Dominik Köninger catching birds and debuting baritone Hoffmann

Dominik Köninger as Papageno in the Barrie Kosky production

German barihunk Dominik Köninger is at the Edinburgh Festival reprising his highly-acclaimed Papageno in Barrie Kosky's magical production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, which has performances remaining on August 29 and 30.

The innovative Barrie Kosky production of Die Zauberflöte is a collaboration with the amazing British theater group “1927," who put together a production that mixes silent movies, Weimar era cabaret, David Lynch and a touch of the Grimm's Fairy Tales.

The oft-shirtless Dominik Köninger

If you can't catch Köninger as Papageno in the U.K., you'll have plenty of additional opportunities as he's singing the role in the same production at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein beginning on September 19th, then again in Barcelona next summer at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

We've been huge fans of Dominik Köninger since he won the 2011 Wigmore Hall Song Competition and have been enjoying his regular appearances at the Komische Oper Berlin, where he's sung in Monteverdi's Orpheus, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Pantalone in Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges, Oreste in Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride and Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro.  

 Dominik Köninger sings Hai gia vinta la causa from the Marriage of Figaro:

He returns to Berlin on September 11th to sing the title role in Handel's Giulio Cesare with fellow barihunk Günter Papendell as Achilla. On October 2nd, he'll open in Barrie Kosky's new production of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann. For the first time in the opera's 132-year performance history, the role of Hoffmann will be sung by a baritone, which was Offenbach's original intention.