As Tito, the South African tenor Khanyiso Gwenxane sang sublimely and showed the character’s merciful aspect throughout, with soothing gestures and a gentle demeanour. Opera, August 2024
At Opera Philadelphia Khanyiso Gwenxane made his US debut singing the title role in Rossini’s Otello in 2022 and will return as Don Ottavio in a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni in 2025. In 2022, he performed Admeto in Gluck’s Alceste during the International Gluck Festival and returned for the title role in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito in 2024.
As a student, the tenor sang Chevalier Belfiore in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims and Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. In 2016, he made his debut at Kungliga Operan in Stockholm as Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, followed by his role debut as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at the New Generation Festival in Florence in 2017, a part he has sung at Semperoper Dresden in 2023. In 2018, he performed Tito in a new production of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito Staatstheater Braunschweig and made his debut at Staatstheater Darmstadt in 2023, singing Lenski in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, 2025, he performed Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème at Theater Bremen.
A member of Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen since the 2018/19 season, his repertoire includes Bizet’s Don José in Carmen and Nadir in Les pêcheurs de perles, Ernesto in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème, Tuomas in Saariaho’s Innocence, Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff as well as in the title roles in Orfeo in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Rossini’s Otello. Khanyiso Gwenxane has worked with directors including David Bösch, Jürgen Flimm, Dietrich Hilsdorf, Manuel Schmitt, Michael Schulz, Keith Warner and Matthew Wilde.
Khanyiso Gwenxane performed under the baton of conductors including Jonathan Darlington, Gaetano d’Espinosa, Srba Dinić, Michael Hofstetter, Marek Janowski, Tomaš Netopil, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Lawrence Renes, Ivan Repušić, Valtteri Rauhalammi, Corrado Rovaris, Omer Meir Wellber and Johannes Zahn – accompanied by orchestras including Dresdner Philharmonie, Kungliga Hovkapellet Stockholm, Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, Orchestr opery Divadlo Josefa Kajetána Tyla Plzen, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Staatsorchester Braunschweig and Darmstadt, as well as The Opera Philadelphia Orchestra.
This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced. © Artistainternational, February 2025.
Rossini: Otello: “Che ascolto? ahimé, che dici? …”
Live recording 2022
