Biography
Born in Geldern, Germany, Guido Jentjens studied at the Musikhochschule Köln and began his singing career at the Opera Studio of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf.
From 2005 to 2013 Guido Jentjens was an ensemble member of the Staatstheater Nürnberg.
Other permanent and guest engagements have taken him to Augsburg, Erfurt, Karlsruhe and Wiesbaden, as well as to the opera houses in Bielefeld. Krefeld/Mönchengladbach, Kassel, Halle, Würzburg, Dortmund, Essen and others.
Last season, Guido Jentjens appeared as Fasolt in Wagner's Rheingold at the Calgary Opera and in recent seasons he has also celebrated highly acclaimed role debuts as Duke Bluebeard in Bela Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle and as Hagen in Wagner's Götterdämmerung.
Guido Jentjens' repertoire includes all great Wagnerian bass and bass-baritone roles such as König Heinrich (Lohengrin), Hans Sachs and Pogner (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Landgraf Hermann (Tannhäuser), Hunding (Walküre), Daland (Der fliegende Holländer), Gurnemanz (Parsifal) and König Marke (Tristan und Isolde), Hagen (Götterdämmerung) and Wotan (Rheingold). His wide repertoire also features roles like Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau (R. Strauss, Rosenkavalier), Orest (R. Strauss, Elektra), Osmin (Mozart, Entführung aus dem Serail), Sarastro (Mozart, Zauberflöte), Rocco (Beethoven, Fidelio), Philipp (Verdi, Don Carlo), Boris Godunov, Mephisto (Gounod, Faust), belcanto roles such as Silva (Verdi, Ernani), Banquo (Verdi, Macbeth), Des Grieux (Massenet, Manon) as well as numerous roles from Handel operas.
In the past seasons he celebrated highly acclaimed role debuts as Blaubart in Bela Bartók's Herzog Blaubarts Burg and as Hagen in Wagner's Götterdämmerung.
Guest appearances in opera and concert have taken Guido Jentjens among others in Berlin to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Deutsche Oper and Komische Oper, to the Staatsoper Hamburg (world premiere of Zemlinsky, König Kandaules under Gerd Albrecht), to the Semperoper Dresden (Matthus, Farinelli), to the Theater am Gärtnerplatz and the Prinzregententheater in Munich, the Philharmonie Köln and the Gewandhaus Leipzig.
International guest appearances have taken him to the Zurich Opera House (2013 house debut with Veit Pogner under Sebastian Weigle),
Austria (Linz - Rosenkavalier, Innsbruck - Parsifal), Belgium (Brussels – Aida under Kazushi Ono), France
(Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Toulouse - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg under Pinchas Steinberg),
Italy, Spain (Palau de la Música Barcelona), to the USA, Canada (Calgary Opera), Japan (Tokyo - Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von
Nürnberg and Boris Godunov under Kazushi Ono), Hong Kong and China (Beijing, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg).
Guido Jentjens is regularly invited to renowned festivals.
In 2013 he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival in the new production of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (musical director Daniele Gatti, stage director Stefan Herheim).
At the Bayreuth Festival he appeared under the musical direction of Christian Thielemann as Pogner
(Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) and as Landgraf Hermann (Tannhäuser).
At the Baden-Baden Festival he worked with Thomas Hengelbrock. In addition he appeared at the Karlsruhe Handel Festival, the St. Margarethen Opera Festival and the Festival Erl (role debut 2011 Hans Sachs), the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Casals Festival Puerto Rico.
During concert tours and radio recordings he performed, among others, with Hellmuth Rilling (Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart), Thomas Hengelbock, Michael Gielen and Christoph Prick and sang works such as J. S. Bach h-Moll-Messe, Handel Messias, Mendelssohn Bartholdy Elias, Puccini Messa di Gloria and Tippett A Child of Our Time as well as numerous other cantatas, oratorios and masses.
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