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About
Piotr Beczała is a Polish operatic tenor with an international career based primarily in Europe and the United States. He has performed in the world's leading opera houses including Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Royal Opera House, Semperoper, Carnegie Hall, Teatro Real, Deutsche Oper Berlin and is particularly known for his portrayals of characters from the operas of Giuseppe Verdi and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In 2015, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for his artistic achievements.
He was born in Czechowice-Dziedzice in southern Poland and initially trained in Katowice, both Upper Silesia. He studied under Sena Jurinac in Switzerland. His first engagements were with the Linz State Theatre from 1992 to 1997, after which he became a regular member of Zürich Opera. One of his early roles in Zürich was that of Matteo in Richard Strauss' Arabella (with Cheryl Studer in the title role). Between 2004 and 2006, Beczała made several major international house debuts.
In April 2004, he made his debut at London's Royal Opera House as the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier, later returning in October of that year in the title role of Faust, then in June 2005 as the Duke in Rigoletto, and in September 2006, again in Faust. In November 2004, he made his San Francisco Opera and American debut as Lensky in Eugene Onegin. Beczała's La Scala debut came in January 2006 as the Duke in Rigoletto, the role in which he also made his Metropolitan Opera, New York, debut on December 19, 2006. In 2007, Beczała was awarded the Munich Opera Festival Prize.
In 2012/2013, Beczała reprised his role as the Duke in Michael Mayer's new "Rat Pack" production of Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera. Following a hostile reception from the loggionisti at the opening night of the 2013/14 La Scala season in La traviata, Beczała announced his refusal ever to appear in another production at La Scala. In 2014, he was awarded the Echo Klassik Prize in the Male Singer of the Year category. In the same year, he received the Fryderyk Award conferred by the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry in the Artist of the Year category as well as the Opera News Award presented by the American classical music magazine Opera News.
Beczała's commercial recordings include a Farao Classics recording of La traviata (as Alfredo Germont), and the complete songs of Karol Szymanowski.
In 2018 Beczała was awarded the International Opera Awards – Best Singer. In 2018, Beczala signed an exclusive, multi-album contract with Pentatone. In the same year, he became the recipient of the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis awarded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland for his distinguished contributions to the Polish culture and national heritage. His first solo recording on the label, Vincero!, was released in 2020.
In 2019, Beczała received a Grammy Award nomination in the Best Opera Recording category for his performance in Deutsche Grammophon's 2018 recording Lohengrin.
In 2022, he received an honorary degree from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice.
Throughout his career he has collaborated with many distinguished artists and conductors including Placido Domingo, Diana Damrau, Gerd Albrecht, Vladimir Jurowski, Anna Netrebko, Antonio Pappano, Angela Gheorghiu, Zubin Mehta, Richard Bonynge, Semyon Bychkov, Sir Andrew Davis, Edo de Waart, Iván Fischer, Marek Janowski, Michael Gielen, Carlo Maria Giulini, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Trevor Pinnock, Philippe Herreweghe, Mariss Jansons, Ton Koopman, Kent Nagano, Christian Thielemann, Franz Welser-Möst and Alberto Zedda.