Stephan Rügamer

The tenor Stephan Rügamer is a native of the Bavarian town of Kempten im Allgäu. He initially studied music pedagogy at Würzburg but then decided on vocal training and pursued his studies with James Wagner and Günter Binge at the Lübeck Academy of Music. At the Lübeck Theater, where he had a regular engagement from 1996 to 1998, he launched his professional career as a lyric tenor with Mozart’s Don Ottavio and Belmonte, Alfredo in Verdi’s La traviata, and Alfred in Die Fledermaus. In 1999 Rügamer was engaged by the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin, which remains his home company. There he initially performed such roles as David in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, Macduff in Verdi’s Macbeth, Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and Narraboth in Strauss’s Salome; gradually he took on more dramatic parts as well, including Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Erik in Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, and Loge in Das Rheingold, which he also performed at La Scala in Milan. In the  2013-14 season Rügamer sang Tichon in Janácek’s Kát’a Kabanová under Simon Rattle and took part in a new production of The Tsar’s Bride (Rimsky-Korsakov) in Berlin and Milan directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov and conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Upcoming engagements for the 2014-15 season include appearances in Bernstein’s Candide, Weill’s Mahagonny, and Berg’s Lulu. Rügamer has been invited to sing at the Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, and Dresden Staatsoper companies; the Teatro Real in Madrid; and the Salzburg and Bregenz Festivals. He is also dedicated to lieder singing and has concertized with the Chicago Symphony and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Israel Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic, and the Ensemble Modern. Since 2007 Rügamer has taught at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on 18 August 2002 as Belmonte in Mozart’s Die Entführung with the Concerto Köln under David Stern.

August 2014