Hailed by the press as a baritone with a “velvet voice” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) and a “guarantor of tonal quality” (Saarbrücker Zeitung), 28-year-old Max Dollinger is one of the most promising young opera singers with his “outstanding vocal work” (Tagesspiegel) and “sympathie appeal” (Oper! magazine). The lyric baritone has been engaged at the Saarländisches Staatstheater since 2021 and has appeared on stage there as Papageno in “DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE”, Dr. Malatesta in “DON PASQUALE”, Dr. Falke in “DIE FLEDERMAUS”, Harlequin in “ARIADNE AUF NAXOS”, Lionel in Tchaikovsky’s “DIE JUNGFRAU VON ORLÉANS”, Ping in „TURANDOT“ and Horatio in “OPHELIA” (UA), among others. From the 2025/26 season, he will be a member of the ensemble of the State Opera Hanover. For his artistic achievements in the 2022/23 season, he was awarded the Saar-Pfalz-Moselle Economic Club & Saarbrücken Casino Society Arts Promotion Prize.
Born in Upper Franconia, he appeared on professional theater stages as the Second Boy in “DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE” and in many other children’s and youth roles as a child before studying opera singing at the HMT Leipzig and the Rabine Institute in Mannheim. While still a student, Max Dollinger received his first permanent engagement at the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater Görlitz-Zittau in his early 20s and has since performed at the Leipzig Opera, Chemnitz Opera, State Operetta Dresden, Renaissance Theater Berlin, Theater Hof, Theater Ulm and Theater Nordhausen. He has performed as a soloist in concerts at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Leipzig Bach Festival, the Saar Music Festival and the Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin, among others, and has been heard as a soloist on Deutschlandradio Kultur, at the ARD Radio Festival, SR Kultur and BR Klassik on several occasions. The young artist has worked with directors such as Wolfgang Nägele, Eva-Maria Höckmayr, Jan Eßinger, Susanne Lietzow, Thomas Winter, Gil Mehmert and Matthias Oldag as well as with conductors such as Matthias Foremny, Justus Thorau, Stefan Neubert, Ulrich Kern and Guillermo García Calvo.
The versatile artist created numerous crossover concert programs in close collaboration with the musician Wolfgang Skill, such as “DER VERSPIELTE MANN” and “LACHEN OHNE WEINEN”, and performed them with the Thuringian Symphony Orchestra, the Palais Orchestra Weimar and the Saarland State Orchestra, among others. In 2023, the collaborative revue “BITTE WARTEN.” premiered at the Saarländisches Staatstheater. The current program “UNERHÖRTES VON GEORG KREISLER” premiered in May 2024. For the Erich Kästner anniversary year 2024, he also developed the musical Erich Kästner evening “DIE ZEIT FÄHRT AUTO” together with Philipp Riedel.
The baritone was a scholarship holder of the Richard Wagner Association Saar and received the Deutschlandstipendium twice in a row through Junge Stimmen Leipzig e.V. In addition, he was awarded the Sächsische Sängerakademie sponsorship prize in 2019 and the Rosenbaum Foundation sponsorship prize and the Dresden State Operetta special prize at the 2017 National Singing Competition in Berlin.
