NilS

Wanderer

Nils Wanderer, Germany’s countertenor sensation, boasts a voice of stunning beauty and has redefined the boundaries of what a male voice can express. Melding technical precision, purity, and virtuosity in baroque to fearless artistry and creative vision in contemporary, Diapason described him as ​“a countertenor with perfectly unified registers and a supernatural ease of phrasing”. 

Wanderer took Second Prize at the 2022 edition of Operalia, the world’s most prestigious opera competition and opened the current season as Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Laurent Pelly’s celebrated production at the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival and in Peter Hall’s iconic production at Glyndebourne. Garnering superlative reviews for both interpretations, including Broadway World’s ​“Nils Wanderer is an ethereal Oberon, dreamy and sinuous with his vocal phrasing. His lovely countertenor creates a real, otherworldly presence, just as Britten intended”.

“Countertenor Nils Wanderer delivered a Leonardo da Vinci performance of immense stage presence and vocal confidence. His voice possesses a beautiful timbre and sufficient body to fill the Met's grand hall, no easy feat for his vocal range.

Opera World 2026

The 2025/26 season also brings Nils Wanderer’s debut at The Metropolitan Opera, singing the role of Leonardo in Deborah Colker’s new production of El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Elsewhere, he appears as Ottone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea for Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater and debuts as Prince Go-Go in Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre at Theater Bielefeld. In concert, Nils performs at Brucknerhaus Linz, appearing in recital with pianist Daniel Heide in ​“Wanderer Between the Worlds”, a programme spanning a wide range of genres, including his collaborative single St. Petersburg and joins l’Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec for his genre-defying programme, ​“L’expérience Nils Wanderer”, featuring music from Bach to Leonard Cohen.

Wanderer has been hailed for his ​“beautiful, dark, well-developed, amber coloured voice and magnetic theatrical presence” (Ôlyrix) and has performed on many major stages including Salzburger Festspiele, Oper Frankfurt, Teatro Massimo Palermo, Staatsoper Berlin and Handelfestspiele Halle. Notably, he sang Oberon in Laurent Pelly’s production at l’Opéra de Lille, his first Giulio Cesare in Damiano Michieletto’s production at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Mary Sunshine in Barrie Kosky’s production of Chicago at Komische Oper Berlin and was part of the original cast of Peter Plate and Ulf Leo Sommer’s hit German musical, Romeo & Juliet. He boasts a concert and oratorio repertoire spanning over four centuries, from Purcell, Vivaldi, Bach, Handel and Pergolesi through Berlioz, Wagner and Elgar to Bernstein and Cage and has collaborated with conductors including Christian Thielemann, Kent Nagano, Jordi Savall, Christoph Rousset, David Bates, Clemens Schuldt, and Patrick Lange. His concerts have been recorded for broadcast by the BBC, Bayerischer Rundfunk, SWR Radio, Arte, Mezzo, and Medici​.tv.