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On 30 April, Titus Engel will conduct Hèctor Parra's new opera Justice, based on a script by director Milo Rau, at the Festspielhaus St. Pölten.
In the summer of 2023, Titus Engel conducted Olivier Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise, an opera that not only goes beyond the usual dimensions of the orchestra, but in Anna-Sophie Mahler's Stuttgart production also incorporated the urban space and nature as a kind of pilgrimage. A documentary about the production is now available online in the ARD media library.
Congratulations to Titus Engel on his appointment as the new Principal Conductor of the Basel Sinfonietta!
Hèctor Parra, Justice
Titus Engel, conductor
Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich
Grand Théâtre de Genève Chorus, choir
Milo Rau, stage direction
Beat Furrer, Retour an dich
Xiaogang Xe, Strophes Op. 26 B
Georges Aperghis, Situations. Une convivialité musicale
Klangforum Wien
Isabel Mundry, Endless Sediments (revised version, 2019)
Gemma Ragués Pujol, New work for performance-artist and orchestra
Ylva Lund Bergner, F-Low-M for orchestra
Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, Considering Icarus for solo trombone and orchestra
Cathy Milliken, Earth Plays V: Ediacaran Fields for orchestra and audience
Gemma Ragués Pujol, Performance
Stephen Menotti, trombone
Basel Sinfonietta
Isabel Mundry, composition
The state orchestra performs miracles, the choir does the same as the instrumentalists. What happens here musically is of the utmost magnificence, Titus Engel conducts this highly complex construct with stupendous naturalness.Süddeutsche Zeitung, Egbert Tholl, 12/6/2023
In 2020 Titus Engel was named Conductor of the Year by Opernwelt magazine. With his comprehensive view of repertoire from a wide range of musical eras, he consistently grasps works in their multifaceted relationality. Respected for his expertise in the field of historical performance practice as well as for his precise conducting of complex contemporary projects, the Berlin-based Zurich native can also be seen regularly performing central works of opera literature - he thrilled audiences with Lohengrin at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl in 2021. Always ready to break new ground in his exploration of staged concepts on the podium, he sees music theatre as a field of experimentation in which social utopias can flourish.
Starting in the 2023/24 season, Titus Engel will take over as Principal Conductor of the Basel Sinfonietta giving his inaugural concert at the Ruhrtriennale Festival. He will collaborates with Tobias Kratzer for his new production of Henze’s The Raft of the Medusa at the Komische Oper Berlin, taking place in Hangar 1 of Flughafen Tempelhof, before returning to Basel for a revival of Weber’s Freischütz (Christoph Marthaler) followed by the premiere of Hèctor Parra’s new opera Justice at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and in St. Pölten, Austria. He can be heard in concerts with the WDR Symphony Orchestra in their series “Musik der Zeit”, with the Dresdner Philharmonie as well as in Innsbruck performing Mingus’ Epitaph.
The previous season ended with a monumental production: he successfully lead Messiaen‘s Saint François d'Assise in a production throughout the city. He also returned to the Bavarian State Opera with Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel and Lehar's Giuditta as well as to Lyon with Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle.
Guest conducting engagements so far have included the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Philharmonia Orchestra, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, SWR and WDR Sinfonieorchester, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Staatsorchester Hannover, Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the chamber orchestras in Zurich and Munich, as well as Ensemble Modern and Klangforum Wien. He worked with the Camerata Salzburg at the Salzburg Festival and at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl, where he conducted all of Brahms' symphonies.
