Biography

G

iorgos Kanaris was born in Greece. He studied singing with Josef Metternich in Munich and master classes given by Daphne Evangelatos at the Munich College of Music.

He won the special award in the oratorio/song category of the Maria Callas Grand Prix in 2005 and he has been engaged in various concerts conducted by Helmuth Rilling.

He has performed in Orff’s Carmina Burana at the Philarmonie im Gasteig in Munich and Cairo Opera House. Further invitations have notably taken him to Athens, the Prince Regent Theatre of Munich, the Margravial Opera House of Bayreuth and the Ruhr Triennial arts festival as well as in Essen, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Nürnberg, Heidelberg, Kaiserslautern, Bremen, Coburg, Bern, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee and Montepulciano.

Giorgos Kanaris has been a regular member of the Bonn Opera since 2009. He made his debut there as Massimo in Handel’s Ezio. He has also performed Verdi’s Rigoletto, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Renato in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, Guglielmo in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Figaro in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Marcello in Puccini’s La boheme, Mandryka in Strauss’ Arabella, Posa and Germont in Verdis Don Carlo and La Traviata, Enrico in Donizzeti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, the title role of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, the Count in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Peter in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel.

Giorgos Kanaris was among the prize-winners at the Schloss Laubach Contest in 2009. In 2010 he won the prize of the ‘Friends of Bonn Opera’ and received a scholarship from the Richard Wagner Society in 2011.

Giorgos Kanaris is a recitalist as well as an opera singer. Together with the conductor and pianist Thomas Wise he has given numerous recitals with works including Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Liederkreis, Schubert’s Schwanengesang, Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin, Ravel’s Don Quichotte and songs by Richard Strauss and Hans Pfitzner.

April 2017 his first CD “Songs of Yearning – Sehnsuchtslieder” has been released by “Hänssler CLASSIC” label, in which he interprets Beethoven’s AN DIE FERNE GELIEBTE and Schubert’s SCHWANENGESANG. January 2020 a second CD has been released with the title “Invitation au Voyage”, in which Kanaris sings Duparc, Ravel, Ibert und Debussy.

Repertoire

Opera

• G. Verdi	Rigoletto	(Rigoletto)
• G. Verdi	Jerusalem	(Count of Toulouse)
• G. Verdi	Traviata	(Giorgio Germont)
• G. Verdi	Un ballo in maschera	(Renato)
• G. Verdi	Don Carlo	(Posa)
• G. Verdi	La forza del destino	(Don Carlos)
• W. A. Mozart	Don Giovanni	(Don Giovanni & Masetto)
• W. A. Mozart	La Finta Giardiniera	(Nardo)
• W. A. Mozart	Le nozze di Figaro	(Conte d’Almaviva)
• W. A. Mozart	Die Zauberflöte	(Papageno)
• W. A. Mozart	Cosi fan tutte	(Guglielmo)
• G. Rossini	Il barbiere di Siviglia	(Figaro)
• G. Rossini	Il matrimonio segreto	(Conte Robinson)
• G. Rossini	Italiana in Algeri	(Taddeo)
• L. v. Beethoven	Fidelio	(Don Fernando)
• G. Donizetti	Lucia di Lammermoor	(Enrico)
• G. Donizetti	L’elisir d’amore	(Belcore)
• G. Donizetti	Don Pasquale	(Malatesta)
• G. Puccini	Tosca	(Scarpia)
• G. Puccini	Manon Lescaut	(Lescaut)
• G. Puccini	Madama Butterfly	(Sharpless)
• G. Puccini	La Bohéme	(Marcello)
• G. Puccini	La Bohéme	(Schaunard)
• G. Puccini	Turandot	(Ping)
• R. Strauss	Die Frau Ohne Schatten	(Barak)
• R. Strauss	Arabella	(Mandryka)
• R. Strauss	Der Rosenkavalier	(Herr von Faninal)
• U. Giordano	Siberia	(Gleby)
• J. Strauss	Die Fledermaus	(Dr. Falke)
• G. Bizet	Carmen	(Escamillo & Dancairo)
• F. Cavalli	La Calisto	(Mercurio)
• G. F. Haendel	Rinaldo	(Argante)
• G. F. Haendel	Ezio	(Massimo)
• G. F. Haendel	Giulio Cesare	(Achillas)
• E. Humperdinck	Hänsel & Gretel	(Peter)
• A. Lortzing	Der Wildschütz	(Graf von Eberbach)
• O. Nicolai	Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor	(Herr Fluth)
• S. Prokofiev	Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen	(Pantalone)
• M. Ravel	L’ heure espagnole	(Ramiro)
• R. Leoncavallo	I Pagliacci	(Silvio)
• R. Wagner	Tristan und Isolde	(Melot)
• L. Delibes	Lakmé	(Fréderic)
• F. Schreker	Der Ferne Klang	(Schmierenschauspieler)
• K. Weil	Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny	(Dreieinigkeitsmoses)

