René Pape
René Pape (born 4 September 1964) is a German operatic bass. Pape has received two Grammys, was named "Vocalist of the Year" by Musical America in 2002, "Artist of the Year" by the German opera critics in 2006, and won an ECHO award (the German equivalent of the Grammy) in 2009. Life and career René Pape was born in Dresden, then part of East Germany. His mother is a hairdresser and his father a chef. His parents divorced when he was two years old and he sometimes lived with his grandmother, who opened the way for his interest in music. His maternal grandfather was an operetta tenor. Pape received his musical education from 1974 to 1981 with Dresdner Kreuzchor (he even appeared as one of the Three Boys in Die Zauberflöte) and the Dresden Conservatory in the early '80s. He had his debut with the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden in 1988, and achieved international recognition in 1991, when Sir Georg Solti cast him as Sarastro in a production of Die Zauberflöte, a role he sang again the same year at La Scala in Milan under Solti's direction. He sang in Haydn's Die Jahreszeiten with the Orchestre de Paris and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, both under Solti (1992), then Don Fernando in Beethoven's Fidelio, the Speaker and Sarastro with the Vienna State Opera during the 1992–93 season, King Philip in Verdi's Don Carlo in Basle, Switzerland. He made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Fasolt in Das Rheingold in 1994, conducted by James Levine. He first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as the Night Watchman in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, where he has performed practically every year since, as Fasolt, King of Egypt in Verdi's Aida in 1997, the Old Hebrew in Samson et Dalila by Saint-Saëns in 1998, King Marke in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in 1999, Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen and Rocco in Fidelio in 2000, Orest in Elektra by Richard Strauss in 2002, Gurnemanz i Wagner's Parsifal in 2003, Leporello in Don Giovanni and King Marke in 2004, Méphistophélès in Gounod's Faust in 2005, King Heinrich, King Philip, and Sarastro in 2006, Banquo in Verdi's Macbeth in 2008, Fasolt, Hunding in Wagner's Die Walküre in 2009, and the title role of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov in 2010. About his role as King Marke, Anthony Tommasini wrote in The New York Times on 30 November 2008: "Few singers have conveyed Marke's feelings of betrayal by his beloved nephew Tristan with such lofty, noble anguish". "René Pape's King Marke is a magnificent and dignified performance, sung with the utmost compassion and with an enviable richness and range of bass tone", wrote Michael Kennedy in the Sunday Telegraph on 25 May 2003. "As Heinrich, René Pape displayed what must be the most sumptuous operatic bass in the world", wrote Rupert Christiansen in the Daily Telegraph on 5 June 2003. Pape was honored on 27 October 2010 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild as part of its