Frode Olsen

Biography

Career highlights include: Water Goblin in Rusalka; Arkel in Pelleas et Mélisande; the Monk in Matsukaze at the Théâtre de La Monnaie; Gremin in Eugene Onegin at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera; King Marke in Tristan und Isolde at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, the Leipzig Opera, the Washington Opera, the Opéra du Rhin and the Vlaamse Opera; Doctor in Wozzeck at the Salzburg Festival, the Hamburg State opera and the Opéra de Marseille; Wotan in Die Walküre at the Oper Bonn and the Stuttgart State Opera; title role in Saint Francois d’Assise at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Leipzig Opera; Astradamors Le Grand Macabre at the Teatre del Liceu, the ENO and in Oslo.

Frode Olsen’s recent and future engagements include Astradamors in Le Grand Macabre at the Berlin Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra, Fasolt in Das Rheingold at the Opéra de Monte Carlo, Wesener in Die Soldaten at the Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, Father in Trauernacht at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Father in Boesmans's Au Monde at the Théâtre de la Monnaie and L'Opéra Comique, Astradamors in Le Grand Macabre at Den Norske Opera, Gremin in Eugene Onegin at the Kristiansund Opera, Medulla in La Monnaie, the Monk in Matsukaze in Lille, the Berlin State Opera and in Hong Kong, and Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Bergen.

His distinguished career has taken him to international opera houses such as the Théâtre de la Monnaie Brussels, De Vlaamse Opera Antwerp, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Semperoper Dresden, Oper Leipzig, the Staatsoper Hamburg, the Staatstheater Stuttgart, the Opera Bonn, the Oslo Opera House, De Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, the Opéra du Rhin Strasbourg, the Opéra de Nantes, the Oper Dortmund, the Stadttheater Bern, the Salzburg Festival, the Wiener Volksoper, Theater an der Wien, the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the English National Opera, the Washington Opera, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Opéra de Rouen, the Opéra de Lyon, the Opéra de Marseille, the Rossini Opera Festival Pesaro and the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.

His most important roles include the title role in Saint François d’Assise, Astradamors in Le Grand Macabre, King Marke in Tristan und Isolde, Gurnemanz in Parsifal, Wotan in Die Walküre, Pimen in Boris Godunov, Doctor in Wozzeck and Arkel in Pelleas et Mélisande.

Frode Olsen is also a distinguished concert artist having performed works such as the Verdi`s Requiem, Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater, Dvorak's Stabat Mater, Handel's Messiah, Haydn's Schöpfung and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.

He has collaborated with directors and conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Sylvain Cambreling, Andrew Davies, Jiří Kout, Kent Nagano, Antonio Pappano, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Isaac Karabtchevsky, Luc Bondy, Peter Sellars and Jeffrey Tate.

His discography includes recordings of Salome (Decca) with Christoph von Dohnanyi, Wozzeck (EMI) with Ingo Metzmacher, and Le Grand Macabre (Sony).