Born in Cluj in Romania, Sebastian Catana is emerging as one of the most interesting Verdi and verismo baritones of his generation. After the first musical studies in his homeland he moved to the USA where he perfected in the training programs of the Seattle Opera and the Baltimore Opera and ranks in numerous American and European Competitions. In 2001 his operatic debut as Thore in Les Huguenots at the Carnegie Hall with the Opera Orchestra of New York, in 2003, as Schaunard in La Bohème under the baton of Daniel Oren, the debut at the Metropolitan Opera, where he will collaborate with supporting roles and sing Valentin in Faust; in 2007 the European debut as Paolo in Simon Boccanegra at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna. Sebastian Catana has already interpreted several of the great Verdi baritone roles: the title roles in Nabucco (West Palm Beach, Philadelphia, New Zeland, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Avanches Festival, Bologna, Tel Aviv, Arena di Verona, Terme di Caracalla, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli), Rigoletto (Duisburg, Trieste and Copenhagen as Season opening production, Santiago del Cile, Belfast and Opera di Roma conducted by Daniele Gatti) and Macbeth (Münchener Rundfunkorchester, Atene, Bratislava), Conte di Luna in Il trovatore (Valencia conducted by Zubin Mehta and Hong Kong), Miller in Luisa Miller (Lyon, Torino and Malmö), Francesco Foscari in I due Foscari (Trieste, Toulouse, Santiago del Cile, Amsterdam/Concergebouw), Ezio in Attila (Busseto for the Festival Verdi), Giorgio Germont in La traviata (Lausanne, Festival of Savonlinna, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Pittsburgh, Opera di Roma), Don Carlo in Ernani (Dortmund Festival), Ford in Falstaff (Lausanne), Renato in Un ballo in maschera (Düsseldorf), Amonasro in Aida (Arena di Verona) Seid in Il corsaro (Washington Concert Opera). Among his recent and future engagements at Opera Bastille as Scarpia in Tosca, a role that he also performed in Hong Kong, at the Festival of Savonlinna, in Bari, at Teatro Massimo in Palermo and in the Japan tour, in Tel Aviv with Oren), Alfio in La cavalleria rusticana at Teatro Filarmonico di Verona and in Cagliari, Demogorgon in Casella’s La donna serpente in Torino, Giovanni in the European premiere of Tutino’s La Ciociara in Cagliari, Barnaba in La Gioconda in the Circuito Emiliano, again Amonasro at Arena di Verona, Macbeth in Cagliari, Scarpia at Opera di Roma and at La Fenice in Venice, Nabucco at Teatro Colon and Germont in Santiago del Cile.
