Kostas Smoriginas begins the 2013-14 Season in the role of Pietro Simon Boccanegra which he records with Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Ildar Abdrazakov and Barbara Frittoli. He travels to Germany for his debut at the Semperoper Dresden in the role of Escamillo Carmen, a role he also sings later in the season at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The artist travels to Washington DC to make his role debut as Papageno The Magic Flute, and remains in the US to join the summer festival company at Santa Fe Opera to appear again as Escamillo. Additionally, makes his debut as Count Almaviva Le Nozze di Figaro in his hometown at Vilnius City Opera.
Highlights of last season include Salzburg Easter Festival’s Carmen with the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of Simon Rattle, a performance he later committed to DVD for EMI. He appeared as Escamillo in Beijing’s National Performing Arts Centre, and travelled to Moscow for revival performances in the role of Masetto in La Scala’s production of Don Giovanni. The artist made his role and house debut as Don Giovanni at Teatro Municipal, Santiago, Chile, a role he also sang in Toulouse. Returning to Vilnius, he made his debut in the title role Eugene Onegin with Vilnius City Opera, where he also added the role of Guglielmo Cosi fan tutte to his repertoire. He returned to Aix-en-Provence Festival as Masetto in a new production of Don Giovanni by Dmitri Tcherniakov and conducted by Marc Minkowski.
Recent successes include his return to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, covering Rene Pape as Méphistophélès Faust. He debutted at Teatro alla Scala, Milan, as Masetto in their new production of Don Giovanni with a highly celebrated cast, and made his debut as Leporello Don Giovanni at Opera de Bordeaux, France.
Mr Smoriginas made his US opera debut in 2010 as Figaro Le Nozze di Figaro at Washington National Opera, a role he later repeated at San Francisco Opera. He returned to Great Britain to appear as Escamillo Carmen in Opera North’s new production, having made his debut in the role at Berlin’s Staatsoper. He appeared in Aix-en-Provence as Baron Duphol La Traviata under Louis Langree’s baton, and sang Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem in concert in Budapest. Other recent successes include his appearance at the Royal Opera House as Colline La Bohème, and with The Israeli Opera in the role of Tomsky Pique Dame.
Mr Smoriginas studied at the Lithuanian Music and Theater Academy from an early age. After moving to London in 2005 and representing his country in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, he spent two years at the Royal College of Music, before joining the Jette Parker young artist programme at the Royal Opera House in 2007.
Other roles in the artist’s repertoire include Araspe Tolemeo and Seneca L’incoronazione di Poppea, Dandini La Cenerentola; Royal Opera House engagements while a Jette Parker young artist include his unexpected mainstage debut as Alidoro La Cenerentola, the Marquis d’Obigny La Traviata, Angelotti Tosca, Zuniga Carmen, Bello La Fanciulla del West, Smirnov The Bear, Schlemil Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and Mandarin Turandot.
Completely at ease on the concert platform, his repertoire includes the Requiems of Verdi, Mozart and Faure, Händel’s Messiah, Bach’s Magnificat, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Janacek’s Gagolitic Mass, Dvorak’s Te Deum and Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater which he sang with Ed Gardner and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and with the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. He won rave reviews for his BBC Proms debut in Stravinsky’s Les Noces under the baton of Ed Gardner at the Royal Albert Hall.