GEORGE PETEAN, born in Cluj-Napoca/Romania, studied at the music academy of his hometown. His international breakthrough came as Marcello (La bohème) at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Subsequent engagements have taken him to the Hamburg State Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Opéra Bastille in Paris, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Zurich Opera House and the Bregenz Festival, among others. His repertoire includes roles such as Iago (Otello), Count Luna (Il trovatore), Ankarström (Un ballo in maschera), Lord Enrico Ashton (Lucia di Lammermoor) as well as the title roles in Rigoletto, Nabucco and Macbeth. He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 2001 as Barbiere-Figaro. Since then he has appeared here in numerous roles in works by Giuseppe Verdi (Rodrigo and Rodrigue in the Italian and French versions of Don Carlo, respectively, as well as Count Luna, Macbeth, Rigoletto, Ankarström), as well as Carlo Gérard (Andrea Chénier), Enrico (in the premiere of the current Lucia production) and Tonio (Pagliacci).