René Pape Starts Summer with Met Opera in Japan

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“Pape is without question the finest German bass of his generation.”– Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times


René Pape is currently on tour with the Metropolitan Opera in Tokyo through June 18, proving himself a trouper as he sings one of his signature roles – King Philip in Verdi’s Don Carlo – despite worries about radioactivity in the air after Japan’s recent disasters. The rest of the German bass’s summer ranges from the grand to the intimate on both sides of the Atlantic. He sings in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Zurich (June 29-30), Berlin (Aug 21), and Toronto (Aug 27), as well as in gala orchestral concerts in his hometown of Dresden (July 3-5), St. Petersburg (July 7), and Toronto (Aug 29). Pape also gives a lieder recital at Switzerland’s Verbier Festival (July 16), and he sings in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde as King Marke, another signature role, at the Munich State Opera (July 27 & 31).

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