Interview with George Gagnidze

George Gagnidze is a renowned dramatic baritone celebrated for his powerful stage presence and commanding voice. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Rigoletto in the 2008/09 season and has since sung nearly 150 performances there, including iconic roles such as Macbeth, Nabucco, Scarpia, Amonasro, and Tonio. Internationally, Gagnidze has performed at leading opera houses such as La Scala, the Wiener Staatsoper, Opéra National de Paris, the Royal Opera House, and the Staatsoper Berlin. His 2024/25 season includes appearances at the Met, the Opéra National de Paris, and debuts in Budapest, Catania, and Washington, D.C.

Born in Tbilisi, he trained at the State Conservatory and rose to prominence after winning the prestigious “Voci Verdiane” competition in 2005. Over the course of his career, Gagnidze has collaborated with world-renowned conductors and directors, including Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, James Levine, and Peter Stein. In 2021, he released his first solo album with Orfeo, which was nominated for an International Classical Music Award. His performances have been captured on acclaimed recordings, including Tosca (Metropolitan Opera), Aida (La Scala), and Nabucco (Arena di Verona).

Interview by Alkis Karmpaliotis

What are your earliest memories of music? When did you fall in love with opera and decide you wanted to pursue it professionally?

I was exposed to music very early, as my father was part of a male chorus in Georgia, a country with a wealthy choral tradition. A friend of my father from the choir heard me sing when I was a teen and suggested that I be sent to a real voice teacher, and that was the beginning. Also, a video of “L’elisir d’amore” with Pavarotti from the MET aired on Georgian TV. His voice and the opera, in general, fascinated me, which made me fall in love with the art form.

You have performed at the world’s top venues, from the Met to the Opéra National de Paris, in roles ranging from Rigoletto to Scarpia to Hollander. What roles would you define as “staples” of your career, and how have you developed your repertoire over time?

There are several roles I’d define as “signature roles” or “staples,” but at the very top, there is Rigoletto. I have sung over 110 performances of this Verdi masterpiece. This season, I sang it for my debut at the Teatro Massimo Bellini, and I will reprise it in May and June when I return to the Opéra Bastille in Paris. Also, Scarpia is a role I love singing, and I have been doing it a lot. I have over 100 performances, including almost 50 at the MET! The Italian repertoire has been the core of my roles, and I am particularly fond of Verdi. I’ve sung all of the Verdi baritone title roles and most of his other leading roles for my range, except a few of his early operas like Ezio in “Attila,” Carlo V in “Ernani” or Francesco Foscari in “I due Foscari.” But these titles are not performed so often. Two roles of the later Verdi I still haven’t performed and would love to do are Carlo di Vargas in “La forza del destino” and Conte di Luna in “Il trovatore”!

You are an experienced Verdi baritone, singing everything from Nabucco to Otello. Over the next few months, you will perform both the title role of Rigoletto and Miller in Luisa Miller. What goes into singing Verdi’s famous baritone roles?

There is no doubt that Verdi is my favorite composer. Nobody else understood the baritone voice's immense possibilities and characteristics as he did. Very few other composers, if any, willingly put the baritone voice at the core of their operas. His baritone roles cover an immense range of human characters, from the knight in shining armor, such as Posa, to irreproachable older men like Miller to irredeemable villains like Iago. Most of them, however, reflect human nature's complexities, characterized by positive and unsavory traits. Let’s think about Amonasro, or even Germont, who is one of the most despised characters in opera, but, if you think about it, he does what the overwhelming majority of fathers would do, that is, trying to make sure their children get the best life can offer, sometimes to the detriment of strangers. This mix between “good and “bad” is perfectly summarized and portrayed in Rigoletto, Verdi’s most superb baritone creation. Just earlier this month, I sang “Macbeth” in a new production at the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, which was a great experience. And now I am very much looking forward to singing Miller again. This is a role I performed as an ensemble member of the Weimar Opera, on which I then worked with Maestro Lorin Maazel for performances in Valencia about 15 years ago. After that, I didn’t have the chance to sing this beautiful role anymore until this past winter, when I performed it at the Staatsoper Hamburg. I feel extremely well with this part and think it’s one of my best roles. So, I am thrilled to reprise it next month for my Washington Concert Opera debut! “Luisa Miller” is such a great piece; unfortunately, it isn’t performed very often.

You are a favorite at the Metropolitan Opera, performing there almost every season of the last two decades, including in Tosca last month. What does it mean to you to perform at the Met, and what are your favorite Met productions?

The Met is my artistic home: no other opera company has given so much as the Met, and I, in turn, have tried to give all the best I could possibly offer. My Met roles, in addition to Scarpia, are Rigoletto (25 performances in two productions: Otto Schenk and Michael Mayer), with which I made my house debut in 2009, Macbeth, Tonio in Pagliacci, Macbeth, Nabucco, Amonasro, Shakovlity in Khovanschina, and Michele in Il Tabarro, for almost 150 performances. I love many of “my” Met productions. Still, there is no denying that Elijah Moshinsky's staging of Nabucco is so grandiose, spectacular, and Hollywood-style, without descending at all into bad taste or gaudiness. The Met has always been so appreciative and warm with me. In 15 years, I’ve come to get to know almost everyone on and off stage, which helps me relax and concentrate on my job. I also love New York City in general: I cannot do without my long walks in Central Park. I’m happy to return to the Met in the 2026/27 season with two roles.

In 2021, you released your first solo recording, a collection of arias by Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Leoncavallo, and Giordano. Tell me about the process of recording that record. Are you planning to release another solo record sometime in the future?

The recording had been made about ten years earlier with the fantastic Staatskapelle Weimar, one of Germany’s best orchestras with a rich tradition. The problem was that I got ill during the recording sessions and couldn’t record all the arias we had planned. For example, there is no Rigoletto on the recording, which is my signature role. And that is due to the canceled recording sessions. I always wanted to complete the recording, and we had been trying to find new dates with the orchestra for years, but it wasn’t possible due to our tight schedules. So, in 2021, I finally decided to release it, and I am happy I did so. I’m indeed planning to record another album, then finally including Rigoletto. I’ve been discussing this with my dear friend Constantine Orbelian, and I hope to record my next solo album with him soon.

Many readers are curious about the lifestyle of a professional musician. How do you balance the workload and travel of your career with other aspects of your life? What are some of your hobbies outside of your operatic career?

It’s not easy for a traveling artist to balance your profession with family life, but my wife and daughter, a young soprano, often travel with me and bless their hearts for this. My son is studying at Berlin University now and is too busy to travel to see my shows, but I’m staying in Berlin a lot, where my second home is and where I’m preparing my roles from time to time. In general, I would say that it is essential for me to see my family as often as possible, so I usually spend my free time with them. So there is not much time for hobbies between balancing work and family life. I enjoy spending time, sometimes alone, at our chalet in the mountains of Georgia. It’s an incredibly beautiful area! The lifestyle of an opera singer should be relatively simple: A lot of rest and a lot of studying in free periods, you should eat healthy, you shouldn’t drink alcohol or smoke, so the bottom line is you should live as healthy as possible to keep your body fit, which, after all, is our instrument.

My name is Alkis Karmpaliotis, I'm a senior at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, and I founded AppreciateOpera.org in 2019 when I was 12 years old. If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out some of my other articles and interviews!