Benjamin Bruns

Benjamin Bruns began his vocal career as an alto soloist in the boys’ choir of his native Hanover. After taking private lessons with Peter Sefcik, he studied at the Hamburg Music Academy with Renate Behle and was engaged during his training by the Bremen Theater, where he acquired a broad repertoire as a lyric tenor. Positions at Cologne Opera and the Dresden Staatsoper eventually led him to the Vienna Staatsoper starting in 2010, with which he remains associated as a resident artist. Bruns sings such Mozart roles as Belmonte (The Abduction from the Seraglio), Tamino (The Magic Flute), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), and Ferrando (Così fan tutte) and also performs Italian repertoire (for example, Don Ramiro in Rossini’s La cenerentola) and such selected Wagner roles as Erik in The Flying Dutchman, David in Die Meistersinger, and Loge in Das Rheingold. From 2012 to 2016, he played the Helmsman in Dutchman at the Bayreuth Festival. In the 2018-19 season, Bruns made his role debut as Alwa in Berg’s Lulu at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago and appeared as Hylas in a new production of Berlioz’s Les Troyens at the Vienna Staatsoper, as Tamino at the Bavarian Staatsoper, and as Wenzel in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride at the Dresden Staatsoper. Oratorio and lieder singing are a significant counterpart for Bruns to his work on the opera stage. His concert repertoire ranges from Bach and Handel to the Viennese classicists, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Bruckner. He has performed with such renowned orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. 

July 2019