In opera he has conducted Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Theater an der Wien); The Flying Dutchman, Wozzeck, and Blue Beard’s Castle (Stuttgart Opera), Mozart’s Betulia Liberata, Strauss’ Salome, and Nielsen’s Maskerade (Frankfurt Opera); Haas’ Bluthaus (Bayerische Staatsoper), Nunez’s La Douce (Staatsoper Berlin); Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (Opéra de Lyon); Glass’ Einstein on the Beach (Grand Théatre de Genève) and Verdi´s La Traviata (Theater Basel). Titus Engel’s debut at the Teatro Real Madrid conducting the world premiere of Pilar Jurado’s La página en blanco in 2011 was widely praised by the press and audiences alike. He followed this with triumphant world premieres of Charles Wuorinen’s Brokeback Mountain (2014) and Elena Mendoza’s La ciudad de las mentiras (2017). In 2016 together with Lydia Steier he brought the Swiss premiere of Stockhausen's Donnerstag to the stage at Theater Basel – Opernwelt magazine named the production “Performance of the Year”. The premiere of Chaya Czernowin's opera Infinite Now took place in 2017, which he conducted at the Opera Vlaanderen, the Nationaltheater Mannheim, and the Philharmonie de Paris. He has also led numerous world premieres at the Salzburg Festival, Berliner Festspiele, Lucerne Festival, the Ruhrtriennale, and the Wiener Konzerthaus.
After studying musicology and philosophy in Zurich and Berlin he studied conducting in Dresden with Christian Kluttig. This training was supplemented by support from the Conductors Forum of the German Music Council and David Zinman's American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, as well as assistantships with Sylvain Cambreling, Marc Albrecht, and Peter Rundel. Titus Engel has recorded numerous works for radio and CD and is the founder of the Akademie Musiktheater Heute, in addition to having edited several books on contemporary opera.
Season 2023/24
Programme Samples
Flowing
Titan & Tragic Hero
Islam in contemporary music
On Parra's Justice at the Grand Théâtre de Genève"Titus Engel is the best advocate of this subtle music with his differentiated, dynamically perfectly balanced conducting of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Even in the powerful choruses, the focus is not on effect, but rather on a heightening of the action with an occasionally oratorical impact."
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Marco Frei, 25/1/2024
"Titus Engel conducts the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande with precision and drive, and the international ensemble is completely convincing."
SRF, Ruth Wili, 23/1/2024
On Henze's The Raft of the Medusa at Komische Oper Berlin"Henze’s orchestra, too, is capable of explosive power, but mostly the score restrains these grand forces to a stunned, wary quiet, played by the Komische Oper’s orchestra under Engel with remarkable sensuality and subtlety given the necessity of amplification."
The New York Times, Zachary Woolfe, 18/9/2023
"Conductor Titus Engel manages the vast orchestra and massed choirs with a precision and balance which are little short of miraculous, given the acoustic challenges of the space."
Financial Times, Shirley Apthorp, 18/9/2023
On Messiaen's Saint Francois d'Assise at the Stuttgart State Opera"The state orchestra performs miracles, the choir does the same as the instrumentalists. What happens here musically is of the utmost magnificence, Titus Engel conducts this highly complex construct with stupendous naturalness."
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Egbert Tholl, 12/6/2023
"Titus Engel as musical director demands a precise, transparent sound. The maelstrom of static, circling progressions, of rhythmic energy that reaches ecstasy, is thrillingly successful. The orchestra shimmers in all its timbres."
Nachtkritk.de, Verena Großkreutz, 12/6/2023
“Titus Engel leads the orchestra of the Staatsoper Stuttgart, which also takes its place directly on stage in the opera house, with his usual crisp precision, shaping magnificent major-key flows resoundingly and vividly beautiful with his hands. You need a conductor like that on a day like this.”
Opernwelt, Arno Lücker, August 2023
On Bluthaus at the Bayerische Staatsoper"A stylist, no matter what era. Effortlessly he switches from Monteverdi to Haas with the small ensemble of the Staatsorchester. It is thanks to Engel and the musical faction that this score is understandable."
Merkur, Markus Thiel, 22/5/2022
On the concert at the Staatsoper Hannover"Titus Engel seems to have Mahler in his DNA: He knew how to correctly place the typical breaks, to create a balance between heaviness and suspension."
