04.09.2025

MICHAEL SCHADE sings Orff's Carmina Burana at Kloster Eberbach and at the Philharmonie in Cologne

Michael Schade, as one of the foremost tenors of our time, has been captivating audiences on the world’s greatest stages for many years. In late summer 2025, he will appear twice in Carl Orff’s monumental Carmina Burana—first at the Rheingau Music Festival in the magnificent Eberbach Abbey basilica and shortly after at the gala concert in Cologne’s Philharmonie. Together with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the Cologne Citizens' Choir, the Chamber Choir of the University of Cologne and soloists Annija Adamsone (soprano) and Michael Nagy (baritone), Schade will unfold the full expressive power of his tenor voice in one of the most spectacular scores of the 20th century.

His performance as the “roast swan”, one of the most grotesquely comical and vocally demanding passages in the work, is particularly impressive. Here Schade combines his musicality with subtle irony, demonstrating how he himself can combine the highest vocal artistry and gripping musical theatre in a short scene. With Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducting, the orchestra’s power joins forces with the choirs’ energy and the soloists’ virtuosity to create a sound experience rich in drama and intensity.