About this Artist
BURKHARD FRITZ (Doctor Marianus) was born in Hamburg and received his vocal training at the Johannes-Brahms-Konservatorium in Hamburg with Ute Buge. He also attended masterclasses with Alfredo Kraus and studied additionally with Arturo Sergi. The singer gathered his first experiences on stage in several productions of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg and received his first professional engagement at the Stadttheater Bremerhaven in 1997.
From 2000-2004 Burkhard Fritz was a member of the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen. He began singing lyric roles but soon advanced to heavier roles such as Max in Freischütz and Florestan in Fidelio. He guested as Florestan at the Aalto-Theater Essen under the musical direction of Stefan Soltesz and he had a great personal success in the title role of Idomeneo in Oldenburg and as Benvenuto Cellini in Gelsenkirchen.
Since 2004 Fritz has been a member of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin. Under the musical direction of Daniel Barenboim he was heard as Parsifal in a new production and later as Florestan. With the roles of Cavaradossi in Tosca and Alvaro in La forza del destino at the Staatsoper Berlin he finally established himself also in the Italian repertoire. In spring 2008 he sang Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg under Daniel Barenboim and in January 2009 he gave his debut as Don José in Carmen and Lohengrin.
Burkhard Fritz was a guest at the Scala di Milano for the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, at the State Opera Hannover and in Stuttgart with Lucio Silla, and in Rotterdam and Amsterdam as Faust in La Damnation de Faust. Additionally he appeared at the Vienna State Opera as Parsifal. With Benvenuto Cellini he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival in the summer of 2007, and in 2008 he was Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos at the State Opera Munich and Prince in Rusalka in Brussels. Fritz had great success as Stolzing in Die Meistersinger at the Oper Graz. At the Staatsoper Berlin he made his debut as Lohengrin and as Fritz in Schreker’s Der ferne Klang. Another big success was his debut as Paul in Die tote Stadt at the Teatro Real in Madrid. After singing Cavaradossi in Tosca and Don José in Carmen at the Staatsoper Berlin, he made his successful debut as Henri in I vespri Siciliani in Amsterdam.
Future highlights include his debut at the Bayreuth Festival 2011 as Stolzing, Bacchus and Florestan at the Staatsoper München, Lohengrin in Budapest, and Rienzi in Madrid. At the Vienna State Opera he will sing Bacchus and later I vespri Siciliani. He will also sing a number of concerts with conductors as Christian Thielemann, Daniel Barenboim, Steven Sloane, and Philippe Jordan.
Burkhard Fritz can be heard on the recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under the direction of Daniel Barenboim on the Warner Classics label and on DVD in Benvenuto Cellini from the Salzburg Festival 2007.