
- Biography
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Karl Huml was born in Melbourne, Australia. He studied singing at the Victorian College of the
Arts with Rosamund Illing as well as in New York with Ruth Falcon. After finishing his studies with
a diploma in Opera, he was engaged at Opera Australia in Sydney, where he sang in many
productions including La traviata, Billy Budd, Romeo et Juliette, and his first important roles – Il
Frate in Don Carlos and Basilio in Il Barbiere di Sevilla.
As the winner of the German Operatic Award, Karl became a member of the Cologne Opera
Young Artists programme and was heard in Rigoletto, L’amour des trois Oranges, Semele and
others. Upon finishing the programme, he was engaged in Bremen, where he sang roles such as
Ramfis, Sarastro, Colline, Don Basilio, Ferrando, Timur, Eremit and the title role in Don Quichotte.
His next engagement led him to the Volksoper in Vienna, where he was heard as Sarastro, Timur,
Il Commendatore, Eremit, Don Basilio, Sparafucile, Crespel, Don Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro and many others.
Karl has performed in many important opera houses around the world such as: Opera Australia
in Sydney as Sarastro; Perth and Melbourne as Sparafucile in The Seven Deadly Sins; Bremen as
Don Quichotte; Staatsoper Hamburg in Salome; Theater Essen in Don Carlo; Rostock in Don
Giovanni, Ermione and Mahagonny; Naples and Florence in Italy. He has also guested at the
Volksoper Vienna, Linz and Klagenfurt in Austria; Biel in Switzerland for Der Kaiser von Atlantis
and in the UK as Daland at the Barbican Center in London. Some of his most recent engagements
include: Faust at Opera di Firenze; Entführung aus dem Serail (Osmin) in Rostock; Werther (Balli)
in Klagenfurt and his first Filippo II at the Opera pa Skaret in Sweden. In the 2018/19 season Karl
will guest as Sarastro at the Teatro Bellini in Catania and the Opera pa Skaret in Sweden, and as
Wurm (Luisa Miller) in Detmold. He will also perform in Klagenfurt’s production of Koma by
Georg Friedrich Haas. In the following season Karl will appear in Angels in America in Vienna and
as The King in Cendrillon in Klagenfurt.
He has made guest appearances at major opera festivals, such as: Wiener Festwochen (Il
Trovatore); Salzburger Festspiele (Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg); Berlin Seefestspiel
(Sarastro in The Magic Flute); St Margarethen Festspiele (Rigoletto) as well as twice to Maggio
Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, where he was recently heard in the new productions of L’amour
des trois Oranges and Albert Herring.
As a concert singer, Karl has performed, among others: Mozart’s Requiem in Sydney; Mozart’s
Mass in C minor in Melbourne; Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 14 at the Philharmonia in Berlin; In
Terra Pax (Frank Martin) and Stabat Mater in Hagen and, in the current season, Verdi’s Requiem
at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and Mozart’s Requiem in Catania. In addition, Karl is a welcome
guest in contemporary music productions. He has performed in a number of world premiere
productions, such as The Players in Cologne, Der Herbst des Patriarchen in Bremen and, recently, Baruchs Schweigen in Fürth and Vienna. He has also performed in Die Nase and in the award-winning production of Pallas Athene weint in Vienna, Lady Macbeth von Mzensk in Klagenfurt and the title role in Tschick at the Theater Hagen.