René Pape was born in Dresden and has been a member of the Berlin Staatsoper since 1988. He made his performance debut in that theatre and has since sung many of the great roles from his repertoire there, including King Marke in Tristan und Isolde, King Heinrich in Lohengrin, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Rocco in Fidelio, Fasolt in Das Rheingold, Hunding in Die Walküre, Wotan in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, Leporello and the title role in Don Giovanni, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Ramfis in Aida, Orestes in Elektra, and the title role in Boris Godunov (for which he was named Artist of the Year in 2006 by the German critics).

He has also made regular guest appearances at the New York Metropolitan Opera, where he has performed each season since 1995 as, among others, Méphistophélès (Faust), Gurnemanz (Parsifal), Escamillo (Carmen), King Marke, King Heinrich, Rocco, Leporello, Pogner, and Hunding. He has sung at the Bayreuth Festival, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Paris Opera (King Marke, Philip II in Don Carlo, King Heinrich in Lohengrin, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte), Chicago’s Lyric Opera, the Salzburg Festival, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Verbier Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Chorégies d’Orange, and Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper… 

He also sings in recital and in concert with some of the world’s great orchestras (the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker…) under the baton of Sir Colin Davis, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Daniel Barenboim, Semyon Bychkov, Franz Welser-Möst, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Zubin Mehta, etc. 
His many recordings include Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Sir Georg Solti), Lohengrin, Tannhäuser and an album devoted to Wagner with the Berlin Staatskapelle and Daniel Barenboim, Tristan und Isolde (Antonio Pappano), Parsifal, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre (Valery Gergiev), Die Zauberflöte (Claudio Abbado), Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s The Creation and The Seasons (Sir Georg Solti), Verdi’s Requiem (Antonio Pappano, Daniel Barenboim) as well as numerous DVDs and opera broadcasts.