German bass Patrick Zielke is celebrated by audiences and the press alike for his outstanding role interpretations. For his portrayal of Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier at Theater Bremen, he was awarded the prestigious German theater prize “Der Faust” in the category “Best Singer-Actor in Opera (Musiktheater)”.

Patrick Zielke made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival in 2025 as Fasolt (Das Rheingold) and as Hans Folz in the new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. In the current 2025/26 season, he gave his role debut as King Henry the Fowler in the new production of Lohengrin at the Mannheim National Theater. In additional house debuts, he can be seen as Baron Ochs in the new production of Der Rosenkavalier at the Royal Danish Opera House and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in Zar und Zimmermann as van Bett. In addition, he will appear as Hagen in Richard Wagner’s historically informed Ring under the baton of Kent Nagano in Prague, Paris, Cologne, Dresden, and Lucerne. Concert engagement include amongst others Verdi’s Requiem with the Prague Symphony Orchestra under Tomáš Brauner.

In the 2024/25 season, he made his house debut at the Berlin State Opera, where he was heard as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte and Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro. Further, he performed on the stage of the Baden State Theater in Karlsruhe as Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier and as Hagen in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung at the Basel Theater.

Following his great success as Ochs in the 2021/22 season, he returned to the Nurnberg State Theatre as Gurnemanz in the new production of Parsifal in the 2023/24 season. He also performed Hunding in a historically informed production of Die Walküre under the baton of Kent Nagano, with concerts at the Prague State Opera, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Cologne Philharmonic, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, and the Lucerne Festival.

In 2022/23, he made his debut at the Stuttgart State Opera as Hagen/Alberich in Götterdämmerung, and as Dikoj in Káťja Kabanová at Theater Bremen as Filippo II (Don Carlo). Other recent guest appearances have taken him as Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte) to Basel Theater and to Frankfurt Opera as Peneios (Daphne).

Patrick Zielke has been a member of the Mannheim National Theatre ensemble since the 2017/18 season, where he gave his role debuts as Ochs, King Marke (Tristan und Isolde), Rocco (Fidelio), Fafner, Hunding and Hagen in Der Ring des Nibelungen, Landgrave Hermann in Tannhäuser, and in the title role of Boris Godunov.

Patrick Zielke completed his vocal studies at the Stuttgart University of Music with Dunja Vejzović. He is a prizewinner of the Concours Ernst Haefliger and the International Richard Wagner Competition.
After a two-year engagement at the Lucerne Theater, he joined the ensemble of the Bremen Theater, where he made his debuts as Daland (Der fliegende Holländer), Gurnemanz (Parsifal), Boris Ismailov (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) and Gianni Schicchi in Gicomo Puccini’s opera of the same name.