Cellesche Zeitung, Jörg Worat, 2/3/2022
On Lehár's Giuditta at the Bayerische Staatsoper"Engel loves modern scores – and is capable of making them crackle attractively while being unassailably painfully explicit. It bubbles delightfully."
Opernwelt, Arno Lücker, February 2022
On Bluebeard’s Castle (Opéra de Lyon)"After all, the musical success of this evening is mainly due to Titus Engel. A great performance."
Le Forum, Gérard Ferrand, 4/4/2023
On Zemlinsky's Sinfonietta at the Philharmonie Berlin"Titus Engel performed with great precision and full emotional commitment. He brought the wonderfully homogeneous sounding Polish Radio Orchestra to both rousing climaxes and dancing lightness."
Tagesspiegel, Mario-Felix Vogt, 7/11/2022
"The evening has one strength and his name is Titus Engel. The Swiss conductor conducts classical modernism with devotion. But he also knows how to conduct snappy marches and a cultivated bliss in operetta."
Abendzeitung Munich, Robert Braunmüller, 20/12/2021
"Titus Engel is one of the production's greatest assets, a polyglot conductor who thinks his way into Lehár as well as Shostakovich or Schönberg and actually conducts the mix of styles as such. The Bavarian State Orchestra can be profitably challenged here."
Münchner Merkur, Markus Thiel, 19/12/2021
On The Marksman at the Theater Basel"Weber's melodies shine thanks to the Basel Chamber Orchestra under the excellent direction of Titus Engel."
Giornale della musica, Stefano Nardelli, 28/12/2022
"Conductor Titus Engel provides a strong weight to the stage especially with lyrical, dreamlike tones."
Oper!, Tobias Gerosa, November 2022
On Nielsen's Maskerade at Frankfurt Opera"Titus Engel, as conductor, balances alertly and confidently between burlesque and kind-heartedness in tone. He has a sense for the sinewy linearity of Nielsen's orchestral sound, for the tonally and syntactically slipped cadences, which move some emphases into the inauthentic without denouncing them."
FAZ, Jan Brachmann, 2/11/2021
On Epitaph in the Philharmonie Berlin"Under the gesturally economical and equally energetic direction of Titus Engel, the musicians of the Big Band and the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper as well as from the Jazzinstitut Berlin explore the expressive worlds of dark menace, intimate songfulness, conflict, and ecstasy on the stage of the Philharmonie with irrepressible joy of playing and remarkable clarity."
Tagesspiegel, Isabel Herzfeld, 20/9/2022
"What conductor Titus Engel conjures out of the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra sets an absolute benchmark for this opera."
SWR, Bernd Künzig, 2/11/2021
"Titus Engel conducts this music with delightful vividness, precisely bringing out its wit. He conducts the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra very briskly, very transparently."
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Egbert Tholl, 1/11/2021
"Titus Engel revels with relish in the changing temperaments and styles of this great national opera of the Danes with the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra."
concerti, Joachim Lange, 31/10/2021
On Wagner's Lohengrin (Tiroler Festspiele Erl)“Titus Engel on the podium celebrated serious and beautiful lightness instead of myth-steaming force.“
Donaukurier, Roland H. Dippel, 27/7/2021
“Titus Engel knows how to achieve rich facets, tonal beauty, the finest subtlety and arcs of tension from the musicians without covering up the singers."
Kurier, Helmut Christian Mayer, 26/7/2021
On Bluebeard's Castle (Opéra de Lyon)“Under the baton of Titus Engel both orchestral accounts were polished and full of richness.”
Opera, John Allison, June 2021
“Titus Engel demonstrates familiarity with the work and with contemporary repertoire. Together with an Opéra de Lyon orchestra gleaming with timbres and colours, he brings to the fore the entire sound palette of the score, flamboyant, smooth, jagged, incisive, and insinuating in turn.”
