The young bass Manuel Winckhler will join the ensemble of the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden at the start of the 2026/27 season, where he will take on major roles such as Seneca (C. Monteverdi: L’incoronazione di Poppea), Il Sagrestano (G. Puccini: Tosca), the Woodcutter (E. Humperdinck: Königskinder), and Sarastro (W. A. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte). During this season, he will also make his debut as Truffaldin (R. Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos) at La Monnaie in Brussels and as Don Fernando (L. v. Beethoven: Fidelio) at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival.

He made his stage debut in 2022 in Krenek’s Jonny spielt auf at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich. Since then, guest engagements have taken him to the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen as Sarastro, to Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Antwerp as the Hermit (C. M. von Weber: Der Freischütz), as Prince Gremin (P. I. Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin) at the Theater Aachen, and as Le Bailli (J. Massenet: Werther) at the Salzburg Festival.

In addition to his opera engagements, Winckhler has performed with ensembles such as the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, and the RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin. His concert repertoire includes Bach’s Passions, Mozart’s Requiem, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, and Mendelssohn’s Paulus. He also has an extensive lieder repertoire.

Manuel Winckhler was born in Munich and received most of his training at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich under Lars Woldt. Prior to that, he studied at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg with Andreas Macco and Fenna Kügel-Seifried. Shortly after completing his studies in 2024, he participated in the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project and subsequently became a member of the International Opera Studio at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, where he has already taken on major roles such as Sarastro and Vanuzzi (R. Strauss: Die schweigsame Frau). His training was complemented by artistic guidance from Christian Gerhaher, Malcolm Martineau, Camilla Nylund, Elena Pankratova, Waltraud Meier, Julia Kleiter, and Michelle Wegwart.

At the 2024 National Singing Competition in Berlin, he won first prize in the opera/operetta category. In 2023, he was a scholarship recipient of the Richard Wagner Association in Munich.

Last updated: Aug 2026

 

 

Die Vita darf nur in Rücksprache mit dem Künstler gekürzt oder anderweitig verändert werden.