Solist

Paul Schweinester

The Austrian singer-actor and tenor Paul Schweinester is at home in all areas of classical music and is in high demand internationally. During the 2025/26 season, he appeared at the Mozart Week in Salzburg as Monostatos in a new production of »The Magic Flute«, directed by Rolando Villazón. He returns to the Staatstheater Cottbus as Wenzel Strapinski in Zemlinsky’s »Kleider machen Leute«. The Lehár Festival in Bad Ischl has also invited him back – this time as director of Franz Lehár’s »Der Göttergatte«. In the concert sphere, Paul Schweinester can be heard performing a piece by Lili Boulanger under Markus Poschner and the Vienna RSO in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna; he will also perform Orff’s »Carmina Burana« at the Großes Festspielhaus in Salzburg alongside the Mozarteum Orchestra, as well as Bach’s »Christmas Oratorio« in Gran Canaria and with the Ensemble Amani in Linz.

Other key milestones in his career have included the Palais Garnier in Paris and the Salzburg and Bregenz Festivals. In the summer of 2020, he played the role of Tony in Leonard Bernstein’s »West Side Story« at the Seefestspiele Mörbisch, where he had previously appeared in Zeller’s »Der Vogelhändler« in 2017. At the Strasbourg Opera, he appeared as the Fool in Franz Schreker’s »Der Schatzgräber«. At the Opéra de Limoges and in Tenerife, he played the Dance Master and Brighella in »Ariadne auf Naxos« – a role he has already sung on several occasions at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, and at the Maggio Musicale in Florence.

At the Salzburg Marionette Theatre, he will direct a play he has written himself, set to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: »Der alte Baum oder Franzis Reise bis ans Ende der Welt«. Following the revival of the play at the Mozart Week 2026, he will take it on tour to the Muth Theatre in Vienna. He last appeared at the Gärtnerplatztheater in 2013 in Friedrich Cerha’s »Onkel Präsident«.