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“The Georgian baritone George Gagnidze was an exceptionally menacing Scarpia, singing with robust, earthy power and seductive lyricism when the villain turns on the charm”. With these words the New York Times hailed George Gagnidze in a 2008 performance of Tosca at Avery Fisher Hall at the New York Lincoln Center. One year later 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.
Regularly invited by the most prestigious international opera companies, performances of the 2018/19 include his role debut as Michele in Il tabarro and the title role of Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera, Giorgio Germont in La traviata and Iago in Otello at the Paris Opera, Iago at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, his first Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at the Royal Opera House of Muscat in Oman and his house debut at the Teatro San Carlo of Naples as Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana.
Among his engagements of the 2017/18 season were Tonio in Pagliacci and Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana at the Metropolitan Opera and at the Hamburg State Opera, Amonasro in Aida at the Teatro Real Madrid and at the Teatro alla Scala, Iago in Otello with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and his role debut as Barnaba in La Gioconda at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
In the 2016/17 season the star baritone made his debut as Carlo Gérard in Andrea Chénier at the San Francisco Opera, were he also performed Amonasro in Aida, sang Amonasro in Aida at the Metropolitan Opera, Carlo Gérard in Andrea Chénier and Scarpia in Tosca at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the title role of Nabucco in a new production at the Arena of Verona as well as Šakovlity in Hovanščina for his debut at the BBC Proms.
Other past highlights include the title roles in Rigoletto and Macbeth; Tosca (Scarpia), Pagliacci (Tonio), Cavalleria rusticana (Alfio), Aida (Amonasro) 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, Tosca, Francesca da Rimini and Aida at Opéra National of Paris, Simon Boccanegra (title role) and Tosca 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, Rigoletto and Pagliacci at the Los Angeles Opera, Luisa Miller (Miller) at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, La traviata at the Arena of Verona, and Otello (Iago) at The Greek National Opera of Athens.
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 entered the “Concorso Voci Verdiane” in 2005 as an award-winner of the “Leyla Gencer Voice Competition” and the “Elena Obraztsova Competition”. The jury, chaired by José Carreras and Katia Ricciarelli, awarded him first prize for his outstanding vocal interpretation. After launching his international career from Germany, he was soon engaged by many of the world's important opera houses.
In the course of his career, George Gagnidze, who now masters the genre of dramatic heroic baritone, has worked with many renowned conductors and directors, including James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Fabio Luisi, James Conlon, Plácido Domingo, Mikko Franck, Jesús López-Cobos, Nicola Luisotti, Daniel Oren, Gianandrea Noseda, Kirill Petrenko, Yuri Temirkanov; Luc Bondy, Liliana Cavani, Robert Carsen, Peter Stein, Giancarlo Del Monaco, Henning Brockhaus, and Robert Sturua.
His DVD/Blu-Ray recordings include Tosca from the Metropolitan Opera and Aida from La Scala.