Rainer Trost was born in Stuttgart and studied voice in Munich with Adalbert Kraus. At the age of 26, he made his first international breakthrough, courtesy of John Eliot Gardiner, singing Ferrando in “Così fan tutte” in Paris and on tour with the maestro and subsequently recording the role with him for Polydor. This launched him as an internationally sought-after Mozart tenor who has by now sung in all important opera houses (Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra Bastille, Palais Garnier and Metropolitan Opera New York, as well as the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Salzburg Festival).
He has already been a guest at the Semperoper Dresden (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), at the State Operas in Vienna and Hamburg (Die Fledermaus), at the Welsh National Opera (Moses und Aron) and he was singing Alfonso in Schuberts “Alfonso und Estrella“ in Cagliari, Fenton in Munich, Flamand (Capriccio) in Paris, Tamino in Tokio, Athen, San Diego Dresden and the Bregenz Festival, David (Meistersinger) in Toulouse, Dionysos (Die Bassariden) at the Châtelet in Paris, Hexe from “Hänsel und Gretel“ at the Bavarian State Opera, Marquis Ernesto from Haydn’s “La vera costanza“ in Cologne, Leukippos (Daphne) in Amsterdam, “La clemenza di Tito“ in Leipzig or Arbace in Dieter Dorn’s acclaimed staging of “Idomeneo” at the Munich Opera Festival. He further expanded his extensive repertoire by singing Pylades in Gluck’s “Iphigénie en Tauride” and Alfred in “Die Fledermaus”, both at the Theater an der Wien.
His concert calendar includes rarely performed works such as “Samuele” by Simon Mayr, as well as Mendelssohn’s “Elias” and Händel’s “Messiah”. At the Edinburgh Festival 2010 he sang in a concert performance of “Idomeneo” under Sir Charles Mackerras. On the concert podium, Rainer Trost belongs to the most sought-after Evangelists of his generation. Highlights of his activity as a concert singer were appearances with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, at the Musikhalle Hamburg, Tonhalle Zurich, Tonhalle Dusseldorf, Musikverein in Vienna, Munich Gasteig, Prinzregententheater Munich and Gulbenkian Lisbon.
He has worked with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt,
Carlo Maria Giulini, Frans Brüggen, Ton Koopman, Helmuth Rilling, Seiji Ozawa and Trevor Pinnock.
Highlights in the past seasons were engagements at the Bavarian State Opera (Lulu), at the Vienna State Opera (Ariodante), at the Hamburg State Opera (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria), at the Theater an der Wien (Alcina) or at the Bayreuth Festival (Der fliegende Holländer).
Besides the aforementioned “Così fan tutte” with J.E. Gardiner, he has recorded the following CDs: “La clemenza di Tito“ under Sir Charles Mackerras, “The Merry Widow“ under J.E. Gardiner, Mendelssohn’s “Paulus”, Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” and “Fidelio” (under Sir Simon Rattle) and Schubert’s “Die schöne Müllerin”. In September 2008 a CD was released in the “Schubert‘s Friends“- series for Naxos Records: accompanied by Ulrich Eisenlohr, he sings lieder by Franz Schubert.
MusicWeb International wrote of this all-Schubert recording: “The tenor sings with a glow and a plangent tone that recalls Fritz Wunderlich“.