Concert Music

• J. S. Bach	Magnificat
• J. S. Bach	Matthäus-Passion
• L. v. Beethoven	An die ferne Geliebte
• J. S. Bach	Messe in h-Moll
• J. S. Bach	Weihnachtsoratorium
• C. Orff	Carmina Burana
• F. Schubert	Winterreise
• F. Schubert	Schwanengesang
• F. Schubert	Die schöne Müllerin
• R. Schumann	Dichterliebe
• R. Schumann	Liederkreis
• R. V. Williams	Songs of Travel
• M. Ravel	Don Quichotte à Dulcinée
• J. Ibert	Chansons de Don Quichotte
• H. Duparc	Melodies
• G. Fauré	Requiem
• J. Brahms	Ein deutsches Requiem
• J. Haydn	Die Schöpfung
• V. Ullmann	Der Mensch und sein Tag – op. 47

Reviews

Traviata – G. Verdi

“A real public’s favourite is also the greek bariton Giorgos Kanaris in the role of Father Giorgio Germont, who sets domineering bold accents and cares with powerful voice for dynamic.”

Ansgar Skoda

Kultura-extra.de 02/04/2018

“Though the strongest applause went to Giorgos Kanaris, inhabitant of Bonn, whose Giorgio Germont was at his best performance.”

Guido Krawinkel

General-Anzeiger 10/04/2018

Le Nozze di Figaro – Mozart

“GIORGOS KANARIS gives his Count powerful baritone outlines”

“The experienced warrior Georgios Kanaris acts and sings the Count sonorously and respectable”

“…the charm of Giorgos Kanaris, who presents a physical as well as vocally expressed and energetic Count”

“Giorgos Kanaris can definitely add in his noble and elegant voice accents of aggressive power of seduction”

“Giorgos Kanaris is a Count Almaviva, who always sets the tone with a pleasant baritone voice”

“Giorgos Kanaris as Almaviva radiates much virile grandeur”

Don Giovanni – Mozart

Giorgos Kanaris is in the title role as a singer and actor a convincing seducer and a charismatic nobleman…the opera house has a Don Giovanni, who hardly lets any desires unfulfilled, that he knows how to articulate the brutal and melancholic guy.

Ralf Siepmann

Opernnetz 13/12/2016

Giorgos Kanaris is a brazen radiant, constantly boastful, always magnificent and powerful Don Giovanni.

Stefan Schmöe

Online Musik Magazin 12/12/2016

Lucia di Lammermoor – Donizetti

The Greek baritone Giorgos Kanaris is to the Bonn music friends apparently very admired, his continuous repertoire expansion, whatever versatility it demonstrates, is actually exemplary. For the shady Enrico his voice appears to sound a little bit too chivalric, even if his interpretation captures the character very good.

Christoph Zimmermann

Theaterpur.net 30/10/2016

Giorgos Kanaris was with highly strong, rather slender baritone an intensive, considerably charismatic growing Enrico.

Thomas Tillmann

Online Musik Magazin 01/11/2016

La Bohéme – G. Puccini

The greek baritone was able to develop himself continuously at the Opera of Bonn, his voice has been appropriate expanded. His Marcello thrills with masculine cantability.

Christoph Zimmermann

Der Neue Merker 27/09/2016

Madama Butterfly – G. Puccini

The magnificent baritone Giorgos Kanaris goes ahead more nuanced in the role-making and shows as Sharpless amazing empathy.

Bernhard Hartmann

Bonner Rundschau 19/04/2016

Giorgos Kanaris in the role of the US-consul Sharpless wins over the audience with accurate leading, flexible and full of nuances baritone voice.

Ralf Siepmann

Opernnetz 29/04/2016

Giorgos Kanaris portrays Sharpless convincing and noble with his sonorous cavalier baritone.

Christoph Zimmermann

Der Opernfreund 18/04/2016

The baritone Giorgos Kanaris convinced with his singing and has been celebrated from the audience.

EXPRESS

Bonn 21/04/2016

Giorgos Kanaris is a vocal assertive, stiff consul on stage, which belongs here to the diplomatic habit.

Stefan Schmöe

Online Musik Magazin 17/04/2016

Cosi fan tutte – W.A.Mozart

Giorgos Kanaris sings the somewhat rough-and-ready Guglielmo with clearly defined baritone color, which underlines powerfully his representation.

