The Scene
People
Johan Botha
Tenor Johan Botha is one of the most important singers of our time and is a regular at all major venues and festivals in the world. After studying in his home and the debut in Roodeport he came in 1990 to Europe, where after the first engagements in Germany his international career rapidly developed. He guested the State Operas in Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg and Munich, at the Gran Teatro del Liceu, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, at the Los Angeles and San Francisco Opera, La Scala in Milan, the Opera Bastille and at the Théâtre Châtelet in Paris and at the Opera Australia in Sydney and at the Salzburg Festival. He is a regular at the Metropolitan Opera and the Vienna State Opera as a guest, which it is closely linked since its debut in 1996 and where he performed Strauss’ Daphne, Frau ohne Schatten, Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Verdi’s Don Carlo, Vespri Siciliani, Aida, and Otello, Beethoven’s Fidelio, Wagner’s Lohengrin, Parsifal, Die Walküre, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, The Flying Dutchman and Tannhäuser, Puccini’s Tosca and Turandot. In the summer of 2010 Johan Botha debuted with Siegmund at the Bayreuth Festival.
In addition to opera performances Johan Botha is also to experience regularly at major concert halls in the world and works with all the major conductors of our time (Abbado, Barenboim, Boulez, Bychkov, de Billy, Dohnany, Gatti, Gergiev, Levine, Maazel, Pappanao, Petrenko, Welser-Möst, Thielemann, Young, and many others). Since 2004 Johan Botha Austrian chamber singer. Among his projects in 2011⁄12 include Lohengrin at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest and in Tokyo at a guest performance by the Bavarian State Opera, 8. Mahler with Simon Rattle and Mariss Jansons, Aida in Hamburg and Norma in Berlin, Daphne and Andrea Chenier at the Vienna State Opera, Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Mailäner Scala, the new production Ariadne auf Naxos at the Hamburg State Opera and Aida at the Festival in Savonlinna. is In the 2012⁄13 season Johan Botha at the Metropolitan Opera (Otello), the Vienna State Opera (Meistersinger, Otello, Valkyrie), the Lyric Opera of Chicago (Meistersinger), at the Salzburg Easter Festival (Parsifal), the Bavarian State Opera Munich (Otello) and at the Bayreuth Festival (Valkyrie) guesting. On the concert stage he will be heard at the Hamburg State Opera (Verdi Requiem), with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Valkyrie), at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin (IX. Beethoven) under Daniel Barenboim, and under Christian Thielemann we he tours with a Wagner program in Paris, Vienna and Venice. Since June 2012 Johan Botha is an ambassador of the Blue Shield Foundation.