Wolfgang Stefan Schwaiger

The baritone was born in Innsbruck and began his musical training (recorder, trumpet, piano) as a child. In 1998 he joined the Wiltener Sängerknaben as an alto soloist and gained his first stage experience at the Tiroler Landestheater in "Turandot", "Carmen", "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Gypsy" as well as the third boy in Mozart's "Die Zauberflöte" in Bolzano, Rovigo and Trento. in 2019, the young baritone completed his master's degree in lied and oratorio at the Vienna University of Music. He participated successfully in numerous competitions, such as the Kärntner Sparkasse Wettbewerb für Operette und deutsche Spieloper, the Brahms Competition in Pörtschach, the Federal Competition "Gradus ad parnassum" and the Margaretha Schenk Sponsorship Prize of the Mozart Community Vienna.

During his studies, Schwaiger gained further stage experience: in 2012 he made his debut as Conte di Almaviva in Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro" at the Schönbrunn Palace Theatre and in 2013 as Frank and Falke in Strauss' "Die Fledermaus". In 2014 he celebrated a great success there in the title role of Mozart's "Don Giovanni". From 2014 to 2016 Wolfgang Stefan Schwaiger was a member of the International Opera Studio of Oper Köln. In his very first season, he took on the role of Papageno in the new production of "Die Zauberflöte" at the then interim Cologne venue Oper am Dom. Other roles during this phase included Count Dominik in "Arabella" and The Emperor of China in Stravinsky's "The Nightingale" (Kinderoper). 2017.18 he made his house debut as Maximilian in Bernstein's "Candide" at the Staatsoper Hannover and in 2018.19 at the Teatro Real in Madrid as Giove in "La Calisto" conducted by Ivor Bolton. In 2016, he moved from the Opera Studio to the permanent ensemble of Oper Köln, where he has since appeared in roles such as Hans Scholl in Udo Zimmermann's "White Rose", Lescaut in Massenet’s "Manon", Mary in Bernd Alois Zimmermann's "Die Soldaten", Junius in Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia", Moralès in "Carmen", Ned Keene in "Peter Grimes", Valentin in Gounod's "Faust", in the double role Frank / Fritz in the livestream of Korngold's "Die tote Stadt", Wiedehopf in "Die Vögel", Papageno in "Die Zauberflöte", Der Heger in "Rusalka", Der Mann mit dem Maulesel in "Die Kluge" and as Figaro in Rossini's "Il barbiere di Siviglia".