GEORGE GAGNIDZE
Baritone
Born in Tbilisi and trained at the State Conservatory of his home town, George Gagnidze debuted as Renato in Un ballo in maschera in 1996 at the Paliashvili State Opera. He is a winner of the “Concorso Voci Verdiane” 2005 and of the “Leyla Gencer Voice Competition” as well as the “Elena Obraztsova Competition”. After launching his international career from Germany, he was soon engaged by many of the world's important opera houses.
In 2009 he made his sensational debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Rigoletto, and has since then ranked among the leading singers of his genre.
Career highlights include the title role of Macbeth; Tosca (Scarpia), Aida (Amonasro), Pagliacci (Tonio), Cavalleria rusticana (Alfio) and Hovanščina at the Metropolitan Opera, Nabucco (title role)
and Tosca at the Vienna State Opera, Rigoletto, La traviata (Germont), Tosca and Aida at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Tosca, Aida and Francesca da Rimini at Opéra National of Paris, Simon
Boccanegra (title role) at the Teatro Real di Madrid, Rigoletto at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence,
Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci at Gran Teatro del Liceu of Barcelona, La traviata at the Arena
of Verona, and Otello (Iago) at Hamburg State Opera.
Among his engagements of the 2016/17 season are his role debut as Carlo Gérard in Andrea Chénier and Amonasro in Aida at the San Francisco Opera, Aida at the Metropolitan Opera, Andrea Chénier and Tosca at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Nabucco in a new production at the Arena of Verona as well as Šakovlity in Hovanščina for his debut at the BBC Proms.
Performances of the 2017/18 season include Tonio in Pagliacci at the Metropolitan Opera, Alfio in
Cavalleria rusticana and Tonio in Pagliacci at the Hamburg State Opera, Amonasro in Aida at the Teatro Real of Madrid and his role debut as Barnaba in La Gioconda at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
LEONARDO LÓPEZ LINARES
Baritone
Born in Buenos Aires, soprano Iris Canepa and baritone Pedro Linares' son, Leonardo made his debut at fourteen at the Municipal Theatre of Vina del Mar in Chile and then joined the chorus of the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.
He deserved special mentions at the «Traviata 2000 Competition» with Lorin Maazel, President of the jury, and at the «Belvedere Competition» in Vienna. In 1995 he won the fifth Contest «Luciano Pavarotti»; in Philadelphia, next to the famous tenor.
On the occasion of the reopening of the Teatro Avenida in Buenos Aires, he participated in La Verbena de la Paloma by Tomas Breton, later resumed at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, and at the production of Luisa Fernanda by Moreno Torroba.
He made his debut in the role of Scarpia at Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, sang La Bohéme in Chile, Don Carlo, Aida and Nabucco by Verdi and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci at the Teatro Argentino de la Plata; Rigoletto in Buenos Aires and Bogota; Medea in Buenos Aires; Carmen in Bogota; Il Trovatore in Montevideo; Fidelio, Tosca, Nabucco, La Forza del Destino and I Masnadieri in Argentina.
He sang two concerts at the Carnegie Hall in New York accompanied by the "New England Symphony Orchestra".
In Italy he sang La Bohème, Il Corsaro and Alzira in Rome, Luisa Miller and La Bohème at the Teatro Regio di Parma; Nabucco, La Traviata and Carmen at the Politeama in Lecce and even Nabucco at Teatro Cilea di Reggio Calabria, La Traviata at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo and La Battaglia di Legnano in Trieste.
At the Arena di Verona he debuted in 2010 as Ping in Turandot and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly; in 2011 he made his debut at the Teatro Filarmonico in Falstaff and at the Arena he performed the roles of Amonasro in Aida and Nabucco.
In 2012 he was again Amonasro at the Arena di Verona and performed Scarpia in Tosca at Torre del Lago Puccini.
in 2013 he was Renato in Un Ballo in Maschera in Las Palmas and took part in Il Trovatore on tour in South America. He sang again Nabucco at the Arena, Falstaff in Gozo and Amonasro in Montevideo.
In 2014 he was Marcello in La Bohème in Montevideo.
He received the award for best singer by the music critics of Argentina and the title of Honorary Guest from the government of the province of Santa Fè.
He sang Tosca and Nabucco at the Teatro Argentino de La Plata and a Zarzuela Gala with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Montevideo, directed by Manuel Coves.
During the summer season 2015 of the Arena di Verona he sang in the Aida, then during a production of Falstaff in Sao Paolo in Brasil and in November he’s Iago (Otello) at the Sodre of Montevideo and at Teatro del Circulo de Rosario of Santa Fe.
In 2017 he debuted the role of Baldassare in L’Arlesiana at Teatro Roma of Avallaneda.
BORIS STATSENKO
Baritone
Born in in the town of Korkino, Chelyabinsk province, in the Urals. He studied at Chelyabinsk Music School (G. Gavrilov’s class), and the Moscow Conservatoire (Professor Hugo Tits’s class) where he was also a post-graduate (Professor Pyotr Skusnichenko’s class).
Future engagements include Tomskii/Queen of Spades at Norwegian National Opera in Oslo, Scarpia/Tosca in Sassari, Wolfram/2 Act of Tannnhäuser at the 100 Anniversary Jury Ljubimov Gala Concert at Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Amonastro/Aida, Scarpia/Tosca and Nabucco at Arena di Verona, Rachmaninov's Bells with Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk Orchestra, Scarpia/Tosca at Prague National Opera, Iago/Otello, Amonastro/Aida, Scarpia/Tosca, Le coq d’or/König Dodon at Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf, Gianni Schicchi in Taiwan and Frà Melitone/La forza del Destino at Opera Tel Aviv.
