In the 2024/25 season, Thomas Blondelle will make his house debuts at the Bregenz Festival as Max (Der Freischütz) and at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen as Apollo-Dionysos in Trojahn’s opera Orest. Concerts of Eine schöne Müllerin, a composition by Daan Janssens based on Schubert’s work and accompanied by the Spectra Ensemble, will follow at the Odegand Festival Gent and the Leuven Transit Festival in Belgium. After this, he will perform Herodes (Salome) in two new productions, first at the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Antwerp and then at the Latvian National Opera in Riga. In the same role, as well as in the role of Baron Lummer (Intermezzo), he then returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and will also give his debut in the title role of Siegfried under the baton of Kent Nagano in Prague, Paris and Dresden, amongst other locations.
While still studying, he gave his house debut at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, singing the leading role of Hans Scholl (Die Weiße Rose). He was a member of the Brunswick State Theater ensemble from 2006 to 2009. From 2009 to 2023, Thomas Blondelle was a member of the ensemble at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
He has been invited by by distinguished theaters and festivals such as the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Vienna Volksoper, the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, the Saito Kinen Festival , De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, the Lucerne Festival, the Festival d’Aix en Provence, the BBC Proms and the Opéra National du Rhin in Strassbourg. Further guest engagments include the Stuttgart State Opera, and Frankfurt Opera, as well as a plethora of roles at the Hessian State Theater in Wiesbaden, Bregenz Festival, New York Philharmonic, the Philharmonie de Paris, Cincinnati Opera a.o.
His repertoire includes such roles as Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Boris (Katya Kabanova), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Loge and Froh (Das Rheingold), Herodes and Narraboth (Salome), Ismaele (Nabucco), Macduff (Macbeth), the Prince (L’amour des trois oranges), Erik (Der fliegende Hollände), Pelléas (Pelléas et Mélisande), Walther von der Vogelweide (Tannhäuser), Lenski (Eugene Onegin), Matteo (Arabella), Tito (La clemenza di Tito), Idomeneo (Idomeneo) and Stolzing (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), among many others.
On the concert stage, he performed with the Deutsches Sinfonieorchester Berlin, RIAS Kammerchor, Nancy Opera, St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Philharmonic, WDR Radio Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchester Cologne, Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest, Orchestre de Monte Carlo, Orchestre de Paris, Brussels Philharmonic, Vlaams Symfonieorkest and New York Philharmonic. He is also an avid recitalist.
He also works as a librettist and composer of predominantly art songs and chamber music. Since 2021, he. In 2021, he was appointed professor at the LUCA School of Arts, where he develops concepts and coaching for the institute’s opera productions.
The Belgian tenor was born in Bruges and studied vocal performance, piano, composition and chamber music at his home town’s Stedelijk Conservatory. At the KUL University of Leuven, he obtained a master’s degree in musicology in 2006. At the Viñas Competition in Barcelona, he was awarded the Prize for a Young Promising Contestant in 2005, and he won the Second Prize at the Concours Reine Elisabeth 2011 in Brussels, as well as the Palazetto Bru Prize at the 2012 Belvedere Competition in Vienna.