Christian Boesch

Christian Boesch (born July 27, 1941, in Vienna) is an internationally acclaimed Austrian operatic baritone. He is the son of the soprano Ruthilde Boesch, and studied at the Hochschule für Musik from 1959 to 1964. He was the pupil of Alfred Jerger, and made his official debut at the Stadttheater, Bern, in 1966. He joined the Vienna Volksoper in 1975. It was in 1978 when Boesch came to prominence, as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, at the Salzburg Festival, in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's production, conducted by James Levine. The next year, the singing-actor made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, as Papageno. He returned for the same opera in 1981 (now with Lucia Popp and Gail Robinson alternating as Pamina, and Zdzisława Donat as the Queen...