Forumopera.com, Charles Sigl, 30/3/2021
“Although the conductor remains the same, the interpretation of the opera in these two versions is rather different. In the first, Titus Engel focuses on the dynamics and contrasts present in Bartók's score, while in the second he renders beautifully the colours of the orchestra, drawing out exquisite impressionistic nuances and evocative shadings."
Giornaledellamusica.it, Mauro Mariani, 29/3/2021
“Titus Engel seizes this unique opportunity to deliver two musical interpretations of one operatic work in the same evening. He demonstrates how even a score with exacting performance instructions can sound remarkably different.”
Concerti, Peter Krause, 28/3/2021
“In the pit, the highest precision prevailed, paired with elegance and transparency. A merit above all to conductor Titus Engel and his detailed and finely balanced conducting.“
Opernwelt, Jürgen Otten, Yearbook 2020
On the opening of the Festival Klangspuren Schwaz“At the podium, Titus Engel, repeatedly indispensable when it comes to difficult contemporary music, is superior in technical matters and in the translation into music.“
Tiroler Tageszeitung, Ursula Strohal, 13/9/2020
On BORIS (Staatsoper Stuttgart)“Renowned conductor Titus Engel's ability to relate the strings to each other without convulsive 'assertion' is just brilliant.“
Salzburger Nachrichten, Karl Harb, 23/2/2020
“Both Titus Engel's conducting and the soloists were strong.“
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Marco Frei, 7/2/2020
“Conductor Titus Engel avoids soppy Romanticism, presenting a multifaceted, interwoven score full of regret and longing.“
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Reinhard J. Brembeck, 4/2/2020
“Moving from Mussorgsky’s score to the interspersed sections of Nevsky’s work was no small task, but conductor Titus Engel directed the music with tremendous ease.“
BR Klassik, Peter Jungblut, 4/2/2020
“From the pit under the direction of Titus Engel, everything sounded thoroughly convincing and very differentiated: always transparent, always finely and sharply cut.“
Die Deutsche Bühne, Klaus Kalchschmid, 03/02/2020
On Einstein on the Beach (Grand Théâtre de Genève)“Titus Engel’s thoughtful conducting brought out the best of the Geneva Conservatory of Music’s choir and orchestra.“
Opernglas, Stephan Burianek, December 2019
On Diodati.Unendlich (Theater Basel)“At the premiere [...] the soloists, musicians, choir – and, above all, conductor Titus Engel – did a fantastic job of mastering the highly virtuoso requirements of the score.“
SWR 2, Karsten Umlauf, 23/2/2019
“An astounding achievement [of the conductor Titus Engel] to bring together and develop this with such complexity, such multiplicity.“
Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Franziska Stürz, 21/2/2019
“Titus Engel holds the numerous threads and lines of the score together perfectly; the ensemble is simply phenomenal.“
BR Klassik, Jörn Florian Fuchs, 22/2/2019
“Conductor Titus Engel was a deft helmsman as he guided the musicians of the DRP joyfully through the ups and downs of the extensive score.“
Saarbrücker Zeitung, Helmut Fackler, 29/4/2018
On Bluebeard's Castle (Staatsoper Stuttgart)“Titus Engel renders the impenetrable bright and clear while still allowing the music to radiate into fullness. Excellent precision coupled with a gripping sensuality.“
Stuttgarter Zeitung, Susanne Benda, 3/11/2018
Bluebeard's Castle - Trailer
Candide – Avant-goût
Titus Engel talks about his love for (music) theatre (in German)
Trailer: Universe Incomplete, Ruhrtriennale 2018
Trailer LA TRAVIATA
Theater Basel | Donnerstag aus Licht
Agata Zubel, Klangforum Wien, Titus Engel
Kairos, 2021, KAI0015109
Christoph Marthaler, Titus Engel, Anna Viebrock
DVD, Accentus, 2019, ACC 20434
Ensemble Courage, Titus Engel
Wergo, 2011, WER 67262