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The German bass-baritone, Jan-Hendrik Rootering, is the son of the Dutch tenor Hendrikus Rootering who became his teacher and mentor. Already during his studies in Hamburg he sang small parts at theatres including the Hamburg State Opera and the "Musiktheater im Revier" in Gelsenkirchen.
In 1982 Jan-Hendrik Rootering made his debut at the Munich Bavarian State Oper in the role of Geisterbote in Die Frau Ohne Schatten. Since then he has sung all major roles in the Bass repertoire in Munich including the important Wagner parts (Pogner, Fasolt, Gurnemanz, Landgraf, Hans Sachs, Daland) the Mozart parts (Sarastro, Commendatore) as well as Fiesco in Simone Boccanegra, Banquo in Macbeth in the Italian repertoire. In 1990 he sang Ochs auf Lerchenau in Brigitte Fassbaender's Rosenkavalier production. In merit of his long-standing relationship with the Bavarian State Opera and his artistic achievements he was awarded the honorary title of "Bayerischer Kammersänger" in 1986. In 1994-1995 he accepted a professorship at the "Hochschule für Musik" in Munich.
Jan-Hendrik Rootering is guesting regularly at the world's major opera houses, including La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, the Opéra National Bastille in Paris, the Chicago Lyric Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Dresde Semperoper as well as the opera houses of San Francisco, Washington, New York, Sydney, and Berlin. He appears at numerous international festivals such as the Munich Opera Festival, the Berlin as well as the Vienna Festivals, the Ravinia Festival and the "Schubertiade" Hohenems. At the Salzburg Festival, where he made his debut in 1986 singing Sprecher in Die Zauberfloete, he sang among other roles Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau in a new production of Der Rosenkavalier in 1995. He enjoys a close collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera in New York where he made his debut in 1986/87 as "Landgraf" /Tannhaeuser under James Levine. Other roles he has sung there include Gurnemanz, Fasolt, Daland, Gremin and Philipp in Don Carlos.
Jan-Hendrik Rootering is also a renownend concert singer - he appears regularly with the Berliner Philharmoniker as well as with the Wiener Philharmoniker, Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio Munich, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, and has worked with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, Riccardo Chailly, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Carlo Maria Giulini, Carlos Kleiber, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Christian Thielemann.
Jan-Hendrik Rootering's large discography includes recordings of Der Fliegende Hollaender, Parsifal, Luisa Miller, and Oedipus Rex (Igor Stravinsky) with James Levine, Don Giovanni with Rafael Kubelík, and Riccardo Muti, respectively, Mozart Requiem under Sir Colin Davis, Haydn's Creation under Sir Neville Marriner, L.v. Beethoven's 9th Symphony under Leonard Bernstein as well as Wolfgang Sawallisch, Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 and Robert Schumann's Faust-Szenen with Claudio Abbado conducting. The recording of Das Rheingold conducted by James Levine, where Jan-Hendrik Rootering sang the role of Fasolt, won a Grammy Award. Other discs present him with Lieder recitals (Lieder by R. Strauss, H. Wolf, Robert Schumann, Balladen by Carl Loewe as well as Die Winterreise).
Future projects include Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger at the Opéra Bastille Paris and the Bavarian State Opera Munich (new production), where he will also sing Wotan in Das Rheingold and Gurnemanz a role he will perform at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as well. Further plans include Wotan in Die Walküre at the Wiener Staatsoper, La Roche in Capriccio at the Semperoper Dresden, as well as role debuts as Barak in Frau Ohne Schatten and Balstrode in Peter Grimes. Among his pupils and/or singers who have attended his master-classes: Katrin Müller (Soprano). |