He was a prizewinner at the Maria Callas Competition (Greece, 1989), and the Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow, 1990). In 1987, he joined Boris Pokrovsky’s Moscow Chamber Music Theatre.
From 1990-1995, he was soloist with the Bolshoi Theatre, where he sung upwards of ten roles including such as Silvio (Pagliacci), Yeletsky (The Queen of Spades), Georges Germont (La Traviata), Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Valentin (Faust), Robert (Iolanta)
As Bolshoi Theatre guest soloist he performed Don Carlo (La Forza del Destino), Napoleon (Prokofiev’s War and Peace), Ruprecht (The Fiery Angel), Tomsky (The Queen of Spades), the title role (Nabucco), the title role (Macbeth).
His international engagements include appearances in Hamburg, Dresden, Berlin, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Essen, Cologne, Helsinki, Oslo, Amsterdam, Brussels, Liege, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Marseilles, Paris, Turin, Montpellier, Toulon, Copenhagen, Palermo, Treiste, Tokyo and others.
From 1993-1999, he appeared as guest artist with the Kemnits Opera Company. Since 1999 he has been a soloist with Dusseldorf Opera, where he sang:
Rigoletto, Scarpia (Tosca), Chorebe(Berlioz’s La prise de Troie), Lindorf, Coppelius, Miracle, Dapertutto (Les contes d’Hoffmann), Macbeth, Escamillo (Carmen), Amonasro (Aida), Tonio (I Pagliacci), Amfortas (Parsifal), Gellner (La Wally), Iago(Otello), Renato (Un Ballo in Maschera), Georges Germont (La Traviata), Michele (Il Tabarro), Nabucco,Carlo Gerard (Andrea Chenier).
He participated in the Ludwigsburg Festival pro¬ductions under the direction of Wolfgang Gennenwein, where he has sung the lead baritone roles in Stiffelio, II trovatore, Nabucco, Ernani and Un ballo in maschera.
He has given concert appearances (over 100) in Japan.
He makes regular concert appearances at Lucca Festival and has sung in La Traviata, La forza del destino, Tosca, Rigoletto, La Boheme, Tannhauser, lolanta and The Queen of Spades in Venice, Turin, Padua, Lucca and Rimini.
Together with La Scala soloists, Anna-Caterina Antonacci, Luigi Roni, Claudio Dezderi and Alberto Rinaldi, he appeared in Il barbiere di Siviglia in Germany, France, Italy Belgium and Holland.
In 2003, he sang Nabucco in Athens, Iago in Graz, Count di Luna in Copenhagen, Georges Germont in Oslo, Scarpia and Figaro in Trieste.
In 2004-06, — Scarpia in Bordeaux, Germont in Oslo and Marcello (La Boheme) in Luxembourg and Tel-Aviv, Rigoletto and Carlo Gerard in Graz.
In 2007, — Tomsky in Toulouse.
In 2008, — Rigoletto in Maxico, Scarpia in Budapest.
In 2009, — Nabucco in Graz, Scarpia in Wiesbaden, Tomsky in Tokyo, Rigoletto in New Jersey and Bonn, Ford and Onegin in Prague.
In 2010, — Scarpia in Limoges.
SEBASTIAN CATANA
Baritone
Born in Cluj in Romania, Sebastian Catana is emerging as one of the most interesting Verdi baritones of his generation.
After the first musical studies in his homeland he moved to the USA where he perfected in the training programs of the Seattle Opera and the Baltimore Opera and ranks in numerous American and European Competitions.
In 2001 his operatic debut asThoreinLes Huguenotsat the Carnegie Hall with the Opera Orchestra of New York, in 2003, asSchaunardinLa Bohèmeunder the baton of Daniel Oren, the debut at the Metropolitan Opera, where he will collaborate with supporting roles and singValentininFaust, and in 2007 the European debut asPaoloinSimon Boccanegraat the Teatro Comunale in Bologna.
Sebastian Catana has already interpreted many of the great Verdi baritone roles: the title role inNabucco(West Palm Beach, Philadelphia, New Zeland, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Avenches Opera Festival, Bologna, Tel Aviv, Arena in Verona and Deutsche Oper in Berlin) andMacbeth(Munich Radio Orchestra, Athens, Bratislava),LunainIl Trovatore(Valencia under the batoon of Zubin Mehta and Hong Kong),MillerinLuisa Miller(Lyon, Turin and Malmö),Francesco FoscariinI due Foscari(Trieste),EzioinAttila(Busseto for the Verdi Festival) Giorgio Germont inLa Traviata(Lausanne, Deutsche Oper Berlin),Don Carloin Ernani (Dortmund Festival),FordinFalstaff(Lausanne), Seid inIl Corsaro(Washington Concert Opera).
Among his recent and future engagementshis debut at the Opéra Bastille asScarpiainTosca,AlfioinCavalleria rusticana at Teatro Filarmonico in Verona, the title-role inRigolettoandRenatoinUn ballo in mascheraat Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf,ScarpiainToscaandGermontinLa Traviataat Savonlinna’s Festival,Scarpiain Toscain Hong Kong and in Bari,DemogorgoninLa donna Serpentein Turin,Nabuccoat Rome/Caraccalla, the debut in the role ofAmonasroin Aidaat the Arena,Francesco FoscariinI due Foscariat the Concertgebouwin Amsterdam,GermontinTraviatain Pittsburgh and in Rome, the title role inRigolettoin Trieste and Santiago del Cile,TraviataandToscawith Teatro Massimo in Palermo and in their Japanese Tournèe.