Markus Eiche

Biography

Markus Eiche studied at the Music Academies of Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. He has won several scholarships and has been prize winner of the International Singing Competition “Francesco Vinas” in Barcelona.

Since the 2007/08 season Markus Eiche is a member of the Vienna State Opera singing parts such as Conte Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro (Tour of China), Marcello in La Boheme, Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades, Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore, Albert in Werther, Lescaut in Manon and Fritz and Frank in Die Tote Stadt. In summer 2007 he made his very successful debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Kothner in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.

Markus Eiche has been invited to the Teatro alla Scala, Milano the Biennale in Munich (Sotelo’s De Amore), to the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona (Conte Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades, Ned Keene in Peter Grimes, Fritz and Frank in Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt and for a scenic version of Schubert’s Winterreise), the Komische Oper Berlin, the Semperoper Dresden (e.g.Conte Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro). For many years the artist appeared at the Salzburg Festival singing a.o.in Busoni’s Doktor Faustus, Don Carlo, Tristan und Isolde, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Zauberfloete, Les Contes d’ Hoffmann, Romeo et Juliette and Die Gezeichneten.
Furthermore he appeared at the Prague Opera, the Lucerne Opera and the Stuttgart Opera. From 2001 to 2007 Markus Eiche was a member of the National Theatre Mannheim where he added roles such as Marcello in La Boheme, Wolfram in Tannhauser, Papageno in Die Zauberfloete, Guglielmo in Cosi fan Tutte, Heerrufer in Lohengrin as well as the titleroles of Don Giovanni and Wozzeck to his repertoire.

Conductors he worked with include a.o. Marin Alsop, Marco Armiliato, Stefan Asbury, Harry Bicket, Bertrand de Billy, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Enrico Dovico, Alfred Eschwe, Adam Fischer, Alan Gilbert, Gustav Kuhn Ingo Metzmacher, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Seiji Ozawa, Zoltan Pesko, Kirill Petrenko, Helmuth Rilling, Ulf Schirmer, Christophe Rousset and Sebastian Weigle.

Equally in demand on the concertpodium, Markus Eiche interpreted: Brahms Requiem, Mahler’s Wunderhorn Lieder at the Essen Philharmonie, a concert version of Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Handel’s Saul in Stuttgart (with CD recording) and Britten’s War Requiem under Helmuth Rilling. Furthermore his repertoire includes Carmina Burana, Bach’s St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion and Christmas Oratorio, Beethoven’s Symphony No.9, Brahms’ Requiem, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Paulus as well as works by Aribert Reimann, Luigi Dallapiccola, Judith Weir and Wolfgang Rihm.
Markus Eiche enjoys a very close collaboration with Helmuth Rilling.
Recordings for Naxos: Schubert Lieder and Orff’s Carmina Burana.
Besides his engagement at the Vienna State Opera he is regularly invited to sing at the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona — most recently as Wolfram in Tannhauser.

In 2009, he made his Bolshoi Theatre debut as Wozzeck (Berg’s Wozzeck).