Karoly Szemerédy is one of the most remarkable and important singers of his generation.
Károly Szemerédy started his singing career at the age of eleven years in the children’s choir of the Hungarian State Opera Budapest and completed his vocal studies later on with Hungarian Soprano Margit László next to studying tourism and international relations in his hometown Budapest.
He has won several vocal competitions and in 2007 gave his debut as Lowitskij (Boris Godunov) at Teatro Real Madrid where he also sang smaller roles such as Don Basilio (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Pfleger des Orest (Elektra), First Nazarene (Salome) among others.
He then had his first guest appearances at Teatr Wielki Warsaw (Escamillo in Carmen), Teatro Regio Torino, Harasta (Janaceks The Cunning little Vixen) at Opéra de Lyon and in 2013 gave his debut at the Bavarian State Opera Munich (Nikititisch in Boris Godunov).
Latest engagements:
- Budapest: ”Vodnik” in Rusalka
Budapest: ”DonGiovanni in Don Giovanni
Lyon: “Dr. Kolenaty” in The Makropoulos Case
Bayerische Staatsoper : “Orest” again
Budapest: ”Richard Nixon” in Nixon in China
- Lyon-Bluebeard’s Castle
Budapest- Iphigenia in Tauris (“Thoas”)
Budapest (Müpa)
Paris (Opera Bastille)- Dr.Kolenaty in Makropulos Case
Budapest: “Donner” in Rheingold
In 2022 he sang “Klingsor” in Parsifal and “Gunther” in Götterdämmerung in the Hungarian National Opera and Gunther also at Müpa.In the same year he sang “Bluebeard’s Castle” in Buenos Aires (Teatro Colòn).Still in 2022 he sang “Orest” at Bayerische Staatsoper.
In 2021 he sang “Blubeard” in Blubeard’s Castle, in Opera de Lyon and “Orest” at Grand Theatre de Geneve.
He started the year 2020 in Theater an der Wien, where the world premiere of Egmont was held(he played Machiavelli), but the following production(Fidelio) was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic situation. In october he sang in Grand Theatre de Geneve, Dr. Kolenaty, in Makropulos case.
At the beginning of 2019 he returned to Opéra de Lyon singing Shishkov in Janacek’s From the House of the Dead. Later in 2019 he returned to the Hungarian State Opera’s stage, where he played Michele in Il Tabarro, and also he was on tour in Tel-Aviv with theThe Queen of Sheba (as King Salomon)
In the 2017/2018 season he gave a highly successful debut as Bartók’s Bluebeard and sang Orest in a concert performance of Strauss‘ Elektraat Concertgebouw Amsterdam before giving hisdebut with the Salzburg Festival (Henze’s The Bassarids).
In 2015 he gave a highly acclaimed role debut as King Salomon in the rediscovery of K. Goldmark’s The Queen of Sheba with CD recording (for cpoclassics) at German Theater Freiburg and later on at the Hungarian State Opera Munich.
This was followed by appearances at Opera Vlaanderen Antwerp (Orest in Strauss‘ Elektra and Dr. Kolenaty in Janacek’s The Makropulos Case), Théatre de la Monnaie Bruxelles, Palau de Les Arts Valencia, Teatro Municipal de Lima (title part in Rossini’s Guillaume Tell), Teatr Wielki Warsaw, Teatro la Fenice Venice, several roles at Opéra de Lyon (Water Spirit in Dvorak’s Rusalka among others) and the Hungarian State Opera Budapest (Michele in Puccini’s Il Tabarro, Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust, Escamillo, Jeletzkij in Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame among others).
Nixon in China Oper Budapest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIt2CgM2YCo
Repertory
| Author | Title | Role |
| Richard Strauss | Elektra | Orest |
| Richard Strauss | Salome | Jochanaan |
| G. Rossini | Sevillai borbély | Don Basilio |
| G. Rossini | Tell Vilmos | Tell Vilmos |
| Puccini | Il Tabarro | Michele |
| Puccini | Gianni Schicci | Gianni Schicci |
| Puccini | Madama Butterfly | Sharpless |
| Benjamin Britten | Peter Grimes | Mr. Swallow |
| Janáček | Cunning little vixen | Harasta |
| Janáček | Makropulos ügy | Dr. Kolenaty |
| Janáček | From the house of deads | Siskov |
| Janáček | Jenůfa | Starek |
| Dvořak | Rusalka | Vodník |
| Mozart | Don Giovanni | Don Giovanni |
| Bartók Béla | Kékszakállú herceg vára | Kékszakállú herceg |
| Goldmark Károly | The Queen of Sheba | King Salomon |
| Richard Wagner | Parsifal | Klingsor |
| Richard Wagner | Götterdämmerung | Gunther |
| Tchaikovsky | Dame Pique | Count Tomsky |
| Erkel Ferenc | Bánk Bán | Petúr bán |
| Hans Werner Henze | The Bassarids | Captain, Adonis |
| Beethoven | Fidelio | Don Fernando |
| Beethoven | Fidelio | Pizarro |
| Richard Wagner | The Flying Dutchman | The Dutchman |
| Verdi | Tosca | Scarpia |