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Kostas Smoriginas

Bass-baritone

  • Kostas Smoriginas is one of the most sought after bass-baritones of today. He made his debut at the Deutsche Staatsoper, Berlin as Escamillo Carmen and has since performed the role with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle (recorded for EMI Classics), the Salzburg Easter Festival, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Santa Fe Music Festival, Dresden Semperoper, and with Beijing’s National Centre for Performing Arts.

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  • During the 2024/25 season, Smoriginas sings Jochanaan Salome with the houses of Hannover, Antwerp and Malmö, and in his return to the Zurich Opera House, performs Verdi Requiem with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and makes his Bayerische Staatsoper debut as Heerrufer des Königs Lohengrin, alongside René Pape and Piotr Beczała.


    Last season, Smoriginas returned to the Royal Opera House for two new productions, as Donner in Barrie Kosky’s Das Rheingold and as Escamillo in Damiano Michieletto’s Carmen, sang Escamillo in Hamburg, and performed Rachmaninov Aleko and Francesca da Rimini with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester. He recently also performed Kurwenal Tristan und Isolde for the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía and sang Orest in a concert performance of Elektra with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano.


    Previous engagements include: Elektra in concert at the Bergen International Festival conducted by Edward Gardner; title role Eugene Onegin for the Opéra de Lausanne; Escamillo for the Norwegian Opera and Cologne Opera; Escamillo and Monterone Rigoletto for the Bregenz Festival; an Eastern European tour with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra under Karel Mark Chichon; Escamillo in Barrie Kosky’s production of Carmen, Heerrufer in David Alden’s new Lohengrin, and Tchelakov in Boris Godunov at the Royal Opera House; Scarpia Tosca at Opéra de Rouen; Jochanaan in Cologne and for the Hannover State Opera; Kurwenal Tristan und Isolde in Cologne and in concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Andris Nelsons) at Carnegie Hall; the title role Don Giovanni at Opéra de Lausanne; Figaro Le nozze di Figaro in Dresden; Escamillo, Tomsky Pique Dame, Eugene Onegin and Figaro for Lithuanian National Opera; Count Le nozze di Figaro in Malmo; and the title roles of Aleko and The Demon at La Monnaie. He made his US opera debut in 2010 as Figaro Le nozze di Figaro at Washington National Opera, and has also performed with the San Francisco Opera, Teatro Municipal Santiago, Opera de Bordeaux, New Israeli Opera, Vilnius City Opera, Aix-en-Provence Festival and Teatro alla Scala Milan.


    In high demand on the concert platform, engagements have included Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (Edward Gardner) and London Symphony Orchestra (Valery Gergiev), Stravinsky Les Noces and Beethoven Symphony No. 9 at the BBC Proms, Dvorak Te Deum with the Orchestre de Paris, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Rachmaninov The Bells with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Andris Nelsons) and Shostakovich Symphony No. 13 with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. He recorded the role of Pietro Simon Boccanegra alongside Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Ildar Abdrazakov and Barbara Frittoli.


    Smoriginas studied at the Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy before representing his country at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. He graduated from the Royal College of Music and was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House.

    2024/25 season / 537 words. Not to be altered without permission.

Performances

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Opera Repertoire

Bartók
Bluebeard Bluebeard’s Castle

Beethoven
Pizzaro Fidelio

Bizet
Escamillo Carmen

Donizetti
Enrico Lucia di Lammermoor

Leoncavallo
Tonio Pagliacci

Mozart
Don Giovanni Don Giovanni  
Il conte, Figaro Le nozze di Figaro

Mussorgsky
Boris, Shchelkalov, Varlaam Boris Godunov

Puccini
Sharpless Madama Butterfly 
Scarpia Tosca

Rachmaninov
Aleko Aleko
Malatesta Francesca da Rimini

Rubinstein
Demon The Demon

Shostakovich
Boris Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk 

Strauss, R.
Jochanaan Salome 
Orest Elektra

Tchaikovsky
Eugene Onegin Eugene Onegin
Tomsky Pique Dame  

Verdi
Amonasro Aida  
Giorgio Germont La traviata  
Paolo, Boccanegra* Simon Boccanegra
Macbeth* Macbeth

Wagner
Heerrufer, Telramund* Lohengrin
Kurwenal Tristan und Isolde 
Donner, Fasolt Das Rheingold 
Holländer* Der fliegende Holländer 
Amfortas* Parsifal

Saint-Saëns
High Priest of Dagon Samson et Dalila



*In Preparation

'Finally, we are pleased to find the excellent Kostas Smoriginas in the title role: this long voice, favored by remarkable breath management, asserts an equal color across the entire register...'

Anaclase, April 2022

'The vocal cast is dominated by Kostas Smoriginas as Scarpia, a young Machiavellian seducer who sings as well as he plays.'

Resmusica, March 2020

'The stunning bass-baritone Kostas Smoriginas plays an animalistic Jochanaan, a dark and disillusioned soul who physically tires out repeating his self-proclaimed religious truths.'

Opera Online, September 2021

Intermusica represents Kostas Smoriginas worldwide.

Jonathan Turnbull
Associate Artist Manager, Vocal & Opera
+44 20 7608 9907
jturnbull@intermusica.com

Natasha Worsley
Associate Director, Vocal & Opera
+44 (0) 7870 979 794

All artists

Chansonnier

HK Gruber

Counter-tenor

Tim Mead

Harpsichord

Richard Egarr

Piano accompanist

Roger Vignoles

Saxophone

Jess Gillam

Contralto

Avery Amereau