Performance Database

Markus Eiche was born in St. Georgen in Germany, he studied in Karlsruhe and Stuttgart and began his career at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, where he developed the most important roles in his repertoire, including Marcello in La Bohème, Conte Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, Wolfram in Tannhäuser as well as the title roles in Don Giovanni and Wozzeck.

The internationally demanded singer was bound with residency contracts for many years to both the Vienna State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera, where he sang such roles as Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde, Besenbinder in Hänsel und Gretel, Harlekin and Music Teacher in Ariadne auf Naxos, Olivier and Count in Capriccio, the title role in Eugene Onegin, Yeletsky in Pique Dame, Fritz and Frank in Die tote Stadt, Gunther in Götterdämmerung, Valentin in Faust, Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier, Lescaut in Manon and Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

Markus Eiche has been a regular guest at the Bayreuth Festival since 2007, where he has appeared as Kothner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Donner in Rheingold, Gunther in Götterdämmerung and Wolfram in Tannhäuser. Since 2019, the artist sings the role of Wolfram in the current production of Tannhäuser by Tobias Kratzer. In the same year he celebrated his debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera as Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier. Guest contracts followed at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich with Luther in Krenek's Karl V and Music Teacher in Ariadne auf Naxos, Britten's Death in Venice at the Stuttgart State Opera and Count in Capriccio at the Zurich Opera House.

Particularly outstanding projects were the title role in Cardillac and Kunrad in Strauss' Feuersnot at the Bavarian Radio, Munich (including CD production); Bluebeard in Bluebeard's Castle with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra; Fritz and Frank in a revival of Die tote Stadt at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki with DVD recording; Lescaut in a new production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut at the Bavarian State Opera with Kristine Opolais and Jonas Kaufmann; and Golaud in a new production of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande.

The artist celebrated extraordinary successes as Count Andrea Vitelozzo Tamare in Die Gezeichneten in a concert performance with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and with the role of Beckmesser in a new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Bavarian State Opera.

Markus Eiche has made guest appearances at the Salzburg Festival, La Scala Milan, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and the Semperoper Dresden, among others. He has worked with the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona for several years, singing roles such as Conte Almaviva, Jeletzki, Ned Keene, Fritz and Frank, a staged production of Schubert's Winterreise, Wolfram (including a DVD production), and Orest. At the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch he was heard in the role of Olivier in Capriccio as well as Robert Storch in Intermezzo.

Markus Eiche has worked with conductors such as Kent Nagano, Bertrand de Billy, Kirill Petrenko, Zoltan Pesko, Gustav Kuhn, Ingo Metzmacher, Harry Bicket, Peter Schneider, Christophe Rousset, Stefan Asbury, Christoph von Dohnànyi, Helmuth Rilling, Marin Alsop, Sebastian Weigle, Adam Fischer, Alan Gilbert, Ulf Schirmer, Riccardo Muti, Christoph Eschenbach, Marco Armiliato, Enrico Dovico, Alfred Eschwé, Marek Janowski, Christian Thielemann and Seiji Ozawa.

The artist's versatility is reflected not least in his extensive concert repertoire of the most diverse musical epochs and styles. Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Orff's Carmina Burana, Britten's War Requiem, Bach's Passions, Handel's Messiah, Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Das Lied von der Erde or Mendelssohn's Elijah and Paulus are as much a part of his repertoire as works by Aribert Reimann, Wolfgang Rihm, Luigi Dallapiccola and Judith Weir.

His busy concert schedule has taken him to the BR, NDR, MDR, SWR, BBC, RFO, Dortmund Philharmonic, Belgrade Philharmonic, Gürzenich Orchestra, Gaechinger Cantorey, Munich Bach Choir, Talens Lyriques and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Numerous concert recordings, CD and DVD recordings are available.

Markus Eiche first took the challenge of teaching at the Zurich University of the Arts in 2012, and since 2016 he is professor for singing at the Freiburg University of Music