Robert Pomakov
bass
In the 2018/2019 season, Canadian bass Robert Pomakov will make role debuts as Nourabad in Les Pêcheurs de Perles at Santa Fe Opera and Méphistophélès in Faust for his house debut with Vancouver Opera. He will return to Oper Frankfurt to sing King René in a new production of Iolanta directed by Lydia Steier and to the Metropolitan Opera to reprise the role of Monterone in Rigoletto. Concert performances of the 2018/2019 season include his debut with the Victoria Symphony, singing König Heinrich in Act III of Lohengrin.
In the 2017/18 season, Mr. Pomakov returned to the Metropolitan Opera to sing Luther and Crespel in Les contes d’Hoffman and Bonze in Madama Butterfly, and to cover Wurm in Luisa Miller. He also returned to the Canadian Opera Company to sing Monterone in Rigoletto and to cover Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, as well as to Oper Frankfurt to sing Oroveso in a new Christof Loy production of Norma.
Mr. Pomakov made his Metropolitan Opera house debut as Monterone in Michael Mayer’s new staging of Rigoletto in a production that was seen live in HD in cinemas around the world. He has also appeared at the Met as Don Basilio in Bartlett Sher’s production of The Barber of Seville and as Mathieu in Andrea Chénier opposite Patricia Racette and Marcelo Álvarez; he also sang in Manon with Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo, in productions of Le nozze di Figaro conducted by James Levine, and in roles in both Don Carlo and Les contes d’Hoffmann, as well as covered the title role in Verdi’s Attila in a new production by Pierre Audi conducted by Riccardo Muti.
Mr. Pomakov has been a prizewinner in several of the world’s premier singing competitions: a finalist in the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Belgium, second place at the Belvedere Competition in Vienna, and third place in Plácido Domingo’s Operalia. Mr. Pomakov was decorated with the Simeon, the first honorary medal from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria, and with a diploma from the Minister of Culture for his achievements in opera’s art and special merit to Bulgarian culture and its dissemination all over the world, and an encouragement award in the George London Foundation Competition. Other prizes have included first prize in the Oratorio Society of New York’s competition, an award from the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition, the Victoria Scholars Grant, second prize in the Canadian Music Competition, and first prize in the Kiwanis Music Festival in Toronto. Pomakov is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music.
