Biography
A Path of Growth and Development
Versatile Belgian bass-baritone
Werner Van Mechelen has achieved great success in opera as well as in concert as in recital.
Introducing Werner Van Mechelen
The multi-faceted bass-baritone Werner Van Mechelen has achieved great success in opera as well as in concerts and as a recital singer.
His future guest engagements include Klingsor in PARSIFAL FÜR KINDER at the Bayreuth Festival, Alberich in SIEGFRIED at the Saarländisches Staatstheater in Saarbrücken, Klingsor in PARSIFAL at the Vienna State Opera, Orschwir in BRODECK (premiere) at the Vlaamse Opera, Antwerp / Gent.
Further to his opera career, Werner Van Mechelen is very active as a Lied and Oratorio singer. A CD with songs after Heinrich Heine is planned, as well as concerts with Bach’s MATTHEW PASSION and Orff’s CARMINA BURANA. The artist will conduct Bach’s CHRISTMAS ORATORIO.
Other current engagements: Kothner in DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG at the Bayreuth Festival, Le Duc de Norfolk in HENRY VIII by Camille Saint-Saëns and Amfortas in PARSIFAL at La Monnaie, Brussels, Alberich in RHEINGOLD at the Staatstheater Saarbrücken and the Opéra Royal in Versailles as well as the Music Teacher in ARIADNE AUF NAXOS at the Vlaamse Opera, Antwerp.
In the summer of 2017, Werner Van Mechelen made his successful debut at the Bayreuth Festival with the role of Klingsor in Wagner’s PARSIFAL.
In 2019, the artist is invited by the NDR Hamburg under the direction of Alan Gilbert at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg for the leading role in Ligetis Gran Macabre. At the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse he will perform the role of music teacher in a new production of ARIADNE ON NAXOS.
Guest appearances have also taken him as Alberich in THE RING DES NIBELUNGEN to the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Hamburg State Opera, as Wolfram in TANNHÄUSER to the Saarländisches Staatstheater Saarbrücken, as Heerrufer in LOHENGRIN at La Monnaie in Brussels, to the Hamburg State Opera as Don Pizarro in FIDELIO , as Alberich in SIEGFRIED at the Tyrolean Festival Erl and at the Komische Oper Berlin as Pandolphe in Massenet’s CENDRILLON.
Focus on the German repertoire of Wagner and R. Strauss
His opera repertoire extends from the Baroque, such as Telemann’s PIMPINONE and Pergolesi’s LIVIETTA E TRACOLLO, to great Mozartian roles like Count Almaviva, Figaro, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso, Don Giovanni, Leporello and Papageno. To this he has added roles from Puccini and Verdi: Michele and Gianni Schicchi in IL TRITTICO, Rigoletto, Amonasro, Ford, Berg’s WOZZECK and world-premieres by composers Philippe Boesmans, Pascal Dusapin, Wim Henderickx and Christian Jost.
Wagner
Wolfram TANNHÄUSER, Kurwenal TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, Kothner DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG, Amfortas PARSIFAL.
He has interpreted many times and with great success the role of Alberich DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie Liège (also shown on the Belgian television channel RTBF), De Nationale Opera Amsterdam, Opera Vlaanderen Antwerp-Ghent, Teatro La Fenice Venice. He sang his first Wotan RHEINGOLD at the Wagner Festival in Sopot.
Richard Strauss
Faninal DER ROSENKAVALIER and Musiklehrer ARIADNE OF NAXOS at the Opéra National du Rhin Strasbourg-Mulhouse, Jochanaan SALOME at the Opéra Monte-Carlo, Mandryka ARABELLA at Göteborgs Operan and at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie Liège.
Belgium and The Netherlands
Werner Van Mechelen has a close relationship with the opera houses of Belgium and The Netherlands.
At La Monnaie Brussels he has sung the title role Berg’s WOZZECK, Nekrotzar Ligeti’s GRAND MACABRE, Sancho Panza Massenet’s DON QUICHOTTE, the Chambellan YVONNE and the older son AU MONDE by Boesmans. Opéra Royal de Wallonie Liègesaw him as DON GIOVANNI, Gyges KÖNIG KANDAULES, Karnac ROI D’YS, Fluth LUSTIGE WEIBER VON WINDSOR.
Opera Vlaanderen Antwerp-Ghent invited him for Vater HÄNSEL UND GRETEL, Ford FALSTAFF, Amonasro AIDA, Geisterbote DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN, Amfortas PARSIFAL and Vater/Richter RUMOR by Christian Jost.
At De Nationale Opera Amsterdam he has sung a.o Varlaam BORIS GODUNOV, Tierbändiger/Athlet LULU and Alberich DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN.
Rest of Europe
Furthermore he was invited to the Opéra d’Avignon (Pizarro), the Gran Teatre del Liceu(Nekrotzar GRAND MACABRE and Cecco del Vecchio RIENZI), Theater Basel(Méphistophélès DAMNATION DE FAUST), as well as to the opera houses of Paris, Lyon, Nancy, Zürich, Cologne, Dortmund, Mainz etc.
Conductors
He has sung under the baton of important Baroque conductors such as Sigiswald Kuijken, Ton Koopman and Marc Minkowski, as well as under Hartmut Haenchen, Lothar Koenigs, Friedemann Layer, Antonio Pappano, Stefan Soltesz, Jeffrey Tate to name some.
Concerts and Lied-recitals
The artist has a particular affection for concerts and Lied-recitals: his concert repertoireextends from BACH JOHANNES-PASSION through romantic works such as ELIAS and BRAHMS DEUTSCHES REQUIEM to the SONG CYCLES and SYMPHONIES of Mahler.
His Lied repertoire includes not only the great SONG CYCLES of Schubert, Schumann and Brahms but also repertoire by less known composers. He has worked with Eric Schneider, Lucas Blondeel and Jozef De Beenhouwer.
Recordings
Recordings show the large variety of his repertoire: Lied CDs – with works by Schubert, Strauss, Debussy, Poulenc, etc. / Oratorio – Mendelssohn ELIAS / Opera: DON GIOVANNI, LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, LIVIETTA E TRACOLLO (Pergolesi), DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG and RHEINGOLD. DVD – Lalo LE ROI D’YS / Massenet DON QUICHOTTE / Ligeti LE GRAND MACABRE.
Masterclasses and prizes
Werner Van Mechelen studied at the Lemmens Institute at Leuven with Roland Bufkens. He participated in Masterclasses of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Robert Holl, Mitsuko Shirai, Hartmut Höll and Malcolm King. He gained several international singing prizes, having participated in the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition (Brussels), the International Vocalists Competiton (‘s-Hertogenbosch), the International Singing Competition (Toulouse), the Viñas Competition (Barcelona) and the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.