VITA | ENGLISH

Dutch bass Bart Driessen (1970) started his musical studies as a flute player at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, while he was still in secondary school. When he discovered the quality of his voice he changed to Utrechts Conservatorium to study with baritone Udo Reinemann.

During his studies he took part at the operaschool of the Sweelinck Conservatoire in Amsterdam, where he also became a member of the International Opera Studio. Masterclasses with Cristina Deutekom, Horst Günther, Diane Forlano and Jekatarina Jofel gave his vocal training an important impulse.

His most important roles are Sarastro (Mozart – Die Zauberflöte), Leporello (Mozart – Don Giovanni), Basilio (Rossini – Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Mustafa (Rossini-l’Italiana in Algeri),Fürst Gremin (Tchaikovsky – Evgeni Onegin), Timur (Puccini -Turandot), Rocco (Beethoven – Fidelio), Kecal (Smetana – Die verkaufte Braut), Osmin (Mozart – Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Fasolt (Wagner – Das Rheingold), Hunding (Wagner – Die Walküre), Wassermann (Dvorák-Rusalka) Raimondo (Donizetti-Lucia di Lammermoor) and Kaspar (Weber- der Freischütz).

Bart Driessen worked with conducters such as Valery Gergiev, Thomas Hengelbrock, Edo de Waart, Ton Koopman, Arthur Fagen and Jac van Steen.

He was a member of the German opera houses of Coburg and Bremen and at the Dortmund Theatre from 2003 to 2011. It was there that he gained broad experience in the wide range of the Bass repertoire.

Bart Driessen was invited to sing as a guest performer at the Schwetzinger Festspiele and performed at the Opera National du Rhin, Strasbourg, at De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam, and at Seoul Arts Centre.

Since 2011 Bart Driessen is singing on a freelance basis. He sang Kaspar in von Weber’s Freischützand Odoardo in the world premiere of Marijn Simons’s Emilia Galotti at the Koblenz Opera and Mustafa in Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri in Langenthal/Switzerland.

At the Aalto Theatre in Essen, Bart Driessen sang since 2014 Prior in Bellini’s La Straniera, Vanuzzi in Strauss’s Die schweigsame Frau, Tschelio in Prokofjew’s L’Amour des trois Oranges and Sagrestano in Puccini’s Tosca.

In the season 2016/2017/2018 he sang Tevye in Jerry Bock’s Fiddler on the Roof  at the Theater Aachen  and the Hotelmanager in Thomas Powder her Face at the Theater Aachen and the Theater Detmold and he sang Sarastro at the Theater Erfurt.

This season Bart Driessen will also sing the Hotelmanager at the Volksoper Vienna and Sarastro at the theater Fribourg (Suisse).