Rodrigo Orrego

The tenor Rodrigo Orrego was born in Santiago (Chile), probably in 1965, and studied singing at the conservatory of the Universidad Catolica in Santiago with Hans Stein for three years. Already during this training he began his concert activity, particularly in lieder and oratorios. In April 1990, he moved to Germany and continued his training with Aldo Baldin at Musikhochschule Karlsruhe. During this time he participated, among others, in Carl Orff's Carmina burana, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Elijah, Cherubini's Missa solemnis and a gala concert of Europa Musicale in the Munich Philharmonic Concert Hall.

Rodrigo Orrego sang regularly with the Bach-Akademie Stuttgart under the direction of Helmuth Rilling, the Bamberger Symphoniker, with which he sang J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor BWV 232 in 1992 and Mozart's C minor Mass and others on the occasion of the Spring of Prague in June. In the same year, he gave his opera debut with Kammeroper Frankfurt in Rossini's L'occasione fa il ladro in 1992. In Kassel, he made a guest appearance in Montemezzi's L'amore dei tre re in a production by Giancarlo Del Monaco under the direction of Eugene Kohn. Likewise in 1992, he began his first permanent engagement at the Staatstheater Darmstadt.

In 1993, Rodrigo Orrego sang Mozart's Requiem with the Gewandhausorchester at the Nicolai Church in Leipzig, Stabat mater by Rossini at the Kölner Philharmonie, Mozart's C minor Mass with Wolfgang Gönnenwein and Louis Spohr's Faust in concert performance with CD recording in Bad Urach, and in the context of an international tour sacred works by Dvořák, Mozart, Verdi and J. S. Bach. In 1994, he performed F. Schubert's E flat major Mass with the MDR Kammerphilharmonie, Haydn's Schöpfung at the Kölner hilharmonie, and in October J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor BWV 232 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires with the Bamberger Symphoniker.

On 1 December 1998 at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago (Chile), he sang the tenor part in Carl Orff's Carmina burana with Shelley Jameson, soprano, and Marian Pop, bass, with the Hungarian conductor Gabor Ötvös.

His opera debut in Chile was again at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, on 5 November 2004, as Cavaradossi in Tosca with Marcela de Loa-Holzapfel (Tosca) and Patricio Mendez (Scarpia), José Luis Dominguez conducting (only one performance). The review of that evening said that "Orrego has a beautiful voice but with difficulties in the middle register that sounds too weak, and stiff high notes".

In 2007, he sang again in Chile, now at the Teatro de la Universidad de Concepción (in the city of the same name), as Alfredo in La traviata with Stephanie Elliot (Violetta) and Fernando Ramos (a Costa Rican baritone, as Germont), Carlos Vieu, conductor. He sang five performances in August. The same month, he sang also in a concert at the Teatro Municipal in Temuco with the soprano Carolina Ulrich.

In May 2008, he sang in Vienna in concert.

On 29 May 2009, he sang the title role in Fervaal, an opera by Vincent d'Indy, at the Stadtheater in Bern (Switzerland). The cast included soprano Sophie Fourniers (Guilhen) and baritone Philippe Rouillon (Arfagard). The conductor was Srboljub Dinić.

Orrego further sang Hoffmann in Linz, Darmstadt, Gießen, Bern, Brno, Burgos and Málaga; the title role in Fernand Cortez by Spontini in Erfurt; Gonzalvo in L'heure espagnole by Ravel in Sevilla; Foresto in Gießen; Bacchus in Tel Aviv; Soliman in Mozart's Zaide at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza; and the world premiere of Fulgor y muerte de Joaquín Murieta by the Chilean composer Sergio Ortega in Santiago (subsequently also staged at the Savonlinna Festival). Eventually, he even sang roles like des Grieux (Manon Lescaut), Andrea Chénier and Otello.

I wish to thank Juan Dzazópulos for the picture and biographical notes.

Additional biographical reference: Orrega's website