Paata Burchuladze (Bass)
Born in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on
the 12th of February 1955. He received his vocal education in his hometown with
Olimpi Khelashvili. Together with fsome artists from the former USSR, he was
chosen to participate in finishing studies with Giulietta Simionato and Edoardo
Mueller at Milan's Teatro alla Scala. In 1981 he emerged as winner from the
international vocal competition Voci Verdiane in Busseto and he won the gold
medal and the first prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow the following
year. In 1985 he triumphed again at the International Luciano Pavarotti
Competition. He first caused a major sensation at London's Royal Opera House,
where he made his debut with «Aida» alongside Katia Ricciarelli and Luciano
Pavarotti and conducted by Zubin Mehta. He conquered all the major opera houses
around the world: Teatro all Scala, the Bavarian State Opera, the Hamburg State
Opera, the Opera National de Paris, the San Francisco Opera, Washington Opera as
well as the Metropolitan Opera New York. Invited by Herbert von Karajan (who
referred to him as the second Shalyapin) he sang Commendatore in Mozart's «Don
Giovanni» at Salzburg Festival in 1987 and with this legendary conductor he
starred in the Requiem Masses by Verdi and Mozart as well. Paata Burchuladze
received special acclaim for this portrayal of Boris Godunov he was invited to
inaugurate the Met season 1990/91 with that role which he sang at Covent Garden
and the State Operas of Vienna and Munich as well (the latter opera company saw
him singing his 100th performance of Boris in July 1995). Apart from his
operatic fame, Paata Burchuladze is a celebrated and refined concert and recital
singer as well, performing regularly with the most important festivals and
producers worldwide (La Scala, Musikverein and Konzerthaus Vienna, Salzburg
Festival, Covent Garden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bavarian State Opera,
Stuttgart State Opera, Tonhalle Zurich, La Monnaie in Brussels, La Bastille and
Salle Gaveau in Paris, Solothurn, the Palau in Barcelona, Sevilla, Warsaw and
Moscow etc.). Mr. Burchuladze's discography comprises «Il Barbiere di Siviglia»,
«Simon Boccanegra», «Aida» and «Ernani» for Decca, Mozart's «Don Giovanni» and
Requiem, «La Forza del Destino», «Eugeny Onegin» and «Khovanshchina» with
Deutsche Grammophon, «Rigoletto» with EMI, «La Boheme» and «Nabucco» with
Koch-Schwann as well as «Samson et Dalila» for Philips. The State Opera of
Stuttgart awarded his loyalty with the Kammers?nger title in July 1998.
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