Mario Zhang

The Canadian tenor, Mario Zhang, made a trio of exceptionally successful debuts as Calaf (Turandot) in 2008, at Dresden’s Semperoper, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Volksoper of Vienna. He had previously created the role in 2006, at the Zurich Opera, and at the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava. Also at Bratislava, he appeared as Manrico (Il trovatore), in a gala performance inaugurating the Slovak National Theatre’s new building on June 8, 2007.

Mario Zhang has been a frequent guest of opera houses in Europe (including the Welsh National Opera, the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen, the Polish National Opera, at Cologne, Dublin, Hanover and Kiel), as well as of the opera festivals in Wexford and in Schwerin, and in North America (singing in the opera houses of Cleveland, Sacramento, Sarasota, Toronto, Victoria, and Vancouver). His gallery of roles comprises Don José (Carmen), the Duke (Rigoletto), Alfredo (La traviata), Rodolfo (La bohème), Cavaradossi (Tosca), Hoffmann (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Don Carlos, Canio (I pagliacci), Turiddu (Cavalleria rusticana), Faust, Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Števa (Jenůfa), and others. He has been particularly sought after as Radames (Aida), the part he has sung in Paris, Marseille, Brussels, Lisbon, Budapest, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Bratislava, at the festival in Eutin, and elsewhere. In 2009 he earned wide acclaim for his creations of Don José at Dresden’s Semperoper, and Rodolfo, at the Chiemgau Festival and in a Munich gala concert with the Munich Symphony Orchestra. In 2010 he sung Hoffmann at Wroclaw, Alvaro (La forza del destino) at Schwerin, and Calaf at Weimar and Lübeck, and he will likewise appear as Calaf at the Vienna Volksoper, in March and April 2011.

Mario Zhang is equally active as a concert singer, working with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Symphony orchestra, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Mario Zhang is a graduate of the Royal College of Music in London. He is finalist of the Plácido Domingo International Opera Competition, and of the prestigious voice competition organized by New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

The beginning of his collaboration with the Prague State Opera dates back to March 2008 (when he appeared here as Radames and Calaf). In October 2008, he joined the PSO forces during the company’s visit in Salzburg’s Large Festival Hall.