“All of life is a stage – an exciting, perilous adventure that demands your whole concentration. I’m at home in each of the performing arts, whether opera, theatre, operetta, musical, song recital, film, or performance.“ Paul Schweinester

Opera and Operetta

Austrian singer-actor and tenor Paul Schweinester is at home in all areas of classical music and is in international demand. In the 2025/26 season, he will be seen at the Salzburg Mozart Week as Monostatos in a new production of “The Magic Flute” directed by ­Rolando Villazón. He returns to the Cottbus State Theater as Wenzel Strapinski in “­Zemlinsky’s Clothes Make the Man.” He also has a close collaboration with the Gärtnerplatztheater Munich, where he will perform in a new production based on Dürrenmatt’s “The Visit of the Old Lady.” The Lehár Festival in Bad Ischl has also invited him back—this time to direct Franz Lehár’s “The Goddess’ Husband.” In concert, Paul Schweinester can be heard under Markus Poschner and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, performing a piece by Lili Boulanger; also in Orff‘s “Carmina Burana“ in the Salzburg Festival Hall together with the ­Mozarteum Orchestra, as well as in Bach‘s Christmas Oratorio on Gran Canaria and with the Ensemble Amani in Linz.

Other important stops in his career have included the Palais Garnier in Paris and the Salzburg and Bregenz Festivals. In the summer of 2020, he portrayed Tony in Leonard Bernstein‘s “West Side Story“ at the Mörbisch Lake Festival, where he had already performed in Zeller‘s “Der Vogel­händler” in 2017. At the Strasbourg Opera, he played the Fool in Franz Schreker‘s „Der Schatzgräber“. At the Opéra de Limoges and in Tenerife, he played the Dancing Master and Brighella in “Ariadne auf Naxos“ – a role he has sung several times at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in London and at the Maggio Musicale in Florence.

At the Salzburg Marionette Theatre, he will direct a play he wrote himself, set to music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: “Der alte Baum oder Franzis Reise bis ans Ende der Welt”. Following the revival of the play at the 2026 Mozart Week, a guest performance of the piece will take place at the Muth in Vienna.