Piotr Beczala

Biography

Piotr Beczala is one of the most sought after lyric tenors of our time and a constant guest in the world’s leading opera houses. The Polish-born artist is acclaimed not only for the beauty of his voice, but also for his ardent commitment to each character he portrays. In addition to his operatic work, he has sung many of the great vocal works with the world’s most distinguished orchestras and maestri.

The 20/21 season begins for Piotr Beczala with a recital together with the soprano Sondra Radvanovsky at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. This is followed by a performance at the beneficial concert of the Konzerthaus Vienna. Further concerts take place at the Musikverein Graz, the Konzerthaus Vienna, at Dresden’s Semperoper, where the German TV channel ZDF annually broadcasts the renowned New Year’s Eve concert and this year under the baton of Christian Thielemann, and at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw. As part of the Great Voices concert series, the tenor performs at the Philharmonie am Gasteig in Munich, the Vienna Konzerthaus and travels to Moscow to give a gala concert at the famous Tchaikovsky Concert Hall with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Marc Piollet. A recital tour with pianist Sarah Tysman takes him to Oviedo, Las Palmas, La Palma, and Barcelona. He finalizes the tour in Madrid with a gala concert at the Teatro Real. The tenor sings Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Philadelphia (Verizon Hall) and in New York (Carnegie Hall), and can be heard with Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the Grafenegg Festival. On the opera stage, Piotr Beczala starts the season at Teatr Wielki in Warsaw in the role of Werther in Massenet’s Werther. In addition, the Vienna State Opera’s Kammersänger can be heard three times at the famous opera house: as Werther in Werther and as Prince in Rusalka. Other highlights of the season include Lohengrin at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lucia di Lammermoor (Edgardo) at the Zurich Opera House and Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival.

Since his debut as Duca in 2006, Piotr Beczala has been a regular guest at the Metropolitan Opera. Since then he has sung Lenski (Eugene Onegin), Prince (Rusalka), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Rodolfo (La Bohème), Vaudémont (Iolanta), Riccardo as well as the title roles in Roméo et Juliette and Faust. In 2011 he accompanied the Met to Japan and made his role debut in 2012 as Grieux in Massenet’s Manon. The tenor can also be regularly heard at the State Operas in Munich and Vienna and at La Scala in Milan. In 2016 he made his debut as Lohengrin at the Semperoper Dresden alongside Anna Netrebko under the musical direction of Christian Thielemann.

In addition to his opera career, Piotr Beczala is a much sought-after concert and lieder singer. In 2011 and 2012 he performed in the New Year’s Eve concerts at the Semperoper Dresden under the baton of Christian Thielemann. Further concert appearances have taken him to Baden-Baden, Amsterdam, Madrid, Budapest, Vienna, Milan and Oman.

Piotr Beczala has released two solo albums for Deutsche Grammophon, “My Heart’s Delight” in 2013 and “The French Collection” in 2015. In 2012, he sang the New Year’s Eve concerts at the Semperoper in Dresden, which were directed by Christian Thielemann and released on CD and DVD by Deutsche Grammophon. A DVD of his stunning debut in the title role of Lohengrin opposite Anna Netrebko as Elsa was released internationally in 2017. His first solo album on Pentatone featuring versimo arias “Vincerò!” was released in May 2020.

In 2014 Mr. Beczala was awarded at the ECHO Klassik Award as “Singer of the Year” and in 2019 he was honoured as Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera.

Photo: Julia Wesely