John Janssen (Netherlands) studied piano and singing at the Maastricht Academy of Music. In 1977 he debuted in Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen. He was awarded several prizes: Prix d’Excellence (1981, Maastricht Academy of Music), Festspielpreis (1983, Bavarian State Opera in Munich) and Singer of the Year (1984, Munich). In 1982 he was awarded a contract at the National Theatre of the Bavarian State Opera. He debuted as Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro together with Margaret Price, Lucia Popp and Hermann Prey, under the baton of Wolfgang Sawallisch and directed by Günther Rennert. He has given guest performances in many opera houses all over the world: in the Hamburg State Opera and the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, in Wuppertal Opera, Canadian Opera Company (Toronto), Teatro Municipal (Rio de Janeiro) and many others. Among his collaborating directors there are Gary Bertini, Roderick Brydon, Pierre Cao, Yoram David, Peter-Paul Poschner, Julius Rudel, Emil Tchakarov or Laurent Wagner. In 2009, John Janssen sang the main role in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’ s Don Giovanni in the Solingen Theater und Konzerthaus with Stefan Wehr (conductor) and Igor Folwill (director).
