René Pape Wins 2011 ECHO Klassik for “Opera Recording of the Year” 

René Pape’s release on Deutsche Grammophon of Wagner arias with Daniel Barenboim and the Berlin Staatskapelle has won a 2011 ECHO Klassik for “Opera Recording of the Year.” This is Pape’s second ECHO Klassik award, which is generally recognized as the German equivalent of the Grammy Award. Pape won his first ECHO Klassik for his debut Deutsche Grammophon recording, Gods, Kings and Demons.

Pape is currently in Munich singing one of his signature roles: King Marke in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (July 27 & 31). Later in the summer he travels to Toronto to participate in the new Black Creek Summer Music Festival; there he will sing in a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and then in a gala concert presenting arias by Verdi, Mussorgsky and Gounod with Loren Maazel and the London Symphony Orchestra (August  27 & 29).