Following his studies in his hometown of Vienna and in Italy, baritone Sebastian Holecek became a member of the ensemble at the Gärtnerplatztheater in Munich, where he sang Mozart’s Figaro and Don Giovanni, Harlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos) and other roles. During his time in Munich he also appeared at the Volksoper in Vienna and made his debut at the Vienna State Opera as Papageno in 1991. He has been a member of the Volksoper since the 2006/07 season.

Sebastian Holecek’s extensive repertoire includes Caspar (Der Freischütz), Escamillo, Germont, Scarpia, Schaunard, Jochanaan, Danilo, Dr Falke and Peter (Hänsel and Gretel), as well as roles in rarely performed works such as Morald (Die Feen), Barak (Busoni’s Turandot), Johannes Freudhofer (Der Evangelimann), Theseus (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and the title roles in Schnittke’s Gesualdo and Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero.

Today Sebastian Holecek is a regular guest at the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls, appearing in Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona, Naples, Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, New York, Montreal, Cape Town, Monte Carlo, Santiago de Chile, St Gallen, Turin and Düsseldorf, as well as at the Bregenz Festival and elsewhere. He has collaborated with conductors such as Mehta, Luisi, Barenboim, Sawallisch, Gerd Albrecht, Hollreiser, Jones, Stone, Schneider, Viotti and Schønwandt. As a concert singer he has appeared at the Musikverein and the Konzerthaus in Vienna and at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Highlights of recent seasons include Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus) in Stuttgart, the Speaker (Die Zauberflöte) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Spirit Messenger in a new production of Die Frau ohne Schatten under Kirill Petrenko and Peter  (Hänsel and Gretel) at the Bavarian State Opera and Jochanaan (Salome) in Hamburg. At the Volksoper he has been acclaimed as Pizarro in a new production of Fidelio, the Speaker, Escamillo, Jochanaan, Germont and Wotan and the Wanderer in Wagners “Ring” an einem Abend. Recently he appeared as Scarpia in Stuttgart, Pizarro in a concert performance of Fidelio conducted by Antonio Pappano at Santa Cecilia in Rome. Recent projects include Kothner (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) at the Royal Opera House in London and Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Bavarian State Opera.

The 2018/19 season sill see Sebastian Holecek performing the role of Don Pizarro in Fidelio at the National Theatre in Prague and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris as well as the ABAO Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao. Following his revival of the father in Hänsel und Gretel at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, he will be singing Jochanaan in Salome at the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv and at Teatro Comunale di Bologna at the beginning of 2019. He will be finishing the season as Der Geisterbote in Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Vienna State Opera with Christian Thielemann conducting, before starting the 2019/20 season as Don Pizarro in Fidelio at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.