Georgian baritone performs at Metropolitan Opera, USA

A Georgian opera star is soon to shine on one of the world’s most prestigious opera stages.

Baritone George (Giorgi) Gagnidze will perform in the Metropolitan Opera’s "most enduring tragic new production double bill” Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci in April and May.

He will perform the role of Tonio, who is a clown and appears in the first Act of the opera. This role entails engaging with the audience before the opera has officially begun.

Specifically, before the curtain raises the clown Tonio steps before the curtain to say that the author has written about actors, who know the same joys and sorrows as other people.

The opera is described as "an evocative new production” from Sir David McVicar (Giulio Cesare, Maria Stuarda, Il Trovatore), who sets the action across two time periods but in the same Sicilian setting.

Meanwhile Cavalleria Rusticanais an opera by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play and short story written by Giovanni Verga.

The Georgian singer, who is recognised as one of the country’s most talented baritone singers, won the Concorso Voci Verdiane in 2005, where he was awarded first prize for his outstanding vocal interpretation.