The German bass, Felix Rathgeber, had his first vocal lessons as a member of the Windsbacher Knabenchor (Windsbach Boys Choir). He holds a Diploma from Würzburg Academy of Music. He has been a participant in master-classes of Helen Donath, Ann Murray, Margreet Honig, Rudolf Piernay and Michael Volle. He is a prize-winner of the Armin-Knab-Liedcompetition and was awarded a scholarship by the Bayreuth Richard-Wagner Foundation. As a member of the Würzburg Academy of Music’s opera school, he had the opportunity to study a wide range of operatic repertoire from the baroque era up to contemporary works, from Georg Philipp Telemann up to Igor Stravinsky.
His solistic concert repertoire includes most of the common sacred works which he has performed with conductors such as Frieder Bernius, Ralf Otto, Michael Schneider, Karl-Friedrich Beringer and Jörg Straube with orchestras such as Barockorchester L'arpa festante Munich, La Stagione Frankfurt, Barockorchester Stuttgart, Heidelberger Philharmoniker, Nürnberger Symphoniker and Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa. He is also a member of the Kammerchor Stuttgart (Director: Frieder Bernius).
Concert engagements led Felix Rathgeber throughout Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Spain. In 2009, he performed J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) in Beijing and Ekaterinburg, Russia and sang a concert with contemporary works in Kanazawa, Japan.
His first operatic engagements led him to the Wuerzburg Mainfranken Theatre, Junge Oper Schloss Weikersheim, Heidenheim Opera Festival and to Augsburg Theatre, where he appeared as Cold Genius in H. Purcell's King Arthur.
Felix Rathgeber was a member of the International Opera Studio at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf from 2012 to 2014. Since 2015 he is a member of the Landestheater Coburg and he appeares as Colline in La Bohème and Oroveso in Norma, Figaro W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro by and Rocco in L.v. Beethoven's Fidelio. In 2018 he will make his debut at Staatstheater Saarbrücken in Michael Obst's opera Solaris. |