Kristian Benedikt

Biography

Lithuanian tenor Kristian Benedikt has built up a reputation as one of the leading international singers Verdi’s Otello.
He sang this most demanding role more than 100 times: at Opera de Bellas Artes in Mexico, Teatro Filarmonico in Verona, Wiener Staatsoper, Bavarian State Opera Munich, at the Mariinski Theatre in St. Petersburg, Modena, Piacenza, Cagliari, Palermo, Ekaterinenburg, Santiago de Chile, Vilnius, Graz, Basel, Stockholm, Latvian Opera Festival and at Victoria’s Pacific Opera, Montreal Opera, Savonlinna Festival etc.

His future engagements include Samson debut at the MET (Samson et Dalila) in March 2019, Samson in Rio de Janeiro in July 2018, Manrico (Il trovatore), Cavaradossi (Tosca), Canio (I pagliacci), Herman (The Queen of Spades), Otello. Also he is awaiting for the release of his first CD by DELOS.

Among his recent debuts is role of Samson at Vilnius City Opera, he had his debut in London Royal Covent Garden Opera with the role of Canio (conductor A. Pappano, staging of Ch. Mielitz). During las two years he sang Otello in Wiener Staatspoer (cond. M. Armiliato, staging of D. Michieletto), Hungarian National Opera, Al Bustan Festival (cond. G. Marciano), in Dresden Semperoper and in production of Salzburg Easter festival (with K. Thielemann), sung Samson in Torino Regio (cond. P. Steinberg, staging H. De Ana), Herman in Hungarian National Opera (cond. B. Kocsar), debuted in Macedonian National Opera with Calaf (G. Del Monaco production), also sang Siegmund in Odense (cond. A. Vedernikov), Otello in Savonlinna Festival and gave gala concert in Jurmala Festival.

In 2017/18 he performs Don Jose in Lithuanian National Opera, Herman in Luzern Festival, Cavaradossi in Llangollen (Wales) among with B. Terfel and K . Opolais, Radames in Estonian National Opera, Dick Johnson in Trieste, Siegmund in Odense New Opera house, Herman in Bolshoi Theatre and Eleazar in Konstanz.

Highlights of past seasons are Don José (Carmen), Cavaradossi (Tosca), Samson (Samson et Dalila), Calaf (Turandot), Pinkerton (Madame Butterfly), Canio (I pagliacci), as well as roles like Eleazar (La juive), Manrico (Il trovatore), Dick Johanson (La fanciulla del West), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), the title roles in ”Andrea Chenier”, ”Ernani”, ”Rienzi”, ”Lohengrin” and Hoffmann in ”Les Contes d'Hoffmann” in Munich, Saint Petersburg, Santiago de Chile, Mexico, Beijing, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Tallinn, Barcelona, Bergamo, Palermo among others.

He began his career at Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre where he performed more than 20 different roles. Starting out his career as a lyrical tenor, he made his first international experiences recording Ponchielli’s ”La Gioconda” conducted by Marcello Viotti next to Placido Domingo and in Amsterdam’s ”Don Carlo” conducted by Riccardo Chailly. Subsequently he was guesting Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, at most opera houses of the Baltic countries.

He has performed under the baton of conductors such as Antonio Pappano, Marco Armiliato, Marcello Votti, Riccardo Chailly, Maurizio Barbacini, Paolo Carigniani, Asher Fisch, Renato Palumbo, Valeri Gergiev, Alexander Vedernikov and is working with stage directors like Giancarlo del Monaco, Damiano Michieletto, Willy Decker, David Alden, Calixto Bieito, Hugo de Ana, Dmitri Bertman, Eimuntas Nekrošius or Pier Francesco Maestrini.

As a concert singer he has sung among others in Verdi’s Requiem, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Rachmaninov’s The Bells and Webber’s Requiem.