George Gagnidze
George Gagnidze is one of the leading singers in his field. Born in Tbilisi and trained at the conservatory in his hometown, he made his debut in 1996 as Renato in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera at the Paliashvili Opera House.
As winner of the Leyla Gencer Voice Competition and the Elena Obraztsova Competition, he took part in the Concorso Voci Verdiane singing competition in 2005 and was awarded first prize by the jury chaired by José Carreras and Katia Ricciarelli. After starting his international career in Germany, he was soon hired by leading opera companies around the world. In the 2008/09 season he made his sensational debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera (MET) as Rigoletto in Verdi's opera of the same name and has since returned to the MET for more than 130 performances, including the title role in Verdi's Macbeth, as Amonasro in Verdi's Aida, Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, Michele in Puccini's Il tabarro, Tonio in Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Alfio in Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and as Shaklowity in Modest Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina.
In the 2024/25 season, George Gagnidze can be seen as Scarpia at the MET, as Miller in Verdi's Luisa Miller at the Hamburg State Opera and in a concert performance at the Washington Concert Opera, as Rigoletto at the Opéra de Paris and in his role debut as the Dutchman in Richard Wagner's The Flying Dutchman in St. Margarethen.
Highlights of recent seasons include the title role in Verdi's Nabucco at the MET, his house debuts at the Atlanta Opera and Dallas Opera as Rigoletto, as Macbeth at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna and at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, as Schaklowity at the Berlin State Opera, as Scarpia at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and his role debut as Grand-Prêtre in Camille Saint-Saens' Samson et Dalila at the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden.
Over the course of his career, George Gagnidze has worked with numerous renowned conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, Semyon Bychkov, Plácido Domingo, Gustavo Dudamel, Mikko Franck, Fabio Luisi, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Kirill Petrenko. The directors in whose productions he took part include Luc Bondy, Henning Brockhaus, Liliana Cavani, Robert Carsen, Giancarlo Del Monaco, David McVicar and Peter Stein.
In September 2021, George Gagnidze presented his first solo album with arias by Leoncavallo, Giordano, Verdi, Wagner and Mozart, which was nominated for the prestigious International Classical Music Awards 2022. His DVD/Blu-Ray recordings include Tosca from the Metropolitan Opera, Aida from La Scala, and Nabucco from the Verona Arena.