Daniel Behle is an artist who moves effortlessly between the different worlds of music. One of the most versatile tenors of his generation, he is equally at home on the opera stage, in the concert hall and in the intimate setting of the Lied recital. His exceptionally broad repertoire ranges from Baroque masterpieces to the great Classical and Romantic roles and extends to works of the 20th and 21st centuries. His artistry is characterised by remarkable stylistic versatility, a unique sense of musical phrasing, exceptional textual clarity and a profound commitment to interpretation.
The 2026/27 season brings Daniel Behle a series of major international highlights. At the Vienna State Opera, he will perform the role of Bacchus in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos under the musical direction of Franz Welser-Möst. With the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Daniele Gatti, he will appear in Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah. At Teatro alla Scala in Milan, he will make his role debut as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Together with the SWR Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic under Franz Welser-Möst, he will perform Beethoven’s Missa solemnis. Another major milestone will be his role debut as Parsifal in Dornach.
Daniel Behle is a regular guest at Europe’s leading opera houses, including the Vienna State Opera, Teatro alla Scala Milan, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, the Bavarian State Opera Munich, the Staatsoper Stuttgart, the Semperoper Dresden and the Dutch National Opera Amsterdam. His engagements have also taken him to the Salzburg Festival, the Salzburg Whitsun Festival and the Bayreuth Festival. His operatic repertoire encompasses major Mozart roles, the great Strauss parts as well as demanding roles from the Wagner repertoire.
As a concert artist, Daniel Behle collaborates regularly with some of the world’s most renowned orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Munich Radio Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. His artistic partnerships include collaborations with conductors such as Franz Welser-Möst, Daniele Gatti, Kirill Petrenko, Adam Fischer, Pablo Heras-Casado, Christian Thielemann, Philippe Jordan, Fabio Luisi, Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowski, Semyon Bychkov, Marc Albrecht, Bertrand de Billy, Marek Janowski, Andrew Manze, Ingo Metzmacher, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Lorenzo Viotti.
The Lied repertoire holds a special place in Daniel Behle’s artistic life. His recitals have taken him to prestigious venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall London, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the KKL Lucerne and the Musikverein Vienna. With his combination of linguistic precision, chamber-music sensitivity and stylistic openness, he has established himself as one of the outstanding Lied interpreters of his generation.
Alongside his international career as a singer, Daniel Behle is increasingly recognised as a composer. His compositions and arrangements for tenor and piano trio reflect his deep connection with musical traditions while opening new perspectives on familiar repertoire. His first operetta, Hopfen und Malz, was performed at several German opera houses in 2023; his second operetta, Der Schmetterling, has now been completed.
Daniel Behle’s extensive discography reflects the extraordinary breadth of his artistic work. Recent releases that received particular acclaim include his second Strauss album Un-Erhört with pianist Oliver Schnyder (Prospero Classical), Heimat with German Hornsound (Prospero), and the Beethoven album Gegenliebe with Jan Schultsz on fortepiano (Pan Classics). For his aria album MoZart, Daniel Behle received the OPUS KLASSIK Award for “Singer of the Year” in 2020. In 2024, he was honoured with the Ehrenpreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik (Honorary Award of the German Record Critics’ Award).
Daniel Behle was born in Hamburg and lives with his family in Basel.