Ștefan Pop (born 16 February 1987) is a Romanian operatic tenor. He is considered among today's leading lyric tenors and he is best known for bel canto repertoire. He has won several prizes including, in 2010, Plácido Domingo's Operalia competition and the Seoul International Music Competition.
Early life and education
Pop was born in Bistrița. He started studying violin when he was seven, and he sang in his elementary school choir. He trained at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca, graduating in 2010.
Career
He began his professional career in 2009 at Hungarian Opera Cluj as Paolino in Il matrimonio segreto and as Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore at the Romanian National Opera, Timișoara. Pop made his international operatic debut in Teatro dell'opera di Roma in December 2009 as Alfredo in La traviata, under the baton of Gianluigi Gelmetti, in a production of Franco Zeffirelli.
In 2010, at the age of 23, he won First Male and the Public Prize at Plácido Domingo's Operalia, The World Opera Competition at the Teatro alla Scala, and also won first prize at International Music Competition in Seoul.
After winning Operalia, Pop made his debut at Vienna State Opera as Alfredo in La traviata, and also sang it at Greek National Opera, Romanian National Opera, Timișoara, Hamburg State Opera alongside Edita Gruberová, under the baton of Simone Young; also at Teatro Verdi di Trieste (2010) as Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore and at Hamburg State Opera (2011) and sung his first Elvino in La sonnambula at Vienna State Opera under Evelino Pido's baton in the same year. Later that year he also made his debut at Zurich Opera as Cassio in Verdi's Otello under Daniele Gatti's baton and in Seoul as Il Duca di Mantova in Rigoletto. In 2011, he did La traviata in Teatro Carlo Felice, Teatro Massimo alongside Mariella Devia, Israeli Opera and Oper Frankfurt.
In February 2012 Pop made his first appearance on the stage of Opéra Bastille as Il Duca di Mantova in Rigoletto. In December 2012 he made his debut at the Royal Opera House in London, performing Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore, and also in Lausanne Opera. In the same year he was invited by Plácido Domingo to perform at his Operalia winners Gala at the Royal Opera House in London.
In 2011 and 2012, Pop was guest in four of Angela Gheorghiu's concerts in the Far East (Seoul and Shanghai) and Middle East (Oman) very well received by the audience. Pop made his debut in Stabat Mater by Gioachino Rossini and Te Deum of Georges Bizet at XVII Festival de Musique Sacree de Marseille. At Soirées Lyriques de Sanxay he made in 2012 La traviata and in 2016 Rigoletto.
2013 brought the debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as Alfredo in La traviata and also the debut in the title role of Faust at the National Opera in Bucharest. At Hamburg staatsoper he made a new production of La Traviata. It was a very successful performance soon followed by other Faust performances at Opera Rijeka (Croatia, March 2014) and Hong Kong Cultural Center (May 2014). Also in 2013, Pop was invited by Plácido Domingo to perform together in the Verdi–Wagner Gala at the Arena di Verona under Daniel Oren's baton.
In June 2014 he made his debut as Rodolfo in the concert version of La bohème at Salle Pleyel in Paris, alongside Patrizia Ciofi. Later on, in August 2014, he also made a debut, as the Italian singer in Der Rosenkavalier at the Salzburg Festival, a performance that is now available on DVD. Also in 2014 he sung in La traviata at Opera Menorca together with Leo Nucci and Norah Amselem, L'elisir d'amore at Monte Carlo Opera and a new production of La Sonnambula at Frankfurt Oper under the baton of Eun Sun Kim.
In February 2015, Pop made the debut in Don Giovanni at Opéra Bastille, Paris, alongside a great cast under Alain Altinoglu's baton. He took part in two major music festivals, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Switzerland, as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, together with Erwin Schrott; and the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, Romania, in an open air concert conducted by David Crescenzi. In November 2015, he did La traviata at Teatro di San Carlo, under the baton of Nello Santi. In the same year he made L'elisir d'amore at Israeli Opera.
In November 2015 he was offered the title of honorary citizen of his home town, Bistrita.