George Petean

One of the most sought after Verdian baritones of our time, George Petean appears regularly at the major opera houses in the world, such as the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Zurich Opera House, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Bavarian State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Semperoper Dresden, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Teatro alla Scala, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and others.

Petean studied piano, trombone, and singing at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in his native town of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. After graduation, he continued to study singing with Vicente Sardinero and Giorgio Zancanaro. His professional stage debut occurred in 1997 at the Romanian National Opera in Timișoara in the title role of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. In 1999, he won the Grand Prix at the Hariclea Darclée International Voice Competition in Romania and soon after made his international debut as Marcello in Puccini’s La Bohème at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome.

Petean’s repertoire is mainly based on Giuseppe Verdi’s works, but it also includes roles from 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 Pagliacci, and Giordano’s Andrea Chénier. A truly Verdian baritone, he was Riccardo Muti’s Simon Boccanegra for the 2012/13 season opening at Teatro dell’Opera in Rome as well as Riccardo Chailly’s Ezio in Verdi’s Attila at the Teatro alla Scala for the 2018/19 season opening.