| Biography | Lithuanian bass-baritone Kostas Smoriginas was a member of The Royal Opera's Jette Parker Young Artists Programme 20079, singing roles including Alidoro (La Cenerentola), Marquis dObigny (La traviata), Angelotti (Tosca), Bello (La fanciulla del West) and Schlemil (Les Contes dHoffmann). He has since returned to sing Colline (La bohème), Don Alvaro (Il viaggio a Reims in the Jette Parker Young Artists Tenth Anniversary Concert) and Escamillo (Carmen) for The Royal Opera.
Smoriginas studied at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and represented Lithuania in the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. He moved to London in 2005 to study at the Royal College of Music on a full scholarship, and on graduation joined the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme. Engagements since leaving the Programme include Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) for San Francisco Opera and Washington National Opera, Escamillo with Opera North, in Beijing, Dresden and at the Salzburg Festival, Don Giovanni in Santiago and Toulouse, Leporello (Don Giovanni) at La Scala, Milan, and at the Festival dAix-en-Provence, Leporello in Bordeaux, Tomsky (The Queen of Spades) in Israel and Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) and Eugene Onegin in Vilnius.
Smoriginas frequently appears in concert, engagements including Szymanowski's Stabat Mater with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner and at the Barbican under Valery Gergiev, and Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem in Budapest. |