Michele Kalmandi

Michele Kalmandi studied singing in Romania and continued with postgraduate studies in Budapest where he devoted himself mainly to the Italian repertory under the leadership of Eugen Sipos, pupil of the great italian baritone Riccardo Stracciari. He has been the lead baritone of Hungarian State Opera – Budapest. He sings the main baritone roles such as Nabucco, Count di Luna (Il trovatore), Renato (Un ballo in maschera), Amonasro (Aida), Don Carlos (La forza del destino), Ford (Falstaff), Macbeth, Giorgio Germont (La traviata), Duke Alfonso d’Este (Lucrezia Borgia), Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Marquis de la Force (Dialogue des Carmélites), Barnaba (La Gioconda), Gérard (Andrea Chénier), Don Giovanni, Alfio (Cavalleria rusticana), Basilio (La Fiamma), Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Escamillo (Carmen), Scarpia (Tosca), Biagio (Le nozze Istriane), Rigoletto, De Siriex (Fedora), Boniface (Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame), Jochanaan (Salome), Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde), Der fliegende Holländer and the Bluebeard (The Duke Bluebeard’s Castle). Michele Kalmandi has appeared with prominent conductors such as Kent Nagano, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Günther Neuhold, Hubert Soudant, Niksa Bareza, Adam Fischer, Andreas Delfs, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Francesco Corti, Marcello Viotti, Gianfranco Massini, Rico Saccani, Lamberto Gardelli, Steven Mercurio, Tiziano Severini, Jacek Kaspszyk, Osmo Vänskä, John Neshling, Wolfgang Bozič, Will Humgurg, György Györiványi Ráth, Sir Richard Armstrong, Tamas Vasary, Aldo Ceccato etc.

Michele Kalmandi launched his international career with the title role in Verdi’s Nabucco in Teatro Giuseppe Verdi (Trieste, Italy) under the batton of Piergiorgio Morandi. Foreign engagements brought Michele Kalmandi to Grand Théatre de Bordeaux, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg, Hessisches Staatstheater – Wiesbaden, Staatstheater Karlsruhe, the Royal Scottish Opera in Glasgow, Tonhalle in Zurich, Montreal Philharmonic Society, the Barbican Hall in London, Gasteig in Munich, Kurhaus in Wiesbaden, in Auditorio Nacional Madrid, the Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, the Savonlinna Festival, the Xanten Festival, St.Margarethen Festival, Schwerin-Festival, in Konzerthaus Berlin, in Wien-Musikverein, in Sala Sao Paulo etc. He recorded a number of CD. He filmed also G. Verdi’s La traviata (the role of Giorgio Germont) – DVD for UNESCO, directed by Gianfranco De Bosio), Verdi’s Nabucco (title role) – DVD “Live” from Ahoy – Rotterdam (Netherland) in 2001, directed by Bernard Broca.