MIKOŁAJ ZALASIŃSKI – baritone
Mikolaj Zalasinski graduated with honours from the Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland. He is a prizewinner of a range of vocal competitions, including the A. Didur’s and E. Grieg’s Competitions. He won the Jan Kiepura Award for the best opera singer of 2009 (Poland) and the Amber Ring Award for the part of Renato in Un ballo in maschera by Verdi. He was nominated by Opernwelt for his roles of Macbeth by Verdi and of Scarpia in Tosca by Puccini in the 2010/2011 season.
In the Mozart Year 1991 he sang the parts of Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro and of Don Giovanni with the Kammeroper of Vienna on a tour of China, Japan and South Korea. He attended two mastery courses, one of which was run by Teresa Żylis-Gara. He collaborated with the Grand Theatre – the National Opera in Warsaw, the Cracow Opera, the Silesian Opera, the Grand Theatre in Łódź, the Opera House at the Castle in Szczecin, the National Theatre in Prague, The Grand Theatre in Poznań. In 1993 he made his debut in the Silesian Opera in Carmen (Escamillo), returning there in subsequent seasons with his performances in The Haunted Manor by Stanisław Moniuszko (Sword-Bearer), L’elisir d’amore (Belcore), Il barbiere di Siviglia (Figaro), I pagliacci (Silvio and Tonio), Cosi fan tutte (Guglielmo), Faust (Valentin), Nabucco (title role), Gioconda (Barnaba), Don Giovanni (title role), Rigoletto (title role), Tosca (Scarpia), Tannhäuser (Wolfram).
From 1995 to 1997 he collaborated with the Cracow Opera singing the roles of Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), of Valentin (Faust), of the Sword-Bearer (The Haunted Manor), of Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and of Scarpia (Tosca). In 1997 he gave a performance in the Grand Theatre in Poznań in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Figaro), and in Il trovatore (di Luna). In 2000 he made his debut in the Grand Theatre in Warsaw in the title role of Don Giovanni, and in the National Opera in Prague as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia.
Mikolaj Zalasinski collaborates with numerous opera houses in Europe, America and Japan. After his debut in the Lincoln Opera House (USA) as Escamillo in Carmen, he also sang with the Harper Symphony Orchestra and the Abilene Opera (Germont in La traviata). In 2000 he sang the role of Nabucco in the Konzerthaus of Berlin, winning wide acclaim of the critics as well as the public. The next important performances in Europe included Il trovatore (di Luna) in Teatro São Carlos in Lisbon and Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater with Orchestre Lyrique de Region Avignon-Provence. He was also invited to the Sofia Opera where he sang the roles of Escamillo in Carmen, of Renato in Un ballo in maschera and of Scarpia in Tosca. In Japan in the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan he sang the part of Jochanaan in Salome.
He constantly collaborates with the Grand Theatre – the National Opera in Warsaw, where he has been performing in La Bohème (Marcello), Andrea Chénier (Carlo Gerard), Nabucco (title role), King Roger (title role), Pikovaya dama (Count Tomsky), Carmen (Escamillo), Rigoletto (title role), Manon Lescaut (Lescaut), Don Carlo (Rodrigo), Iolanta (Robert), The Haunted Manor (the Sword-Bearer).
At the Wratislavia Cantans Festival he sang the title role of King Roger by Szymanowski. In the Grand Theatre in Łódź he had the title role in Nabucco and the part of Count Tomsky in Pikovaya dama. In the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre he sang the roles of Jochanaan in Salome and of Don Carlo in
La forza del destino. In the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk he sang the title roles of Rigoletto, Macbeth, Don Giovanni, Onegin and the roles of Jochanaan in Salome and of Scarpia in Tosca. After his debut in Italy in 2003 in Il trovatore (di Luna) and in Rigoletto (title role) in Trapani, he sang the role of Klingsor in Parsifal in Teatro La Fenice in Venice, and later of Escamillo in Carmen in Teatro Regio in Turin.
Since 2008 Mikołaj Zalasiński has been collaborating with Staatstheater in Nuremberg, where he has been performing in Rigoletto, Aida, I puritani, Nabucco, Macbeth, Tosca, Il corsaro, La traviata, Il trovatore, Andrea Chénier, Un ballo in maschera, King Roger, Attila, Don Giovanni, Rhinegold. He also performed in Carmen with Théâtre Municipal de Lausanne on a tour of Japan; in La forza del destino; in Carmen in the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv; in Ernani with Rundfunkorchester of Munich; in Rigoletto in Dublin.
In the last artistic seasons he sang the parts of Bes in Cherevichki, of di Luna in Il trovatore in Teatro Lirico of Cagliari, of Robert in Iolanta in Teatro del Maggio Musicale of Florence, of Don Carlo in La forza del destino in Augsburg, of Amonasro in Aida in Dubai, of Macbeth and Rigoletto in Poznań, of Onegin in Wuppertal, of Nabucco in Kiaserslautern and of Macbeth in Kiel. In the Grand Theatre – The National Opera in Warsaw he sang the title roles in Nabucco and Rigoletto and made his debut in Różycki’s Eros and Psyche as Blaks, and also as Urok in Paderewski’s Manru. In Warsaw he also sang the role of Scarpia in the new stage production of Tosca.
Mikołaj Zalasiński’s repertoire comprises the following works: Carmina Burana by Orffa, Requiem by Fauré, Stabat Mater by Szymanowski, Mass G-dur D 167 by Schubert and Requiem Canticles by Stravinsky.
He has collaborated with such renowned conductors as Paolo Arrivabeni, Giampaolo Bisanti, Daniele Callegari, Gabriel Chmura, Asher Fisch, Patrick Fournillier, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Jacek Kaspszyk, Donato Renzetti, Marcello Viotti, Omer Wellber. He has performed in the productions of the following directors: David Alden, Gilbert Deflo, Peter Konwitschny, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, David Pountney, Adam Hanuszkiewicz, Mariusz Treliński, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Marek Weiss, Graham Vick, Franco Zeffirelli.
