Arne Döpke

I met Chris briefly in 2018 when we were both watching the rehearsals of the Royal Opera House’s Ring Cycle, and I’m still struck by his effortless warmth and the kindness he radiated.  On one day, he and I followed the music using a single score and it makes me smile to remember how clearly…

College was a really formative time in my life. I know that this was the case for Zeke. That he embraced the freedom to rediscover himself is signaled most obviously by the fact that all of us who met him in Hanover know him as Zeke, not as Chris or Christopher. In fact, because the…

I’m a Canadian opera singer, and in spring 2014 I was a guest artist at the Munich Staatsoper for a new production of Zimmerman’s Die Soldaten. It was a huge production, and one of the most fulfilling experiences of my career. It was also the first time I had ever worked with a prompter. In…

This performance of Biber’s Passacaglia is for Chris. I thought of this piece specifically for him since the descending ground bass is often interpreted as the steps that a human being takes as they walk through life. In fact, this piece is also called the “Guardian Angel” and there is an engraving of an angel…

Christopher – or Zeke, as we called him at Dartmouth – and I became dear friends in college despite never having taken a single class together. We have always shared a love of languages and as undergraduates, we had a common (and very lucrative!) side job as teaching assistants for introductory French and German courses….