Stefan Pop

Specializing in the Italian bel canto repertoire, tenor Ștefan Pop has performed at leading opera houses across Italy, Germany, Britain, and additional countries. Born February 16, 1987, in Bistrița, Romania, in the Transylvania region, he is frequently listed without the Romanian diacritical in his name. Violin lessons began for him at age seven, yet choir participation during elementary school steadily increased his focus on singing. He pursued training at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, graduating in 2010 while already attracting international notice. His first appearance occurred in 2009 at the Hungarian Opera Cluj in Domenico Cimarosa's Il matrimonio segreto, after which he portrayed Nemorino in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore at the Romanian National Opera, Timișoara. Later in 2009 he achieved his international debut as Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata in a staging directed by filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli. Two leading prizes at the Operalia competition founded by tenor Plácido Domingo came in 2010, together with top awards at the World Opera Competition at Milan's Teatro alla Scala and the International Music Competition in Seoul. During the 2010s he established himself as a prominent international artist, appearing at major opera houses that included the Wiener Staatsoper in the role of Alfredo in La Traviata, a part that formed one of his specialties and that he also sang at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 2013. Concentrating on Italian opera, he undertook several engagements in France featuring Italian works at the Opéra Bastille and the Salle Pleyel in Paris, while also performing at numerous regional Italian theaters, most often in bel canto roles. His recording debut arrived in 2016 with a live account of Donizetti's Roberto Devereux captured at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. Several tours took place with soprano Angela Gheorghiu. The Dynamic label issued a 2019 recording of Donizetti's Il Castello di Kenilworth under conductor Riccardo Frizza. In 2023 he made his first principal-role recording, singing Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca opposite soprano Melody Moore on the PentaTone Classics release led by Carlo Montanaro.