"Thomas Ebenstein's mime stands out in this [...] production, because the tenor brings vigour to the stage - with charm and enthusiasm, he plays the dwarf who, blinded by a thirst for power and envy, wants to lure his foster son into disaster."
Elisa Engler | Das Opernglas (July | August 2024)

"It was Thomas Ebenstein who garnered the most applause at the premiere for his impassioned acting and stand-out vocal performance as the mime."
Michel Schaer | Die Stimme der Kritik (15 April 2024)

"Thomas Ebenstein performs the Mime with a powerful [...] tenor with an impeccable heroic attack."
Jan Kobrot | Online Merker (29 April 2024)

Thomas Ebenstein was born in Carinthia/Austria and received his vocal training at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts with Helena Łazarska. Graduated with honours in 2004. Lied class with KS. Robert Holl. In 2001 he was a prize-winner at the International Dvořak Competition in Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic); in 2003 he won the Musica Juventutis Competition of the Vienna Konzerthaus, in 2005 the International Heinrich Strecker Competition in Baden near Vienna and in 2007 he was a scholarship holder of the Richard Wagner Scholarship Foundation for the Bayreuth Festival.

From 2003 to 2012, Thomas Ebenstein was a member of the ensemble of the Komische Oper Berlin, where he appeared in a variety of roles, including Don Ottavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Jaquino in Beethoven's Fidelio, Andrès/Cochenille/Frantz/Pitichinaccio in Offenbach’s Les Contes d'Hoffmann, David in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Narraboth in Strauss' Salome, Valzacchi in Der Rosenkavalier and Truffaldino in Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges and many more.

Thomas Ebenstein has been a member of the Vienna State Opera ensemble since the 2012/13 season and has since appeared in a wide-ranging repertoire, most recently as The Hunchback in Die Frau ohne Schatten, as the Dancing Master in Ariadne auf Naxos, Monostatos in The Magic Flute and the Chaplain in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites. In autumn he appeared as Basilio in a new production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Bavarian State Opera (ML: Stefano Montanari, R: Evgeny Titov). Thomas Ebenstein will also in the current season be making his house debut at the Stadttheater Bern this season as Mime in a new production of Wagner's Siegfried directed by Nicholas Carter and staged by Ewelina Marciniak.

In the course of his career to date, guest engagements have taken him to the Metropolitan Opera New York, La Scala Milan, the Bavarian State Opera, the Berlin State Opera, the Semperoper Dresden, the Hamburg State Opera, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Theater an der Wien; the Carnegie Hall New York, the Philharmonie Berlin, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Auditorium di Milano, the Wiener Musikverein & Konzerthaus; furthermore to the Ruhrtriennale Bochum, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Dresden Music Festival, the Wiener Festwochen, the Salzburg Easter Festival, the Salzburg Festival, the Verbier Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Bergen International Festival and the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

During this time, Thomas Ebenstein has worked with conductors such as Thomas Adès, Alain Altinoglu, Bertrand de Billy, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph Eschenbach, Adam Fischer, Edward Gardner, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Pablo Heras-Casado, Jakub Hrůša, Marek Janowski, Philippe Jordan, Zubin Mehta, Ingo Metzmacher, Kent Nagano, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kirill Petrenko, Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann and Franz Welser-Möst, as well as with directors such as Calixto Bieto and others. Calixto Bieto, Robert Carsen, Stefan Herheim, Andreas Homoki, Barrie Kosky, La Fura dels Baus, Damiano Michieletto, Simon Stone, Dmitri Tcherniakov and Mariusz Treliński, among others.

Key roles in his repertoire include Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail (also available at the Salzburg Festival and on DVD from Arthaus Musik), the Tanzmeister in Ariadne auf Naxos, the Steuermann in Der fliegende Holländer, David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Mime in Das Rheingold and Siegfried, and the Schreiber in Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina, Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuiski in Boris Godunov, the Dancing Master in Ariadne auf Naxos, a Scoundrel in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Truffaldino in Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges, Bob Boles in Peter Grimes, Caliban in Thomas Adès' The Tempest and Alfred in Die Fledermaus.

In a new production at the Opéra de Lyon directed by Richard Brunel and conducted by Daniele Rustioni, Thomas Ebenstein will make his role debut as the Captain in Alban Berg's Wozzeck in the current season. He will also return to the Metropolitan Opera as Monostatos in Simon McBurney's production of Mozart's The Magic Flute.

In addition to opera, the Austrian tenor has performed in concerts at the Vienna Musikverein, the Konzerthaus Vienna, the Konzerthaus Klagenfurt, the Festspielhaus St. Pölten, the Carinthian Summer, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Dortmund Konzerthaus, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Dresden Music Festival, the Dresden Philharmonie, the Verbier Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the KKL Lucerne, the Carnegie Hall New York, the NTR ZaterdagMatinee in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the DeDoelen Rotterdam, the Auditorium di Milano, the Filharmonia im. Karola Szymanowskiego in Kraków and in the Filharmonia Pomorska in Bydgoszcz.

Thomas Ebenstein is equally devoted to the lied genre (collaborations with the pianists Charles Spencer and David Lutz) and sacred vocal music. In February 2018, his debut album was released by Capriccio (Première Portraits) with songs by R. Strauss, Schönberg, Zemlinsky and Korngold.

2024 | 2025

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