Biography

Samuel Berlad is a bass-baritone and has been a member of the Harztheater ensemble in Halberstadt, Germany, since 2022.

Opera

His roles at Harztheater include Alberich in Wagner’s Das Rheingold, Hunding in Die Walküre, Vodník in Dvořák’s Rusalka, Schaunard in Puccini’s La Bohème and Bassa Selim in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail. In The Blues Brothers, he has appeared as Curtis, James Brown and Ray Charles. His roles in the 2026/27 season are the Corporal/Count von Sandau in Das Wirtshaus im Spessart, Bartolo in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and Alberich in Wagner’s Siegfried.

His wider operatic repertoire includes Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Collatinus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen, Belcore in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and Emperor Overall in Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis. He has performed in opera and concert in Germany, Israel, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2016, he was a Britten-Pears Young Artist at the Aldeburgh Festival.

Concerts & Song

In 2024, Berlad gave the premiere of Dr. Ido Ariel’s Hebrew translation of Schubert’s complete song cycle Die schöne Müllerin. In 2021, he performed Schubert songs at the Israel Schubertiade. His song and concert repertoire ranges from Bach and Handel through Schubert, Schumann and Brahms to the twentieth century, and includes Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem and Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel.

Israel

Berlad lived in Jerusalem from 2012 to 2022 and was active in Israel’s musical life throughout those years. He performed with Jerusalem Opera, Haifa Opera, the Israel Chamber Orchestra and Sinfonietta Beer Sheva, among others. Israel has also remained an important part of his work as a song recitalist.

Cantorial Work

Jewish liturgical music has been part of Berlad’s life since childhood. Alongside his opera and concert work, he continues to serve regularly as a cantor. He trained at the Tel Aviv Cantorial Institute, where his teachers included the late Naftali Herstik and Raymond Goldstein.

Education

Berlad holds a Diplom in Gesangspädagogik (vocal pedagogy) from the Wiesbadener Musikakademie / Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt and a Master of Music in Opera from the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt.