Operalia prizewinner Ștefan Pop is one of the most sought-after tenors internationally, particularly in the Italian repertoire, from bel canto to Verdi and Puccini.
Ștefan Pop's 2023/24 season began with "Don Carlo" at the Staatsoper Berlin, where he celebrated his acclaimed role debut in the title role last season. He also returned to Berlin as Pinkerton ("Madame Butterfly"). At the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, Ștefan Pop appeared as Duca ("Rigoletto") and Rodolfo ("La Bohème"). The Bavarian State Opera has invited the much sought-after singer to sing Macduff ("Macbeth"). He appeared as Rodolfo at the Tokyo Spring Festival and in Trondheim. In Dresden, he can be heard both at the Semperoper as Don Carlo and with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra in Verdi's Requiem.
Highlights of recent seasons have been his role debut as Cavaradossi ("Tosca") at the Royal Opera House London and Rodolfo in Liège alongside Angela Gheorghiu. Ștefan Pop was also acclaimed as Duca ("Rigoletto") in Taormina under the direction of Plácido Domingo and as Rodolfo at the Vienna State Opera. His Jacopo ("I due Foscari") in a new production in Parma has been released on CD and Blu-ray. A "Tosca" recording with him as Cavaradossi, recorded with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and released by Pentatone, has also been on sale since autumn 2023.
Ștefan Pop's repertoire includes Verdi's great roles such as Alfredo ("La traviata"), Duca ("Rigoletto"), Riccardo ("Un ballo in maschera"), Adorno ("Simone Boccanegra"), Foresto ("Attila"), Jacopo ("I due Foscari"), Macduff ("Macbeth") and Ismaele ("Nabucco"), but also the bel canto repertoire such as Pollione ("Norma"), which he has sung at almost all the major opera houses in Italy, Gennaro ("Lucrezia Borgia"), Edgardo ("Lucia di Lammermoor") and Nemorino ("L'elisir d'amore"), Roberto Devereux through to Gounod's Faust and the singer in Der Rosenkavalier, which he sang at the Salzburg Festival.
Ștefan Pop performs at the world's major opera houses, including the Berlin State Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, the Opéra de Paris, the Hamburg State Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Zurich Opera House, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Frankfurt Opera and the New Israeli Opera Tel Aviv. Stefan Pop is a regularly celebrated guest in Japan, where he will also spend two weeks in April 2024.
The tenor has worked with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Fabio Luisi, Daniele Rustioni, Daniele Gatti, Michele Mariotti, Nello Santi and others. A concert tour with Angela Gheorghiu took him to Seoul, Shanghai and Oman. In 2019, he won the "Oscar della Lirica Young Generation".
Ștefan Pop was born in Bistrița (Romania). He studied and graduated from the "Gheorghe Dima" Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca and went on to win the "Hariclea Darclee" and the "International Music Competition Seoul" competitions. Stefan Pop has been an honorary citizen of his home city since 2015.