About
Austrian Bass, Florian Spiess, is currently a member of the Ensemble at the Hamburgische Staatsoper where his roles include Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), Zuniga in Carmen, and Raimondo in Händel’s Almira which he reprised at the prestigious Innsbrucker Festwochen für Alte Musik under the baton of Alessandro de Marchi. This season he extends his repertoire to include Colline in La Boheme, Biterolf in Tannhaüser, and König in Aida.
During the 2012-13 he was a member of the Volkstheater Rostock Ensemble where he debuted as Sarastro in Zauberflöte, Bartolo in The Barber of Seville, and Zaccaria in Nabucco.
Between 2010 and 2012 Florian was an Ensemble member of the Volksoper Wien singing Angelotti in Tosca, Timur in Turandot, and Sparafucile in Rigoletto. Previously he spent the 2009-10 season in the Ensemble of the Linzer Landestheater widening his repertoire with roles such as Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Crespel in Hoffman’s Erzählungen, and Jupiter in Platée.
In addition, Florian has performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Philip Glass’s Kepler, at the Staatsoper unter den Linden in Telemann’s Der geduldige Sokrates under the baton of Renée Jacobs, in Bombay in an Indian interpretation of Madame Butterfly under the direction of Johannes Wildner, at the Kammeroper Schloss Reinsberg as Osmin in Entfürung aus dem Serail, at the Tiroler Landestheater as 1. Soldat in Salome, at the Opernfestspiele Heideheim as Osmin, and at the Sommeroper Schärding as Martino in Rossini’s L’Occasione fa il ladro.
Also comfortable in musical theater, Florian has performed such roles as Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, Cinderella’s Prince and the Wolf in Into The Woods, and Miles Gloriosus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
Florian is a Prize winner of the German-Austrian Richard Wagner Foundation and studied at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna.