In the 2023-2024 season, Thomas Blondelle will make his debut at the Festival d'Aix en Provence as Tambourmajor/Wozzeck and will appear as Valzacchi/Der Rosenkavalier at the Opéra de Genève and as Göbbler&Peiper/Brodeck at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, at Deutsche Oper Berlin as Loge/Das Rheingold and Baron Lummer/Intermezzo, as well as sing Max/Der Freischütz and Loge/Das Rheingold at Staatstheater Wiesbaden and the IMF Festival. 

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In the 2022-2023 season, he appeared as Herodes/Salome at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Danilo/Die Lustige Witwe in Wiesbaden, Elis/Der Schatzgräber at the Opéra National du Rhin, Graf von Kent/Lear at the Bayerische Staatsoper and sang the title role in Manru at Opéra National de Lorraine.. 

 

Belgian tenor Thomas Blondelle was born in Bruges, Belgium, in October 1982 and studied singing, piano, composition and chamber music at his home town’s Stedelijk Conservatorium. At the KUL University of Leuven, he obtained a master's degree in musicology in 2006. He was awarded the First Prize at the Axion Classics competition in 2001, the Second Prize at the Prix Jâcques Dôme singing competition in 2002, the Prize for a Young Promising Contestant at the Viñas Competition (Barcelona) in 2005 and the Second Prize at the Concours Reine Elisabeth 2011 in Brussels, as well as the French Repertoire Prize (Palazetto Bru) at the 2012 Belvedere Competition in Vienna.

 

While still studying, he made his debut at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie (Brussels) in 2003, singing the leading role of Hans Scholl/Die Weiße Rose. He then performed at Grand Théâtre de Luxemburg, De Vlaamse Opera, Les Opéras en plein air Paris (Alfredo/La Traviata, Tamino/Die Zauberflöte) as well as the Opéra de Toulon, before leaving for Germany in 2006.

 

At the Staatstheater Braunschweig (where he was an ensemble member from 2006 till 2009) he sang Belmonte/Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Boris/Katja Kabanova, Orlando/Orlando Paladino, Cassio/Otello, Edwin/Die Csardasfürstin, Graf Zedlau/Wiener Blut, Alfredo/La Traviata and Eisenstein/Die Fledermaus. Since 2009, Thomas Blondelle is a member of the ensemble at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he sang, amongst many other roles, Tamino/Die Zauberflöte, Loge/Das Rheingold, Narraboth/Salome, Herodes/Salome, Ismaele/Nabucco, Cassio/Otello, Macduff/Macbeth, Prince/L’amour des trois oranges, David/Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Chevalier/Dialogues des Carmélites, Don Ottavio/Don Giovanni, Male Chorus/The Rape of Lucretia, Eisenstein/Die Fledermaus, Erik/Der fliegende Holländer and Pelleas/Pelleas et Mélisande.

 

Besides his work as an ensemble member in Berlin, he is also a regular guest in other opera houses. He created the leading part of Melchior Gabor in Benoît Mernier’s Frühlings Erwachen at Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie (awarded a Diapason d’or), in 2007, a role he later sang at Strasbourg’s Opéra national du Rhin in 2008.

 

In the recent past, he has been invited by the Bayerische Staatsoper in München (Froh/Das Rheingold and Tanzmeister/Ariadne auf Naxos), by the Volksoper Wien (Balduin/Wiener Blut), the Schleswig Holstein Festival (Gomatz/Zaide), the Saito Kinen Festival (Tenor solo/Jeanne d’arc au bûcher), De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam (David/Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), the Luzern Festival (Froh/Das Rheingold), the BBC Proms (Walther/Tannhäuser, Narraboth/Salome) and the Opéra National du Rhin in Strassburg (Erik/Der Fliegende Holländer, Parsifal/Parsifal and Claudio/Das Liebesverbot). He performed the solo tenor role in Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher with the New York Philharmonic in New York (Lincoln Center) and at the Philharmonie de Paris, sang Narraboth/Salome at the BBC Proms in London (Royal Albert Hall), Tambourmajor/Wozzeck with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow and sang the main role of Nikolaus Sprink in Kevin Puts’ Opera Silent Night at Cincinnati Opera. He also guested as Max/Der Freischütz, Tenor Solo/Das Lied von der Erde and Erik/Der fliegende Holländer in Stuttgart, Herodes/Salome in Luxemburg, Belmonte/Die Entführungs aus dem Serail at Opera Frankfurt and Staatstheater Wiesbaden, where he also sang Loge/Das Rheingold, Erik/Der fliegende Holländer, Lenski/Eugene Onegin, Matteo/Arabella, Tito/La Clemenza di Tito, Idomeneo/Idomeneo, and Walther/Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

 

In concert performances Thomas Blondelle sang Tenor solo/Lamentationes (Strawinsky) at the Philharmonie Berlin, Sir Hervey/Anna Bolena at KlangVokal Musikfestival Dortmund, Edwin/Die Csardasfürstin with the Stuttgarter Philharmonikern, Rustighello/Lucrezia Borgia at Konzerthaus Dortmund and Philharmonie Cologne and Fernando/Die Räuberbraut at the Philharmonie Cologne. As a soloist he performed with the Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, RIAS Kammerchor, Nancy Opera, Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, WDR Rundfunkorchester, WDR Symphonieorchester Cologne, Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest, Orchestre de Monte Carlo, Orchestre de Paris, Brussels Philharmonic, Vlaams Symfonieorkest and New York Philharmonic.

 

He worked with conductors including Yves Abel, Marco Armiliato, Maurizio Barbacini, Paolo Carignani, Alexander Joel, Michail Jurowski, Jiri Kout, Sigiswald Kuijken, Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle, Carlo Rizzi, Donald Runnicles, Ulf Schirmer, Marc Albrecht, José Cura, Michael Schønwandt, Kazuki Yamada, Lothar Zagrosek and Alan Gilbert.

 

A devoted recitalist, his repertoire includes the main German song cycles, a recital programme called Banalités (recorded for Fuga Libera), and a recital with Italian Art songs by Rossini, Verdi and Tosti. With mixed solo programmes he made his Japan debut in Tokyo in 2011 and in Madrid, at Théâtre du Châtelet Paris in 2012. His second solo album “Dreams and Nightmares” (with pianist Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort) features songs by Schubert, Wolf, Strauss, Wagner and Liszt and was released in late 2014.

 

He also works as a librettist (mainly for children’s opera’s) and composer.