Torben Jürgens

The bass-baritone Torben Jürgens was born in Hagen and studied in Cologne and Essen. His first permanent engagement was at Theater Bielefeld. Since 2012 he has been an ensemble member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where his roles have included Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Publio (La clemenza di Tito), Speaker (Die Zauberflöte), Ariodate (Serse), Herr Reich (Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor), Donner (Das Rheingold), Alidoro (La Cenerentola) and Death in Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis.

Guest engagements have taken him to venues such as the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Semperoper Dresden, the Hamburg State Opera, the Stuttgart State Opera, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and the Teatro Real in Madrid, and to the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and the Glyndebourne Festival.

Torben Jürgens is a sought-after concert singer, whose repertory includes the bass roles in the great sacred works of Bach, Beethoven, Dvořák, Haydn, Mozart and Verdi.

He has appeared at festivals and venues including the Rheingau Musik Festival, the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart, the Beethovenfest Bonn, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He has worked with conductors such as Ivor Bolton, Asher Fisch, Adam Fischer, René Jacobs, Vladimir Jurowski, Axel Kober, Neville Marriner, Cornelius Meister, Helmuth Rilling, Michael Sanderling, Christian Thielemann and Simone Young, and with directors including Stefan Herheim, Christof Loy and Deborah Warner. Orchestras with which he has performed include the Dresden Philharmonie, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

At the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in the 2023/24 season Torben Jürgens has performed roles including the Speaker, Mars (Orphée aux enfers) and Makintosh in Paul Abraham’s Märchen im Grand-Hotel, along with a song recital featuring Schumann’s Liederkreis op. 39. He has also sung the King of France in Aribert Reimann’s Lear at the Teatro Real, Madrid.