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Franz Hawlata Biography

Was born in Eichstätt/Bavaria. Here he studied musicology before entering the Musikhochschule München, where Ernst Häfliger, Hans Hotter and Erik Werba were his teachers. Already in 1986 he gave his debut with the Gaertnerplatztheater München.

After some years in München, Coburg and at the Komische Oper in Berlin he started his international career in 1992 with productions of Busoni`s “Turandot” in Lyon and Mozart`s “Figaro” in Pretoria.

Since 1994 the artist is regularly appearing at the Vienna State Opera: in more than 200 performances he sang Ochs, Orest, Morosus, Rocco, Caspar, Leporello, Papageno, Osmin, Figaro, Sarastro, Wozzeck, Daland and Pogner.

Franz Hawlata gave his very successful debut with the Metropolitan Opera (Ochs) in February 1995, with La Bastille in Paris (Mahagony) in October, and in November 1996 he was the highly acclaimed Leporello at the Royal Opera House in London, where he returned with Ochs in 2000. All these houses signed him for new productions during the years to come: he returned to the Met with Ochs and Sparafucile, in Paris he was Ochs again, the Water Goblin (Rusalka), Wozzeck and LaRoche (Capriccio).

Guest appearances brought the artist also to San Francisco (Ochs), Tokyo (Ochs and Sparafucile with the Met), Chicago (Daland), Torino (LaRoche), Florence (Sachs), and to the Staatstheater Meiningen, where he sang his first Wotan in 2001. In 2003 and 2004 he appeared at the Aalto-Theater in Essen as Hans Sachs and Ochs. He has been signed to sing in München, Berlin, Brussels, Barcelona and San Diego, where he sang Wozzeck in English. In 2007 he gave his debut as Hans Sachs at the Bayreuther Festspiele.

The same year he sang his first Barak in Chicago and Paris (Bastille, January 2008) Franz Hawlata was Osmin in Salzburg in 1997 and 1998. He returned to the festival with Leporello and a recital in 1999, in 2000 and 2001 he was Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte, followed by Ochs in 2004 and Osmin again in the Mozart Year 2006.

His engagements include a new production of Capriccio (LaRoche) at the Wiener Staatsoper, followed by the Bayreuther Festspiele 2008 (Sachs). He opened the season 2008/09 withVerkaufte Braut in Paris (Bastille) and performances at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Rosenkavalier, Bohème and Freischütz). He was Ochs again in a new production ofRosenkavalier in Baden-Baden with Thielemann conducting, as well as Pogner (Meistersinger) at the Tyrolian Festival in Erl, followed by concerts at the Edinburgh Festival.

During the season 09/10 Mr. Hawlata appeared as Ochs in Sao Paolo, two new productions ofDie schweigsame Frau in Sevilla and the Munich Opera Festival 2010 were the highlights of this season. In 2011 he was extremely successful as Gurnemanz and Pogner at the Tiroler Festspiele.

The year 2012 saw him among others as Falstaff in Nicolai’s Merry Wives in Tokyo, as Morosus in Chemnitz and King Marke at the Tyrolian Festival, he also appeared as Ochs and Pasquale in both opera houses in Munich.

In 2013 he started with Wotan (Rheingold and Walküre) in Palermo, LaRoche (Capriccio) will follow in Budapest, King Marke in Warsaw, Daland in Beijing and the Doctor (Wozzeck) in a new production at the Teatro Real in Madrid. During the summer he was Zaccaria in the new production of Verdi’s Nabucco at the Tiroler Festspiele.

A new production of Entführung (Osmin) in Liège was the begin of the season 2013/14, followed by performances of Schweigsame Frau (Morosus) in Chemnitz, and a new Fidelio(Rocco), again in Liège. He then returned to Madrid with a very successful production ofLohengrin (König Heinrich) at the Teatro Real.

Among his numerous audio productions are: lieder by Carl Loewe (with Juliane Banse and Helmut Deutsch), Spohr`s opera Faust, Loewe`s opera The three wishes, German opera arias and an all-Verdi recital, Marschner`s opera The Vampyr, Nicolai`s Merry wives of Windsor, Dvorak`s Rusalka, Beethoven`s Leonora, Franz Schmidt`s Buch mit sieben Siegeln and Berlioz’Benvenuto Cellini.

Very requested in concert and lied as well, Mr.Hawlata is performing in all great halls throughout the world.

His recent and future projects include: Der Rosenkavalier in Bonn, Die Fledermaus in Munich, Die Maeistersinger von Nürenberng in Nürenberg, Der Fliegende Holänder in the Weinviertler Festspiele Chequia, Die Drei Pintos by Weber in Leipzig, Fidelio at Opera de Metz, Der Freischütz at Konzerthaus Berlin, Die scheigsame Frau at the Bayerischen Staatsoper, Wozzeck with the boston Orchestra  and Die drei Pintos in Leizig.