Tómas Tómasson

Tómas is well known for his versatile and strong stage presence, combined with a rich and powerful voice. He made his role debut as Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto at the age of 24 and furthered his studies at the Reykjavik College of Music and at the Royal College of Music in London, where he graduated with distinction. His vast repertoire ranges from Monteverdi, Verdi and Puccini, Wagner and Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Prokofiev to Zemlinsky, Korngold and Janáček, Glass, Reimann and Eötvös.He made his role debut in the Heldenbariton repertoire as Count Tomski/The Queen of Spades at Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, followed by the title roles of Der fliegende Holländer (also at Théâtre de la Monnaie) and Wozzeck at Opéra National de Lorraine Nancy.

Throughout his career, Tómas has taken on a wide range of repertoire, from Barock and Classical, through Romantic to Modern; lately some of the great roles in Richard Wagner’s and Richard Strauss’s operas, as well as a selective few Modern and Contemporary works, including the World Premieres of La Bianca Notte by Bear Furrer conducted by Simone Young at the Hamburg State Opera, Sleepless by Peter Eötvös conducted by the composer and Maxime Pascal at the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden and Antigone by Pascal Dusapin conducted by Klaus Mäkelä at the Philharmonie de Paris.

There are a few roles Tómas has performed in numerous venues and have become like friends he revisits regularly; the title role in Richard Wagners Der fliegende Holländer in Brussels, Barcelona, Los Angeles, Dresden, Lisbon, Torino and Bari; Klingsor in Parsifal in Brussels, Chicago, Budapest and Berlin; Wotan/Wanderer in the Ring cycle in Oviedo, Geneva and Naples; Friedrich von Telramund in Lohengrin in Bayreuth, Wiesbaden, Bonn, São Paulo, Milan, Kaoshiung and Rome; Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde in Barcelona, Bari and Warsaw; Amfortas in Parsifal in Budapest and Palermo; Alberich in Wagners Ring Cycle in Dallas, Beijing and Hangzhou; Jochanaan in Richard Strauss’ Salome in Thessaloniki, Berlin, Dresden, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Dublin; the title role in Aribert Reimanns Lear in Berlin, Frankfurt, Budapest, München, Hannover and Prague; Count Tomski in Tchaikovskys Queen of Spades in Brussels, Cardiff, San Francisco, Houston, Naples, Antwerp/Ghent and Vienna.

Roles which would be a welcome addition to this list are Hans Sachs in Wagners Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which he performed at the Komische Oper Berlin and jumped in to save a performance in Wiesbaden, and Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, which he performed in Dublin with Irish National Opera.

Tómas has performed at many renowned houses such as the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera Munich, Dresden Semperoper, Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Komische Oper Berlin, State Opera Hamburg, Opera Cologne, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro Regio Turin, Teatro San Carlo Naples, Teatro Real de Madrid, Théâtre de la Monnaie Brussels, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, Hungarian State Opera Budapest, Royal Danish Opera Copenhagen, Lyric Opera Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera and Washington National Opera.

He collaborated with conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Antonio Pappano, Andris Nelsons, Simone Young, René Jacobs, Stefan Soltesz, Hartmut Haenchen, Mark Elder, Carlo Rizzi, James Conlon, Juraj Valčuha, Ingo Metzmacher, Jakub Hrůša, Constantin Trinks, Lorin Maazel, Semyon Bychkov, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Klaus Mäkelä.

Among the stage-directors Tómas worked with are Hans Neuenfels, Claus Guth, Keith Warner, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Kornél Mundruczó, Richard Jones, Andreas Homoki, Guy Joosten, Günter Krämer, Dieter Dorn, Robert Carsen, Graham Vick and John Copley.

On the concert stage he sang Verdi’s Requiem, J.S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s The Creation, Beethoven’s Symphony No 9, as well as Mahler’s Symphony No 8.