Pavlo Hunka - Baritone/Bass
Biography
Born in England as the son of an Ukrainian father and an English mother, Pavlo Hunka qualified as a Linguist and practised as a Lawyer in the U.K. before embarking on a singing career. He began his vocal studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, and completed them in Switzerland with Kammersängerin Maria Sandulescu.
He sang many of the major roles in the bass-baritone repertoire whilst on contract for three years in Basel/Switzerland. Since then he has sung in most of the leading opera houses in the world - Paris, Vienna, Munich, Florence, Amsterdam, London, Salzburg - under Claudio Abbado, Jeffrey Tate, Semion Bychkov, Zubin Mehta, Peter Schneider, Mark Wigglesworth to mention but a few.
Pavlo Hunka's repertoire includes Barak/Die Frau ohne Schatten, Wozzeck, Golaud/Pelleas et Mélisande, Bluebeard/Duke Bluebeard’s castle, Pizarro/Fidelio, Kaspar/Der Freischütz, The flying Dutchman, Lysiart/Euryanthe and many bass-baritone roles in the Russian, Wagnerian and Italian repertoires.
Highlights of recent seasons include: Schaklowityj/Chowantschina and Les Troyens at English National Opera, Zunbeltz/Zigor in Bilbao, Dr. Schön and Jack/ Lulu at Opera Bonn and in Geneva, his first appearance at Canadian Opera Toronto with a fantastic success in his role debut as Falstaff, followed by Hunding/ Walküre, Alberich/ Siegfried and the title role of Wozzeck. He sang the same role at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under Zubin Mehta. Other highlights have been Tomski/ Pique Dame at Teatro Real Madrid, Klingsor/ Parsifal in concert form in Moscow, Mr. Flint/ Billy Budd again at English National Opera London, Alberich/Siegfried in Lyon, Klingsor/Parsifal in Naples, Siskov/From the house of the dead in Palermo, Siskov/From the house of the dead, Golaud/Pelléas et Mélisande at Canadian Opera Toronto and Nekrotzar/Le grand macabre in Brussels and at English National Opera London.
Future projects include the doctor in the new production of Wozzeck (director: Andrea Breth) and Kezal (The Bartered Bride) at the Berlin State Opera as well as Schigolch (Lulu) in Brussel.
Last updated: 06.05.2011© We kindly ask you to seek our approval for any alteration or abbreviation of the biography. Thank you for your kind understanding.