occasions he worked with renowned conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Teodor Currentzis, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Pablo Heras-Casado Nikolaus Harnoncourt, René Jacobs, Vladimir Jurowski, Kent Nagano, Kirill Petrenko, and Sir Simon Rattle, and with directors such as Andrea Breth, Romeo Castellucci, Frank Castorf, Barrie Kosky, Hans Neuenfels, Johan Simons, Dmitri Tcherniakov and Sasha Waltz.
Georg Nigl has gained particular renown not only as a soloist in numerous world premieres, but also as the source of inspiration for compositions and publications by artists such as Friedrich Cerha, Pascal Dusapin, Georg Friedrich Haas, Wolfgang Mitterer, Olga Neuwirth and Wolfgang Rihm.
Georg Nigl’s chamber music repertoire spans a broad range, from the baroque to the first Viennese School and most contemporary works – jointly rehearsed and performed with Alexander Melnikov, Luca Pianca, Olga Pashchenko and Alexander Gergelyfi. His lied album Vanitas, released in the spring of 2020 and featuring Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte, selected songs by Franz Schubert and Wolfgang Rihm’s Vermischter Traum, received the German Record Critics’ Award in 2021. In spring 2023 he released his latest album "Echo”, featuring lieder and ballade by Schubert, Loewe, Schumann and Wolf, which received high praise among the press. In July 2025, he presented his new album ‘Mozarts Clavichord’ with songs and arias by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart at Alpha Classics together with clavichordist Alexander Gergelyfi.
Highlights of recent seasons include the world premiere of Beat Furrer's Violetter Schnee at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin and his Jakob Lenz by Wolfgang Rihm, which was hailed by the press and public and which he also performed in concert at the Salzburg Festival in 2022. At the Vienna State Opera, he recently celebrated great successes as Eisenstein in Strauss' Die Fledermaus, in the title role of Monteverdi's L’Orfeo, as Ulisse in Monteverdi's Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, as Nekrotzar in Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, and Clov in Kurtág’s Fin de partie. Nigl demonstrated once again his artistic versatility as Alberich in a concert performance of Wagner's Das Rheingold under Sir Simon Rattle, and as Eisenstein in a new production of Die Fledermaus at the Bavarian State Opera. At the Aix-en-Provence Festival in summer 2023, Georg Nigl appeared as Don Alfonso in a new production of Mozart's Cosí fan tutte, a role he reprised at the Théâtre du Châtelet in February 2024. At Easter 2025, he appeared for the first time as Klingsor in a new production of Wagner's Parsifal at the Tyrolean Festival in Erl.
The serenade cycle "Nachtmusiken", conceived by the artist himself, was a highlight of the Salzburg Festival in 2023, performed in the intimate setting of the Stefan Zweig Centre together with the clavichordist Alexander Gergelyfi and actor Ulrich Noethen. Following its great success, this cycle will be performed for a third time at the Salzburg Festival in 2025, this time with the actor August Diehl. Nigl also appears at the festival in Henze’s Das Floß der Medusa Schubert's Schwanengesang.
In the 2025-2026 season, he appears in a reprise of Kurtág’s Fin de partie and in Ligeti’s Grand Macabre, as well as for the first time as Alberich in Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen at the Vienna State Opera. He will also join the new production of Olga Neuwirth's world premiere of Monster's Paradise at the Hamburg State Opera and the Zurich Opera.
He can be heard on the concert platform with Henze's Das Floß der Medusa under Sir Simon Rattle in Munich, as well as with Mozart arias together with Concentus Musicus at the Vienna Musikverein and the Brucknerhaus Linz. At the Vienna and Bavarian State Operas, he will give a recital of war and anti-war songs alongside Vladimir Jurowski and Nicholas Ofczarek, who will recite texts from ‘Die letzten Tage der Menschheit’ by Karl Kraus. Georg Nigl continues his concept “opera quiz”, which he conceived last season for the Vienna State Opera’s new stage, the NEST, while appearing there in a series of Schubert evenings together with Nicholas Ofczarek.
On the recital stage, Nigl has performed at the Ludwigsburg Schlossfestspiele, the Bremen Music Festival, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Berlin and Paris Philharmonie. This season he joins Birgit Minichmayr and Olga Pashchenko at the Carinthian Summer and the Bruckner Festival in Linz for further recitals.
In the 2015 critics' poll conducted by Opernwelt magazine, Georg Nigl was named "Singer of the Year" for his interpretation of Rihm's Lenz.
2025 | 2026
This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorized by the artist’s management.
DISCOGRAPHY
Mozart's Clavichord
Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: arias, overtures, cantatas, Lieder, fantasias, rondos
Georg Nigl, Baritone | Alexander Gergelyfi, Clavichord
Label: Alpha | July 2025
Echo
Songs and ballades by Franz Schubert,
Carl Loewe, Robert Schumann and Hugo Wolf
Georg Nigl, baritone | Olga Paschenko, piano
Label: Alpha | 2023
Vanitas
Franz Schubert: a selection of Lieder | Ludwig van Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte op. 98
Wolfgang Rihm: Vermischter Traum (Gryphius-Stück)
Georg Nigl, baritone | Olga Paschenko, piano
Label: Alpha | 2020
Johann Strauß: Die Fledermaus
Diana Damrau, Georg Nigl, Katharina Konradi, Martin Winkler, Andrew Watts, Sean Panikkar, Markus Brück
Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper, Orchester der Bayerischen Staatsoper
Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski
Label: Bayerische Staatsoper Recordings | 2024
CALENDAR
Hans Werner Henze: Das Floß der Medusa
Kathrin Zukowski, La Mort
Georg Nigl, Jean-Charles
Udo Samel, Charon
Choir of the Bavarian Radio
Max Hanft, choral rehearsals
WDR Radio Choir
Paul Krämer, Alexander Lüken | choral rehearsals
Salzburg Festival and Theatre Children's Choir
Regina Sgier, Wolfgang Götz | choral rehearsals
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Ingo Metzmacher, conductor
Georg Nigl, Baritone
Birgit Minichmayr, Narrator
Olga Pashchenko, Pianoforte & Piano
Lieder by
Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Arnold Schönberg, Hanns Eisler,
Pascal Dusapin, Wolfgang Rihm and texts by Maria Lassnig
Georg Nigl, Baritone
Nicholas Ofczarek, Recitation
Vladimir Jurowski, Piano
War- and Antiwar Songs & Texts from "Die letzten Tage der Menschheit" by Karl Kraus
Abendempfindung - Mozart's Clavichord
Georg Nigl, baritone
August Diehl, recitation
Alexander Gergelyfi, Clavichord
Far from the beautiful earth - a Schubert evening
Georg Nigl, baritone
August Diehl, recitation
Alexander Gergelyfi, square piano
CONTACT
Representation: World
- Helga Machreich-Unterzaucher
- +43 (0)5 06 80-012
- machreich@machreich-artists.com
