Michael Gniffke – Charaktertenor

Michael Gniffke was born in Nuremberg and grew up in a bilingual musical household, the son of a German opera singer, Rudulf A. Hartman, and an Italien piano teacher. He studied Business Administration and worked successfully as director of an international consulting firm. Parallel to that career, he studied voice with his father at the Conservatorio and the University in Zurich, and later with Alfred Muff and Robert Schunk.

In 2006 he made his acclaimed debut as Graf Zedlau in the operetta Wiener Blut by Johann Strauss Jr. at the Theater Arth in Switzerland, where he returned to sing Adam and Stanislaus in Carl Zeller’s Der Vogelhändler, Conte Erminio in Carl Millöcker’s Gasparone and the Brazilian in La vie parisienne by Jacques Offenbach in subsequent seasons. Further guest appearances in operetta include Alfred in Die Fledermaus at the Theater Rheinfelden and the role of Mr. X in Emmerich Kálmán’s Die Zirkusprinzessin, which he will sing in 2012 at the Stadttheater Sursee.

Further highlights of his career include the title role in the Good Friday Scene of Wagner’s Parsifal at the Goetheaneum Dornach, togeher with Alfred Muff and under the direction of Volker Vogel, Alfredo in La Traviata at the Stadttheater München (Pasinger Fabrik), Tamino with the Theaterverein Vaduz, as well as Max in Der Freischütz at the Open Air Festival “Klassik im Isartal”.

In recent seasons, Michael Gniffke has developed into a specialist of the German “Charakterfach” roles: He sang the tenor part in the Swiss premiere of Detlev Glanert’s Drei Wasserspiele, a production of the Contemporary Opera Zurich under the direction of Jörg Behr and the baton of Thomas Ellenberger, the role of The Man with the Donkey in Carl Orff’s Die Kluge at the Förnbacher Theater in Basel and the Hauptmann in Berg’s Wozzeck at the Teatro della Brera in Milano. Today, his repertoire also encompasses roles such as Herodes in Salome, Loge in Das Rheingold, Kavalier in Cardillac and Mime in Das Rheingold and in Siegfried.

Michael Gniffke also has amassed experience on concert stages throughout Europe, where his repertoire ranges from the Requiem by Andrew Lloyd-Webber to Le Laudi by Herman Suter.