Tijl Faveyts


Tijl Faveyts is a Belgian operatic bass. A member of the Komische Oper Berlin, he has performed leading roles such as Mozart's Sarastro and Hunding in Wagner's Die Walküre at major opera houses, concert halls and festivals, and made recordings.

Life and career

Born in Belgium, Faveyts studied voice at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, with Ralf Döring and Robert Holl.
Faveyts was engaged at the Theater St. Gallen from 2005 to 2012, where he appeared in roles such as Don Basilio in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Oroveso in Bellini's Norma, and the Doctor in Alban Berg's Wozzeck. In 2006, he appeared as Sarastro in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, conducted by Daniel Harding, which won him international attention. In 2010, he made his U.S. debut as the Doctor in Wozzeck in Berkeley, Los Angeles and New York, with the London Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
In 2013, Faveyts became a member of the ensemble at the Aalto Theatre in Essen, where he appeared in roles such as Hunding in Wagner's Die Walküre, Kezal in Smetana's Die Verkaufte Braut, Ramfis in Verdi's Aida, and Oroveso in Bellini's Norma. In 2019 he joined the ensemble of the Komische Oper Berlin, where he will be seen as Sarastro, Gremin in Tchaikovsky's Jewgeni Onegin, Commendatore in Mozart's Don Govanni and Sparafucile in Verdi's Rigoletto. His roles also include Osmin in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Daland in Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer, Marke in Tristan und Isolde, Fasolt and Hunding in Der Ring des Nibelungen, the title role in Donizetti's Don Pasquale, Roi de Trèfle in Prokofiev's L'amour des trois oranges, Comte des Grieux in Massenet's Manon and Orest in Elektra by Richard Strauss.
From 2015, Faveyts appeared as Fasolt and Hunding in Der Ring in Minden, Wagner's Ring cycle at the Stadttheater Minden conducted by Frank Beermann, which was completed in 2019. A reviewer noted his interpretation as convincingly lyrical in voice and action. Hunding is portrayed as a person with a certain social background, not an evil character, with a striking low vocal register. Faveyts sang as a guest at the in Ghent, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, Theater an der Wien in Vienna, La Monnaie in Brussels, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Semperoper in Dresden, Oper Leipzig, , Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich, , Theater Bonn, Opera de Lille, Oper Köln, Grand Théâtre de Genève, :de:St._Galler_Festspiele|St. Galler Festspiele, Macao cultural center, NCPA Kaoshiung, National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing and the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv. He has worked with conductors such as Antonino Fogliani, Fabio Luisi, Kazushi Ōno and Carlo Rizzi. Stage directors with whom he worked have included Stéphane Braunschweig, Vincent Broussard,, Frank Castorf, Stefan Herheim, Kasper Holten and.
In concert, Faveyts performed at the Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall in New York City with the Philharmonia Orchestra in 2012, repeated at the Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley and the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. He also appeared at the Wiener Festwochen and the Musikverein Vienna, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, among others. He has performed as a soloist in Bach's St Matthew Passion and St John Passion, Handel's Messiah, Haydn's Die Jahreszeiten and Die Schöpfung, and Mozart's Requiem. In recital, he has performed Schubert's Die Winterreise.

Recordings

Faveyts recorded the role of the King in Schreker's Der Schatzgräber in 2012 and the role of the Pfleger des Orest in Strauss' Elektra with the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Marc Albrecht. He performed the role of the Old Man in a 2014 recording of Martinů's Ariane from the Aalto Theatre, conducted by Tomáš Netopil. In a 2017 production from the Aalto of Meyerbeer's Le Prophète conducted by Giuliano Carella, he appeared as Zacharie. In 2010 he recorded a DVD of Puccini's La fanciulla del West and in 2011 Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila with the Vlaamse Opera.