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). From the 2025/26 season onwards, he will be a member of the ensemble at the Hanover State Opera, where he will appear as Fritz in “DIE TOTE STADT,” Masetto in “DON GIOVANNI,” and Ping in “TURANDOT,” among other roles. From 2021 to 2025, the lyric baritone was engaged at the Saarland State Theater, where he performed roles such as Harlequin in “ARIADNE AUF NAXOS,” Dr. Falke in “DIE FLEDERMAUS,” Dr. Malatesta in “DON PASQUALE,” and Papageno in “DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE.” In 2023, he was awarded the Art Promotion Prize of the Wirtschaftsclub Saar-Pfalz-Moselle & the Saarbrücker Casino-Gesellschaft for his stage work there, and in 2025 he received the Prize of the Sponsor Club of the Saarländisches Staatstheater.
Born in Upper Franconia, he appeared on professional theater stages as a child in the role of Second Boy in “THE MAGIC FLUTE” and in many other children’s and youth roles before studying opera singing at the HMT Leipzig and the Rabine Institute near Mannheim. While still a student in his early 20s, Max Dollinger received his first ensemble contract at the Gerhart Hauptmann Theater in Görlitz-Zittau and can look back on guest performances at the Chemnitz Opera, the Dresden State Operetta, the Renaissance Theater in Berlin, the Theater Ulm, and the Theater Nordhausen.The young artist has worked with directors such as Jakob Peters-Messer, Wolfgang Nägele, Eva-Maria Höckmayr, Jan Eßinger, Susanne Lietzow, Gil Mehmert, and Matthias Oldag, as well as conductors such as Matthias Foremny, Justus Thorau, Stefan Neubert, Ulrich Kern, and Guillermo García Calvo.
He has performed in concerts at venues including the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, as part of the Bachfest Leipzig and the Musikfestspiele Saar, and at the Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin, and has appeared as a soloist on several occasions on Deutschlandradio Kultur, the ARD Radio Festival, SR-Kultur, and BR-Klassik. The versatile artist regularly develops and designs his own musical-literary programs and crossover projects with, among others, the Thuringian Symphony Orchestra, the Palais Orchestra Weimar, and the Saarland State Orchestra. In 2023, his revue “BITTE WARTEN.” premiered at the Saarland State Theater. In the spring of 2025, he toured Germany with solo concert programs.
The baritone was a scholarship holder of the Richard Wagner Association Saar in 2023 and received the sponsorship award of the Saxon Singers’ Academy in 2019 as well as two prizes at the Federal Singing Competition in Berlin in 2017.
