Described by Germany’s leading opera magazine Das Opernglas as “a strong, rich and warm-colored voice with assured style,” Mark Schnaible continues to impress audiences both in the United States and abroad with his bass-baritone voice and dramatic intensity. In the 2008-09 season, he sings Escamillo in Carmen with New Orleans Opera and the title role in Gianni Schicchi for Opera Tampa. He also returns Boston Baroque for Ariodate in Xerxes and Shreveport Opera for Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte and reprises Bizet’s Clovis et Clotilde with the Orchestre National de Lille again with Jean-Claude Casadesus conducting for performances that will later be released on the Naxos label. During the previous season, he sang Friedrich in the North American stage premiere of Wagner’s Das Liebesverbot with Glimmerglass Opera and returned to Shreveport Opera for the title role in Sweeney Todd and Leporello in Don Giovanni with Utah Opera.
He recently received outstanding recognition for his interpretation of Biterolf in the new Robert Carsen production of Tannhäuser conducted by Seiji Ozawa at the Tokyo Opera Nomori Festival. Other recent appearances include Leporello in Don Giovanni with Boston Baroque under Martin Pearlman where the Boston Globe stated “Mark Schnaible was vocally elegant and comically astute.” Other performance credits include numerous performances of Escamillo including a broadcast performance with the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra under Michael Stern, the Four Villains in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Don Giovanni, Traveler in Death in Venice, Orest in Elektra with Theater Lübeck, Colline in La bohème with Kiel Opera as well as the Huntsman in Rusalka with Christoph Eschenbach at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. He has previously joined Shreveport Opera for Mephistofeles in Faust.
A native of Iowa, Mark Schnaible lived for nearly ten years in Europe. He is a past winner of the prestigious Marseille International Opera Competition and has subsequently appeared often in France. He joined the Choregies d’Orange Festival under Bertrand de Billy for Baron Douphol in La traviata and for Carmen under Michel Plasson. He has also sung Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera d’Avignon, Metz Opera, and the Grand Theatre de Tours and toured throughout France with the Poitou-Charentes Orchestre for performances of Haydn’s The Seasons.
He is equally at home with the concert repertoire having most recently sung Bizet’s Clovis et Clotilde with Les Flaneries Musicales de Reims and Jean-Claude Casadesus, Bluebeard’s Castle with Utah Symphony and Keith Lockhart, and Haydn’s The Creation with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and David Stern. Also in his repertoire are Mendelssohn’s Elijah and St. Paul; settings of the Requiem by Durufle, Faure, Mozart, Brahms, and Verdi; Handel’s Messiah, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, Bach’s Mass in B minor, St. Matthew Passion, and St. John Passion; Beethoven’s Symphony No 9; as well as Haydn’s The Seasons.