Rene Pape’s Wotan wins the “Black Diamond Bass” his third ECHO KLASSIK Award.

The winners of Germany’s 2013 ECHO KLASSIK Awards have been announced and René Pape is once again among them. Recognized as the German equivalent of the Grammy Award, Pape will receive his third ECHO KLASSIK, this time in the category of “Best Opera Recording of the Year (19th Century Music)”, for his acclaimed contribution as Wotan on the Mariinsky Label’s newest release of Wagner’s Die Walküre with the Mariinsky Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev.

“The star of this recording is René Pape’s Wotan, who not only thunders like a God, but most importantly shapes his narrations tastefully and with vocal colors. 

Die Abendzeitung, München

The Mariinsky Label’s newest Ring-Cycle is cast with the finest Wagner interpreters of our time: Nina Stemme, Jonas Kaufman, and René Pape.

“Bass René Pape brings his trademark silken smoothness to the role of Wotan”

(The Washington Post)

The Washington Post

Having already received ECHO KLASSIKS for his two solo albums, Gods, Kings, and Demons and Wagner, Pape now adds this award to a long list of accolades and prizes including two Grammy Awards.

The official awards ceremony will take place on October 6th, 2013 in Berlin’s Konzerthaus.

Das Rheingold with René Pape as Wotan will be released in September of 2013. Siegfried and Götterdämmerung will complete the Mariinsky Ring-Cycle in 2014.