Since becoming a member of the Vienna State Opera ensemble in the 2020/21 season Martin Häßler has appeared in roles including Dr Falke (Die Fledermaus), Ping (Turandot), Fritz Kothner (Die Meistersinger), Donner (Rheingold), Melot (Tristan und Isolde), Der Einäugige (Frau ohne Schatten), Don Fernando (Fidelio), Schaunard (La Bohème), Ned Keene (Peter Grimes), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Cesare Angelotti (Tosca), Moralès (Carmen), First Nazarene (Salome) as well as Simon in Haydn’s The Seasons with the Vienna State Ballet.

 

Role debuts in his forthcoming season at the Vienna State Opera include Graf Dominik in Sven-Eric Bechtolf’s production of Strauss’ Arabella conducted by Christian Thielemann, Hermann/Schlemihl in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann with Bertrand de Billy, as well as Bachs B minor Mass in Basel and Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin in Leipzig with Alexander Schmalcz. 

 

Previous opera engagements included Guglielmo in Così fan tutte (Nevill Holt Opera, The Sage Gateshead), Heerrufer in Lohengrin, Monterone in Rigoletto and Adi in Marius Felix Lange’s Schneewittchen (Oper Leipzig), Ratzekahl in Schreker’s Irrelohe and Don Iñigo in Ravel’s L'Heure espagnole (Opéra de Lyon), ll Gran Sacerdote in Nabucco (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Opéra de Vichy), Siegfried in Schumann’s Genoveva (Tonhalle Düsseldorf), Collatinus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia (Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg, Theater Gera-Altenburg) and Henze’s Ein Landarzt (Barbican Centre, London).

 

He worked with conductors Howard Arman, Marco Armiliato, Christoph Altstaedt, Sian Edwards, Bertrand de Billy, Jörg Endebrock, Ádám Fischer, Christoph Gedschold, Michele Gamba, Ludwig Güttler, Axel Kober, Giedrė Šlekytė, Alexander Soddy, Masaaki Suzuki, Patrick Lange, Antonello Manacorda, Cornelius Meister, Franz Welser-Möst, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Alejo Pérez, Daniele Rustioni, Christian Thielemann, Jonathan Stockhammer and Simone Young as well as directors Frank Castorf, Keith Warner, David Bösch, Calixto Bieito, Jossi Wieler, Sergio Morabito and James Bonas.

 

As an avid recitalist Martin has sung at Wigmore Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, at Klavierfestival Ruhr with Graham Johnson, at LIFE Victoria Barcelona with Julius Drake, at Oxford Lieder with Sholto Kynoch and Bengt Forsberg, at LSO St. Luke’s, at Der Lyrische Salon with Daniel Heide and at the Vienna Musikverein. In 2019 he performed Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi.

 

Concert appearances include Bach’s Passions and Christmas Oratorio (Frauenkirche Dresden), Handel’s Jephtha and Judas Maccabaeus (Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich), Haydn’s The Creation and The Seasons, Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Brahms’ German Requiem as well as Mendelssohn's Elijah and Paulus. In April 2023 he made his debut in Japan performing Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki in Tokyo.

 

He graduated from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s opera programme where he studied with Rudolf Piernay and Janice Chapman. He is now being mentored by Robert Dean.

 

Martin held a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation and is currently working for mentoringArts at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig.