Performance Database

During the course of a stage career that has spanned more than twenty years, Franz-Josef Selig has established himself on the international arena as one of the most well known performers of serious bass parts – particularly Gurnemanz, King Marke, Sarastro, Rocco, Osmin, Daland, Fiesco and Fasolt.

Bass singer Franz-Josef Selig first studied church music at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, Cologne before taking voice classes under Claudio Nicolai. He was a member of the Aalto Theatre ensemble in Essen from 1989 to 1995. Franz-Josef Selig has been a freelance singer since then and has given guest performances at all of the world’s great opera houses such as Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Opera Covent Garden, La Scala di Milano, Staatsoper Hamburg, Opéra de la Bastille, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Metropolitan Opera New York, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Théâtre de la Monnaie Brussels, Deutsche Oper Berlin or Bavarian State Opera Munich.

The past season brought Franz-Josef Selig, amongst other venues, to London (Magic Flute under Sir Colin Davis), Vienna (Parsifal under Ingo Metzmacher), New York (Wagner Ring cycle under James Levine), to Munich for a new production of Fidelio by Calixto Bieito and the revival of the Magic Flute and finally again to the Salzburg Festival in summer 2011, where he appeared as Komtur (Don Giovanni) under Yannick Nézet-Séguin and also as Bartolo (Le Nozze di Figaro) under Robin Ticciati.

The basso started the season 2011/12 as Arkel in Débussy's Pelléas et Melisande: In the production of Bob Wilson he first sang at the Teatro Real in Madrid under Sylvain Cambreling and then under Philippe Jordan at the Opéra de Paris-Bastille. Furthermore he performs at the Metropolitan Opera New York in Wagner's Ring. In the summer of 2012 Franz-Josef Selig will make his debut at the Bayreuth Festival.

His concert agenda for the season of 2011/2012 included, amongst others, concerts with Bruckner’s Te Deum with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Bruckner’s Mass in f minor with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Marek Janowski in Geneva and Lausanne. Franz-Josef Selig has also worked with many other renowned conductors, such as Herbert Blomstedt, Ivor Bolton, Daniel Harding, Christoph Eschenbach, Hartmut Haenchen, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Mariss Jansons, Jun Märkl, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, Helmuth Rilling, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Christian Thielemann and Franz Welser-Möst.

Despite his worldwide concert and opera engagements Franz-Josef Selig still finds time for recitals. Together with Gerold Huber he presents himself with Schubert's Winterreise in the beginning of 2012 in the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. A favourite project of the singer is the Liedertafel with Markus Schäfer, Christian Elsner and Michael Volle, as well as Gerold Huber as pianist. This quintet has also released a CD at the label Orfeo. His affinity to Ancient Music can be seen in the cooperation with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the concentus musicus Wien, with Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs or the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.

Numerous CD and DVD productions – from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion via Mozart’s Magic Flute (Royal Opera London/Sir Colin Davis), Don Giovanni (Wiener Staatsoper/Riccardo Muti) and Le nozze di Figaro (Salzburger Festspiele/Nikolaus Harnoncourt), Weber’s Abu Hassan and Busoni’s Turandot  to the Deutsche Grammophon recording of Wagner’s Parsifal under Christian Thielemann – show Franz-Josef Selig’s broad artistic spectrum.