Werner van Mechelen

During the coming seasons Belgian bass-baritone Werner Van Mechelen will sing the roles of Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde) in Bogota, Heerrufer (Lohengrin) and Musiklehrer (Ariadne auf Naxos) at La Monnaie Brussels, Alberich (Der Ring des Nibelungen) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Alberich (Siegfried) with the Tiroler Festspiele Erl, Wolfram (Tannhäuser) at Saarbrücken, and Scarpia (Tosca) at Augsburg. In concert he performs in The Messiah, The Creation,Carmina Burana, and as Christus in the St John Passion in Freiburg and in Peter Benoit’s Lucifer with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic in Antwerp.

His opera repertoireextends from the Baroque to great Mozartian roles.  Apart from his special focus on Wagner and Richard Strauss, Van Mechelen is particularly drawn to lieder.  His lied repertoire includes not only the great song cycles of Schubert, Schumann and Brahms but also repertoire by less known composers. He has worked with Eric Schneider, Lucas Blondeel and Jozef De Beenhouwer.

Van Mechelen studied at the Lemmens Institute at Leuven with Roland Bufkens. He participated in Masterclasses of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Robert Holl, Mitsuko Shirai, Hartmut Höll and Malcolm King. He gained several international singing prizes, having participated in the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition (Brussels), the International Vocalists Competition (‘s-Hertogenbosch), the International Singing Competition (Toulouse), the Viñas Competition (Barcelona) and the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.