Rafał Siwek

Biography

The Polish bass Rafal Siwek has distinguished himself as an interpreter of Verdi’s roles, including Filippo II in Don Carlo in Tel Aviv with Zubin Mehta, Turin, Moscow, Tokio and Warsaw, the Grande Inquisitore at the Milan’s Scala, Munich, Berlin and Zurich, Zaccaria in Nabucco in Verona, Tel Aviv, Genova and Warsaw, Fiesco in Simone Boccanegra in Parma, the title role in Attila in Warsaw, Ramfis in Aida in Munich, Berlin, Zurich, Verona, Rome, São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro with Lorin Maazel and Silva in Ernani in Catania.

Recently sung King Henry in Lohengrin at the Opéra Bastille in Paris, Fiesco in Simone Boccanegra at Concertbebouw in Amsterdam, title role in Boris Godunov at the Poznan Opera, Zaccaria in Nabucco and Ramfis in Aida at the Arena di Verona, Filippo II in Don Carlo, Galitski in Prince Igor and Ivan the Terrible in The Maid of Pskov at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. He made his house debut as Sparafucile in Rigoletto at the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam and returned to PNO in Warsaw as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte and to the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich as the Grande Inquisitore in Don Carlo as well as Ramfis in Aida at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

He appears frequently in Italian theatres, where he has sung Colline in La bohème at the Arena di Verona and at the Teatro Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Count Rodolfo in La Sonnambula at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste, King Mark in a new production of Tristan und Isolde at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Oroveso in Norma at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Wurm in Luisa Miller at the Teatro Regio in Parma and the Teatro Comunale in Modena, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the theatres of Bari, Palermo and Piacenza, and Timur in Turandot at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago.

Rafal Siwek is also an active concert artist. Under the baton of Lorin Maazel, he has sung in Verdi’s Requiem in Milan, Venice, Casablanca, Busseto, Assisi and Jerusalem, and in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Rome, the Vatican, Milan, Brussels and Taormina. He has also worked with Zubin Mehta at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, in Verdi’s Requiem, and at the Teatro Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, in Beethoven’s Ninth. Audiences in Verona have heard Siwek in Rossini’s Stabat Mater, conducted by Alberto Zedda. At the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, he has sung Thibaut d’Arc in Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orleans.

Siwek’s discography includes two recordings of Verdi’s Requiem, under Zubin Mehta for TDK and with Lorin Maazel for Medici Arts, Puccini’s Edgar for Deutsche Grammophon with Plácido Domingo, Luisa Miller for Unitel, Norma for Hardy Classic and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under Maazel for Kultur.

In 2013 he took part in the production of Don Carlo at the Bolshoi Theatre, singing the part of Philip II (conductor Robert Treviño, director Adrian Noble). In October 2017 performed the roles of Vladimir Yaroslavich in Borodin’s Prince Igor and Tsar Ivan the Terrible in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Maid of Pskov  (concert version, conductor Tugan Sokhiev).