Kristinn Sigmundsson

Icelandic bass Kristinn Sigmundsson’s engagements in the 2009-10 season include his return to the Metropolitan Opera for Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier in addition to singing Hunding in Die Walküre at the Oper der Stadt Köln; Heinrich in Lohengrin, Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier, and Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg with the Deutsche Oper Berlin; Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte at the Theatre du Capitole in Toulouse; and further performances of Hunding in Die Walküre with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. He also joins both the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Budapest Festival Orchestra on tour at Avery Fisher Hall for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and sings Schumann’s Geburtstag at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. Last season, he sang Sparafucile in Rigoletto and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte at the Opéra National de Paris, Méphistophélès in La damnation de Faust with the Semperoper Dresden, Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier with Deutsche Oper Berlin, King Marke in Tristan und Isolde at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago, and Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. He also returned to the United States for return engagements at the Metropolitan Opera as Vodnik in Rusalka and the Cincinnati May Festival for both Walter in Luisa Miller and Mozart’s Requiem.

As one the of world’s most sought after basses, he regularly sings at leading international houses including the Metropolitan Opera; Royal Opera at Covent Garden; Opéra National de Paris, where he has very nearly sung his entire repertoire; Vienna State Opera; Munich State Opera; and the Semperoper Dresden. Recent engagements include Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni in Munich, Berlin and New York; Creonte in Medea in Salzburg; Rocco in Fidelio in New York; Gurnemanz in Parisifal in Cologne and Florence; King Heinrich in Lohengin in Madrid; Hunding in Die Walküre in New York, Naples, Venice and Cologne; Landgraf in Tannhäuser in Geneva and Amsterdam; Méphistophélès in La damnation de Faust, King Marke in Tristan und Isolde, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni and Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier in San Francisco; Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor in Munich; and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte Houston and Chile.

His concert performances include collaborations with many of the world's leading conductors including James Levine, Riccardo Muti, Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Charles Mackerras, Christoph von Dohnányi, Jeffrey Tate, Christoph Eschenbach, Ivor Bolton, and Marc Minkowski. Among his discography are commercial recordings of Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte with Arnold Östman (Decca) and Schreker's Die Gezeichneten (Deutsche Grammophon). With Frans Brueggen he has recorded both Bach’s St. John Passion and the St. Matthew Passion (Phillips). He has recorded Schumann's Faustszenen with Philippe Herreweghe (Harmonia Mundi) and Fidelio with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis.

In the early part of his career he performed principally in his native Iceland, before joining the Hessische Staatstheater in Wiesbaden. His initial training was as a biologist and he taught for a few years before becoming a singer, studying first at the Reykjavik Academy of Singing and then at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria.