Mandla Mndebele is an ensemble member of Theater Dortmund, where he opens the 22/23 season as Ruggiero in Halévy’s La juive, and Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte. He has recently performed on the same stage Hilpéric in Frédégonde and Joe Coltello in Bernhard Lang’s Der Hetzer, followed by Scarpia in Tosca. His other recent engagements in Dortmund included Sharpless in Madam Butterfly, Pietro in Auber’s La muette de Portici, Montézuma in Fernand Cortez oder Die Eroberung von Mexiko, and Telramund in Neverland. He has been also invited to embody Filippo Maria Visconti in Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda for Nationaltheater Mannheim.

Earlier he performed Escamillo in Carmen at DomStufen Festspiele in Erfurt and did a very successful Amonasro at the new production of Aida and Haremhab in Philip Glass’ Echnaton at Theater Dortmund. Mandla Mndebele graduated from the Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria. He was a member of the Black Tie chorus ensemble. The young baritone then first became a member of the Opera Studio in Cape Town and later joined the ensemble there. He appeared as Crown in Porgy and Bess in Barcelona in 2014, in Madrid in 2015 and in Buenos Aires in 2016. He has performed Mandela 3 in the Musical Hommage Mandela Trilogy, Germont in La Traviata, and Don Giovanni among others in South Africa.

Mandla Mndebele got the 3rd Prize in the International Hans Gabor competition 2017 as well as the Prize of the audience. He is also the 1st Prize winner at 2018 Voices of South Africa Trust international competition.