George Gagnidze |

George Gagnidze

“Georgian baritone Georgy Gagnidze appeared as an impressively formidable Scarpia, carrying powerful vital energy and seductive lyricism in his singing, that aura that reveals all his bewitching nature in the villain,” with these words Georgy Gagnidze met New York Timeswhen in 2008 he performed in Puccini’s Tosca on stage Avery Fisher-Hall new york Lincoln Center. A year later, all in the same New York on the stage of the theater Metropolitan Opera the singer made a sensational debut in the title role of Verdi’s opera Rigoletto – since then he has been confidently among the world’s leading performers of the dramatic baritone role.

The singer regularly receives invitations from the most prestigious international opera houses and his upcoming engagements for the 2021/2022 season include Scarpia in Tosca in Metropolitan Opera, Amonasro in «Aide» Verdi in Los Angeles Opera and the title role in Verdi’s Nabucco at the Madrid Royal Theatre. In the 2020/2021 season, the singer appeared on stage in such iconic dramatic baritone roles as Barnaba in Ponchielli’s Gioconda (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Germont in “La Traviata” (Great Theater of the Liceu in Barcelona and Teatro San Carlo in Naples) and Macbeth in Verdi’s opera of the same name (Opera of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria). In addition, he had to sing Rigoletto (San Francisco Opera), Amonasro and Nabucco (Metropolitan Opera), as well as Iago in Verdi’s Otello with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these projects did not take place.

Among the artist’s engagements in the 2019/2020 season is a debut at the London Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Germont), Nabucco (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Scarpia (Teatro San Carlo) and Iago (the part that debuted at the Washington National Opera). That season, due to the pandemic, the singer’s performances as Iago in Mannheim and Scarpia in Metropolitan Opera.

Other moments of the performer’s career in previous seasons include Rigoletto and Macbeth, Scarpia and Michele in Puccini’s The Cloak, Tonio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Alfio in Mascagni’s Rustic Honor, Shakovlity in Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina and Amonasro (Metropolitan Opera); Nabucco and Scarpia (Vienna State Opera); Rigoletto and Germont, Scarpia and Amonasro (Teatro alla Scala); Iago, Germont, Scarpia, Amonasro and Gianciotto in Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini (National Opera of Paris); Amonasro, Scarpia and the title role in Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegre” (Royal Theatre); Gerard in “André Chénier” by Giordano and Amonasro (San Francisco Opera); Rigoletto at the Aix-en-Provence festival; Tonio in Pagliacci and Alfio (Great Theater of the Liceu); Rigoletto and Tonio (Los Angeles Opera); Rigoletto, Gerard and Scarpia (Deutsche Oper Berlin); Miller in Verdi’s Louise Miller (Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia); Nabucco and Germont (Arena di Verona); Shaklovity (BBC Proms in London); Iago (Deutsche Oper Berlin, Greek National Opera in Athens, Hamburg State Opera). In Hamburg, the singer also performed in Rural Honor and Pagliacci.

Giorgi Gagnidze was born in Tbilisi and graduated from the State Conservatory in his hometown. Here, in 1996, he made his debut as Renato in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera on the stage of the Georgian State Opera and Ballet Theater named after Paliashvili. In 2005, he entered the International Competition “Verdi Voices” in Busseto (Concorso Voci verdiane) as the winner of the Leila Gencher International Competition for Vocalists and the II International Competition for Young Opera Singers of Elena Obraztsova (III prize, 2001). At the “Verdi Voices” competition, in which Jose Carreras and Katya Ricciarelli were on the jury, Georgy Gagnidze was awarded the XNUMXst prize for outstanding vocal interpretation. After starting his international career as a singer in Germany, many other famous opera houses around the world soon began to invite him.

In the process of formation and development of his performing career, Georgy Gagnidze, who today focuses mainly on the role of the heroic dramatic baritone, worked with many famous conductors. Among them are James Conlon, Semyon Bychkov, Placido Domingo, Gustavo Dudamel, Mikko Frank, Jesus Lopez Cobos, James Levine, Fabio Luisi, Nicola Luisotti, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Meta, Gianandrea Noseda, Daniel Oren, Yuri Temirkanov and Kirill Petrenko. Among the directors in whose productions he has participated are such well-known names as Luke Bondy, Henning Brockhaus, Liliana Cavani, Robert Carsen, Giancarlo del Monaco, Michael Mayer, David McVicar, Peter Stein, Robert Sturua and Francesca Zambello.

Artist recordings on DVD (Blu-Ray) include “Tosca” from the theater Metropolitan Opera, “Aida” from Teatro alla Scala and Nabucco Arena di Verona. In September 2021, the performer’s first solo audio CD was released with recordings of opera arias, the main layer of which were arias from Verdi’s operas.

Photo: Dario Acosta