The young German tenor Eric [Erik] Stoklossa was born in Dresden, where he received his earliest musical training in Dresden as a member of the renowned Dresdner Kreuzchor. Various prizes in the national competition "Jugend Musiziert" led to his acceptance at the Carl Maria von Weber Conservatory in Dresden where he received his diploma in 2006. He studied with Margret Trappe-Wiel and Romelia Lichtenstein.
Eric Stoklossa made his operatic debut as Lenski in Eugene Onegin in the newly-renovated Kleines Haus of the Dresden State Theater. At the Dresden Music Festival in 2006 he sang the role of Abel in Franz Seydelmann's La Morte d'Abel. The international press became aware of Stoklossa through his much admired portrayal of Aljeja in Janacek's From the House of the Dead at the Vienna Festival in 2007, directed by Patrice Chereau and conducted by Pierre Boulez. With this production, he made his debut at the Holland Festival and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2007 and was also seen in Palermo (Teatro Massimo) in 2008, at the Metropolitan Opera in 2009 at La Scala in 2010 and at the Staatsoper Berlin in 2011. He made his La Scala debut in January 2009 in the role of Janek in Janacek's The Makropoulos Case.
Erik Stoklossa's repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the modern, encompassing such rarities as Alfonso in Johann Adolf Hasse's La sorella amante, Mozart in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Mozart and Salieri and the Butler in Gottfried von Einem's Der Besuch der alten Dame, as well as George Frideric Handel's Sesto in Giulio Cesare, Mozart's Belmonte, Ferrando and Don Ottavio, and Alfredo in Die Fledermaus.
Erik Stoklossa is also much in demand as a concert singer, having performed J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244) with Dennis Russel Davis, J.S. Bach's B-minor Mass (BWV 232) with Helmuth Rilling, Haydn's Creation and J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) with Gothart Stier, Dvorak's Stabat Mater with Laurence Equilbey and J.S. Bach's St. John Passion (BWV 245) with Christoph Prégardien. |