Bernhard Hartmann

General Anzeiger-Bonner Rundschau, Bonn 08/12/15

Giorgos Kanaris represents Guglielmo with grandiose and powerful bariton color

Christoph Zimmermann

Theaterpur.net, Bonn 08/12/15

Kanaris with high affinity in the cantilenas of his part and his entrances.

Ralph Siepmann

Opernnetz.de, Bonn 08/12/15

Rinaldo – G. F. Haendel

Giorgos Kanaris’ Argante was an event, because his tremendous playing mood and his wonderfulbariton voice created a perfect roll profile.

Bernhard Hartmann

General Anzeiger-Bonner Rundschau, Bonn 02/12/14

Giorgos Kanaris as a baritonal weather-proof and highly playful Argante.

Christoph Zimmermann

Theaterpur.net, Bonn 02/12/14

Especially thrilled Giorgos Kanaris as Argante. With perfect baritone voice provides the King of Jerusalem and offers a beautiful balance to the high voices of the evening.

Thomas Molke

Online Musik Magazin, Bonn 02/12/14

Giorgos Kanaris with his hearty theatrical playing as Argante had the laughs on his side. His powerful bright baritone voice was astonishingly agile in the coloraturas.

Manfred Langer

Der Opernfreund, Bonn 02/12/14

Giorgos Kanaris was as Argante a powerful-voiced, well sounded bass with soft transitions between the registers.

Zenner

Operapoint 02/12/14

Fidelio – L.v. Beethoven

“The minister was given his noble majesty through Giorgos Kanaris.”

Bernhard Hartmann

General Anzeiger-Bonner Rundschau, Bonn 30/09/14

Die Zauberflöte – W. A. Mozart

Giorgos Kanaris as a lovely comical Papageno, who is quick-thinking sufficient in the end of the opera to put a hooking curtain down with his own hands.

Bernhard Hartmann

General Anzeiger, Bonn 15/12/14

Also Giorgos Kanaris, an ingenuously naive Papageno to love, with his warm and flexible baritone voice.

Gunild Lohmann

General Anzeiger, Bonn 15/04/14

Schwanengesang – Schubert

With Giorgos Kanaris is “Schwanengesang” in the best of hands. That the Bonn’s opera baritone can also sing Lied, has already been proved several times, and also on this evening his expressive interpretations were evident. Kanaris forms the moods of longing and unreturned love, wanderlust and homesickness, pain and happiness with noble restraint; no outbreak goes at the expense of beautiful sound, which his voice also in the high registers through his sonorous bass-range produces. However, the baritone remains in dramatic songs like “Atlas” or “Doppelgänger” vocally impressive: when he opens up, is his singing also physically imposing.

Gunild Lohmann

General Anzeiger, Bonn 18/02/14

Barbier von Sevilla – Rossini

Giorgos Kanaris is a throughout stable Figaro, with slender, flexible and assertive voice, sovereign in every passage.

Stefan Schmöe

Online Musik Magazin, Bonn 21/01/13

Winterreise – Schubert

Giorgos Kanaris, who, among other things, was awarded the prize of the “Opera Friends Bonn”, has attracted in the productions of the opera House much attention, particularly with his very elegant voice. Now, as a Lieder recitalist, he is no less convincing: his bright baritone, which he controls in the high register without tension, can be heard from the very first bar. In the low register he has a beautiful warmth. Giorgos Kanaris comes across the gloom of “Winterreise” very carefully, with a calm narrative tone and an elaborate art of legato. He abstains from mannerism and sentimentality. His interpretation is sensitive, but not sentimental. From other singers people are used to hearing sharper accentuations – Kanaris remains faithful in his concept of sonority. And this takes him over 24 gently shaped Lieder, in which the “Wirtshaus” (taken with the same prayerful quiet) makes perhaps the greatest impression.

Ulrich Bumann

General-Anzeiger, Bonn 08/02/12

La Finta Giardiniera– Mozart

Giorgos Kanaris gives a theatrical, clearly contoured and beautifuly sounding servant Nardo.

Stefan Schmöe

Online Musik Magazin, Bonn 07/11/11

Giorgos Kanaris makes points with his wonderful baritone as her love-lost Nardo.

Bernhard Hartmann

General-Anzeiger, Bonn 08/02/11

Der Ferne Klang – Schrecker

Giorgos Kanaris as vocally powerful and present “Schauspieler” in an excellent casting.

Stefan Schmöe

Online Musik Magazin, Bonn 10/12/11

Dichterliebe – Schumann

Kanaris reached, with his slender and cleanly- guided baritone in the “Dichterliebe”, a continuously deepening representation of Heine’s poetry.

General-Anzeiger, Bonn 11/05/10