Tenor
World
Born in 1990 in Baia Mare, Romania, Ioan Hotea in 2015 won Placido Domingo’s Operalia Competition in London, awarded with the First Prize in the Opera and Zarzuela categories.
His first steps in the field of arts were indeed in visual arts: while studying Fine Arts the Art High School in his hometown he discovered classical music and opera and he was urged to start studying Classical Singing. The unexpected transition would bring many national prizes in the following years, including 1st prize at the National Olympiad of Classical Music, a prize that guaranteed his admission to the National University of Music Bucharest, where he graduated in 2012. The first major role at Bucharest State Opera was Nemorino from L’elisir d’amore, at the age of 22. In the following period, he adds three more large-scale roles to his repertoire: Conte d’Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Alfredo in La traviata.
In 2013 he had the international debut in Amelia al ballo by Gian Carlo Menotti at Opéra de Monte-Carlo. The same year performed alongside Edita Gruberova in Donizetti’s Three Queens concert at Theater an der Wien. Since then his international career brought him in the major opera houses of the world: in 2014 he debuted at Opèra National de Paris as Tebaldo in I Capuletti e i Montecchi, in 2016 he debuted at Opernhaus Zurich as Ernesto in Don Pasquale staged by Grischa Asagaroff and conducted by Enrique Mazzola, in the season 2016/2017 he debuted Royal Opera Covent Garden London with Nemorino, in the season 2017/2018 he debuted at Vienna State Opera in Il barbiere di Siviglia, in 2020 he had his debut at Bavarian State Opera in Munich as Ferrando in Così fan tutte, in 2021 he had his debut at Staatsoper Hamburg as Chevalier des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon, in 2021 he debuted at Deutsche Oper Berlin as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, in 2022 he debuted at Grand Théâtre de Genève as Prince Léopold in Halévy’s La Juive conducted by Marc Minkowski and at Semperoper Dresden s Ferrando in Così fan tutte conducted by Omer Meir Wellber.
From 2015 Ioan Hotea was also a member of the ensemble at the Hessisches Staatstheater in Wiesbaden, where he performed almost all the leading role of his repertoire, including the title role in Werther, Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi. He also sang Duca di Mantova in Rigoletto, Don Ottavio and Ferrando at the Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden.
LATEST PERFORMANCES: L’elisir d’amore and Opera gala for the Deutsche AIDS-Stiftung at Theater Bonn; Gianni Schicchi at ABAO Bilbao; La traviata at Deutsche Oper m Rehin in Düsseldorf; Rigoletto at Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv and at Teatro Massimo in Palermo; Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise at Hamburg International Music Festival; Lucia di Lammermoor at Staatsoper Hamburg; La Juive at Teatro Regio in Turin.
FORTHCOMING PROJECTS: Nabucco (role debut as Ismaele) and “Nessun dorma!” opera gala at Theater Bonn; Gounod’s Faust (title role debut) at Israeli Opera Tel Aviv.
