english
BIOGRAPHY
Tenor Daniel Szeili, born in Rosenheim, studied theater and musicology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich after graduating from secondary school, while also training in acting and voice at the same time. His vocal training took him to Vienna, Berlin, Kansas City, and Copenhagen.
He began his career as a lyric tenor and quickly built a broad repertoire ranging from the great roles of the operetta repertoire to Verdi and Puccini and on to Richard Strauss.
From 2008 to 2013 he was a member of the ensemble at Theater Lübeck, where he was awarded the Jürgen Fehling Theater Prize in 2013.
An engagement at the Staatstheater Meiningen followed (2014/15), before he worked freelance across Europe from the 2015/16 season onward — including debuts at the Aalto Theater Essen and the Landestheater Linz, as well as role debuts as Ruggero in Puccini's "La Rondine" and as Edwin in Kálmán's "Die Csárdásfürstin."
Further guest engagements took him to, among others, Theater Aachen, Staatsoperette Dresden, Staatstheater Darmstadt, Oper Leipzig, Theater Bremen, Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, Oper Wuppertal, Volkstheater Rostock, Theater Krefeld/Mönchengladbach, Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, Stadttheater Bern, Teatro Carlo Felice Genoa, Teatro Regio di Parma, Teatro Sociale di Como, and Oper Krakau.
Since 2018, Daniel Szeili has increasingly devoted himself to the young dramatic (jugendlich-dramatisch) repertoire.
As an ensemble member of the Danish National Opera in Aarhus (2018/19), he made his debut as Walter in Weinberg's "Die Passagierin" and as Don José in Bizet's "Carmen."
In 2019, he sang the Elector of Saxony there in the Scandinavian premiere of Paul von Klenau's "Michael Kohlhaas," which was broadcast live on Danish radio. In the 2021/22 season, he returned to the house as the Hotel Director/1st Journalist in the world premiere of "Inkognito Royale" — a production that was nominated for the prestigious Reumert Prize in the category "Opera of the Year." In the same period, he sang Florizel at the Wexford Festival Opera in Karl Goldmark's rarely performed opera "A Winter's Tale," which was recorded live and broadcast by, among others, OE1, NDR, WDR, and RTÉ.
Daniel Szeili is also a welcome guest at numerous festivals and on the concert stage. In 2006 he made his debut at the Opernfestspiele Heidenheim, and in 2011 he appeared for the first time at the Italian Festival della Valle d'Itria. The Emilia Romagna Festival followed in 2012. In 2013 he made his debut at Wexford Festival Opera, and in 2016 he achieved great success at the Internationale Gluck-Festspiele in Nuremberg. He has given concerts at, among other venues, St John's Smith Square in London, the Philharmonie Essen, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the MuK Lübeck, the Isarphilharmonie, and the Liederhalle Stuttgart.
In 2022 he made his debut at the Münchener Opernfestspiele at the Prinzregententheater, where, in the gala concert "Voices for Verdi and Wagner," he sang, among other pieces, Stolzing's aria "Morgenlich leuchtend.." from Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg." In 2023 he made his debut as Siegmund in Wagner's "Die Walküre" in concert performances in Nuremberg and Munich under Joseph Bastian. In 2024 followed the tenor solo in Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Munich Symphony Orchestra (Münchener Sinfoniker), again under the direction of Joseph Bastian. At the start of 2025, he sang the aria of Calaf, "Nessun dorma," at the New Year's concert in Budapest before 15,000 spectators.
He has worked with directors such as Sandra Leupold, Anthony Pilavachi, Ben Baur, Alexander Schulin, Thaddeus Strassberger, Karl Absenger, Axel Köhler, Rosetta Cucchi and Philipp Kochheim, and performs in concert with orchestras including the Nürnberger Symphoniker, the Leipziger Symphoniker, the Thüringer Philharmonie Gotha, the Festival Orchester Basel, the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, the Prague Philharmonic, the Copenhagen Phil, the symphony orchestras of Aarhus and Aalborg, and the Munich Symphony Orchestra.
In the past 2025/26 season, Daniel Szeili made his house debut at the Staatstheater Regensburg in John Corigliano's "The Ghosts of Versailles," as well as at Oper Halle as Edwin in "Die Csárdásfürstin."
