John Heuzenroeder

The Australian tenor, a long-standing member of the Cologne Opera ensemble, studied at the Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne, among other places, and began his career with performances at the Victoria State Opera and Opera Australia. He has worked with the symphony orchestras in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Tasmania and has participated in renowned Australian music festivals. He went to Sapporo, Japan, and Glasgow, Scotland, to further his vocal studies, eventually settling in Germany.

In addition to numerous roles in lyric and character roles, he is particularly devoted to the English-language repertoire, such as Tom Rakewell ("The Rake's Progress" at Opera Australia and Theater Dortmund) and Quint ("The Turn of the Screw"). His repertoire on German stages includes roles such as Rodolfo ("La Bohème"), Count Almaviva ("Il barbiere di Siviglia"), Vašek ("Die verkaufte Braut"), Beppe ("Pagliacci"), Goro ("Madama Butterfly"), Freddy ("My Fair Lady"), and Alfred ("Die Fledermaus").

At the 2021 Bregenz Festival, he sang the role of Mime in a concert performance of Richard Wagner's "Das Rheingold" under the musical direction of Andrés Orozco-Estrada. Recent guest appearances have taken him to the stages of Wuppertal and the Staatstheater Wiesbaden, among others. In Wuppertal, he most recently sang Raoul de St. Brioche in “Die lustige Witwe” and Arnalta in “L'incoronazione di Poppea” and Heinrich der Schreiber in “Tannhäuser,” at the Hanover State Opera the Knusperhexe in “Hänsel und Gretel,” at the Augsburg State Theater Bob Boles in “Peter Grimes” and in Mercadante's “Il giuramento” at the Klangvokal Festival in Dortmund. In 2024, he sang Torquemada in Ravel's “L'heure espagnole” together with the orchestra “Les siècles” at the opening concert of the Festival Ravel in St. Jean de Luz.

He enjoyed success at Cologne Opera with a wide range of tenor roles, including Pedrillo in “Die Entführung aus dem Serail,” Anfinomo in “Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria,” Quint in “The Turn of the Screw,” the Fool in “Wozzeck,” Oronte in “Alcina,” Jaquino in Beethoven's “Fidelio,” Tinca/Gherardo in Giacomo Puccini's “Il trittico,” Pang in “Turandot,” Pirzel in “Die Soldaten,” Monostatos in “Die Zauberflöte,” Mann mit dem Esel in “Die Kluge,” and Bardolfo in Verdi's “Falstaff,” as well as many other roles. He appeared in the role of Polonius at the Cologne Opera in the German premiere of Brett Dean's Hamlet under the musical direction of Duncan Ward.

In recent years, he has appeared as Victorin in Erich Wolfgang Korngold's “Die tote Stadt,” Loge in “Das Rheingold für Jung und Alt,” Der Mann mit dem Esel and 1st Thug in Carl Orff's "Die Kluge", Asasello in "Der Meister und Margarita", as well as 1st Armored Man and Monostatos in "Die Zauberflöte", Pastor in "Miranda", and Pang in "Turandot". He sang Arnalta and Nutrice in “L'incoronazione di Poppea” in Toulon and Cologne in 2024. Other roles in Cologne: Emmanuele Polizzi in the world premiere of Frank Pesci's “The Strangers,” Cascada in “Die lustige Witwe,” Horace Adams in “Peter Grimes,” Old Faust in Gounod's “Faust,” Gran Sacerdote in “Idomeneo,” Remendado in “Carmen,” Normanno in “Lucia di Lammermoor,” A young servant in "Elektra" and Abdallo in "Nabucco", as well as numerous tenor roles in the world premiere of Philippe Manoury's "Die letzten Tage der Menschheit". In a staged production of Zimmermann's "Die Soldaten" for the Cologne Philharmonic, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and the Philharmonie de Paris, he sang Pirzel again in 2024.

For 2025-26, the Cologne Opera has him scheduled to perform Monostatos/Second Priest in "Die Zauberflöte", the Witch of Endor in "Saul", Pang in "Turandot", Don Riccardo in "Ernani", and Trouble in the children's opera "Max und Moritz".