Johannes Held, Baritone

Biography

German born Johannes Held received his first musical education in the Stuttgart boys' choir "Hymnus". He studied both at the Musikhochschule Freiburg with Prof. Reginaldo Pinheiro and at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with Prof. Susanna Eken. From 2010-2013 he studied at the Opera Academy of the Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen. In 2013 he made his debut there as Morales in Bizet's CARMEN, and he sang the leading male role Smirnoff in Walton's "THE BEAR".

In 13/14 season Johannes Held was engaged as soloist at Staatstheater Oldenburg. In his first season he sang Guglielmo/COSI FAN TUTTE, Dr, Falke/DIE FLEDERMAUS and Sid/ALBERT HERRING. In addition he appeared as soloist with South Jutland Symphony Orchestra in NIelsen's third symphony. During the 2014/15 season, Johannes Held has guested at the Royal Danish Opera in LULU as Der Diener, and at Staatstheater Mainz in DIE MEISTERSINGER as Konrad Nachtigal.
In November 2015 and March 2016, soloist Johannes Held appeared as soloist in Mozart's Requiem in Denmark and in Germany. He participated in Peer Gynt with the Reutlinger Philharmonie and future engagements include Elias and Rossini: Petit Messe Solennelle in Germany.

Still early in his career Johannes has reached a high level as Lied performer. His repertoire covers mainly Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf and is constantly growing. his most recent project is a staged version of Wintterreise, which he and pianist Daniel Beskow have performed in Sweden, Denmark and Germany.

In 2017 Johannes made his debut at WermlandsOperan in Martinu's opera The Greek Passion. Johannes will be back at Opera Wermland singing Escamillo in CARMEN March 2019

Johannes Held is founder and artistic leader of the artsong-festival "Der Zwerg" in Germany.

Calendar

Repertoire

Johannes Held is an avid Lied performer and has a number of song cycles and Lieder on his repertoire.

Opera Roles

Benjamin Britten

ALBERT HERRING/Sid

Georges Bizet

CARMEN/Morales

Johann Strauss

DIE FLEDERMAUS/Dr. Falke

Maurice Ravel

L'HEURE ÉSPAGNOLE/Ramiro

William Walton

THE BEAR/Smirnov

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE/Papageno

COSI FAN TUTTE/Guglielmo

DON GIOVANNI/Don Giovanni

Oratorios

Johann Sebastian Bach

Christmas Oratorio BWV 248

St. Matthew Passion BWV 244

St. John Passion BWV 245

Johannes Brahms

Ein deutsches Requiem

Review

Winterreise, according to Johannes Held, in Palermo

amadeusonline.net

Sun, 2017-05-14

Sunday 14 May 2017 in l’Auditorio SS. Salvatore, Palermo The German baritone Johannes Held and the Finnish pianist Pauiliina Tukiainen performed Franz Schuberts famous lieder-cycle with lyrics by Wilhelm Müller, as a part of the Schubertiade-festival. It may be because the complete version of Winterreise is one of the most sought-after pieces on Johannes Held’s repertoire list. Or it may be because the new, staged version, directed by Ebbe Kubsen, has given Johannes the possibility to elaborate a certain interpretation of the work (we are talking about the interesting project Winterreise Staged, which was touring in 2015-16). Anyway, it is a fact, that the young baritone stands out, not just because of his beautiful voice but also because of a passionate physical participation (…) Johannes Held astounds with a pure and convincing voice and an enjoyable sound, which he knows very well to exploit through an always attentive phrasing towards the score and the expressiveness of the text. Also the short breaks between one lied and the next, are moments where one can dive into the atmosphere of each piece, through a game of looks and movements just mentioned. This has a notable communicative power. This is the case with the beautiful interpretation of “Der Lindenbaum”, where the ecstatic attitude, united with a perfect voice control, both in volume and in tonality, makes this performance one of the most effective. (…) By Giuseppe Migliore

http://www.amadeusonline.net/recensioni-spettacoli/2017/a-palermo-la-winterreise-secondo-johannes-held

Euphony and Presence

Helsingør Dagblad

Wed, 2012-02-29

Johannes Held had chosen to sing lieder by Schumann and Schubert which he, with his German background, had all the prerequisites for interpreting. Robert Schumann's Liederkreis, op. 24 with lyrics by Heinrich Heine consists of 9 songs of which "Mit Myrthen und Rosen" is the best known. We heard some high-romantic poems about love and jealosy, delight and anger, and Johannes Held gave the contents presence with his choice of dynamics and gestures. His performance was convincing and the sound of his voice reached the audience in a beautifully sounding German. Through 5 songs from Franz Schubert's "Winterreise" with lyrics by Wilhelm Müller, Johannes Held expressed the pain that these songs contain about the lonely wanderer. The best song was probably "Der Leiermann", where every word stood freezingly clear to the audience. It was a very strong experience. As an efficient end to the programme, Johannes Held sang a beautiful and riveting version of Schubert's Opus 1: "Erlkönig" to the lyrics of Goethe. It is a cruel story and Schubert has made sure that the creepiness gets under the skin of every listener. Johannes Held made it real with his dramatic talent. The enthusiastic audience had a beautifully sounding version of Schubert's "Leise flehen meine Lieder" from the cycle "Schwanengesang" as encore.

A New Standard

Information

Mon, 2013-03-25

"..Johannes Held's entrance as the temperamental, tormented bear and in the end a bear in love introduced drama and humour. Here is a singer who can both act and sing. A frightening combination when one for once meets it. A completely new standard".

Press Service