George Petean

George Petean is one of most sought-after verdian baritones of our time. He appears regularly on the most important international opera stages, such as the Vienna Staate Opera, Royal Ballet and Opera Covent Garden, Zurich Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Bavarian State Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Teatro Real Madrid, Teatro alla Scala, and Teatro Comunale di Bologna, amang others.

George studied piano and trombone at the music school in his native Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and later enrolled at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy. He improved his tecnique and artistry with Vicente Sardinero and Giorgio Zancanaro. After graduating, he made his professional stage debut in 1997 in Timisoara in the title-role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. In 1999 he became the Grand Prix winner at the international singing competition “Hariclea Darclée” (Romania), and soon after he made his international debut as Marcello in Puccini’s La Bohème at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. He was a member of Hamburg State Opera between 2002 and 2010, and continued to perform regularly on the most prestigious opera houses in the world. He collaborated with such well-known conductors as Riccardo Muti, Riccardo Chailly, Zubin Mehta, Nicola Luisotti, Fabio Luisi, Marco Armiliato and Renato Palumbo, among others.

His repertoire is mainly based on Giuseppe Verdi’s works, but it also includes among others roles from operas such as Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore and Lucia di Lammermoor, Bellini’s I Puritani and Il Pirata, Puccini’s La Bohème and Madama Butterfly, Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci, and Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chénier.