Mariusz Kwiecień
is currently implementing his own project entitled “The Opera of the Young” [“Opera Młodych”] addressed to outstanding young artists. The project gives them a unique chance to start their future professional life. He conducts professional vocal courses at many universities around the world. He is also a faculty member of the Academy of Music in Cracow, where – at the Faculty of Voice and Drama – he is pursuing his doctoral studies.
He owes his brilliant and dazzling world career to his exceptional talent and hard work. He has performed in the most significant opera theatres of the world: Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Vienna Opera, Paris Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Bavarian Opera, and many others. The audience appreciated his incredible voice – baritone, musical sensitivity, charisma, and charming stage appearance. He has played the title roles in well-known operas such as “Don Giovanni” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, “King Roger” by Karol Szymanowski, and “Eugene Onegin” by Piotr Tchaikovsky. He has performed as Almaviva in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro”, Malatesta in “Don Pasquale” and Nottingham in Gaetano Donizetti’s “Roberto Devereux”, Riccardo in Vincenzo Bellini’s “The Puritans”, Rodrigo di Posa in Giuseppe Verdi’s “Don Carlos” and Zurga in Georges Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers”.
He made his Met stage debut in 1999 as Kuligin in Leoš Janáček’s opera “Káťa Kabanová”. Apart from the aforementioned roles, he has performed there, among others, as Marcello in Giacomo Puccini’s “La Bohème”, Guglielmo in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte”, Escamillo in Georges Bizet’s “Carmen”, as well as Enrico in “Lucia di Lammermoor” and Belcore in Gaetano Donizetti’s “The Elixir of Love”. He has sung continuously at the Met for twenty seasons.
“(…) glamorous, handsome of voice and presence […], and intelligent besides. It’s the whole package (…)”, wrote Michael White in The New York Times.
“Kwiecien is one of the finest lyric baritones of our time and one of opera’s most intelligent actors (…)” – this is what was written about the artist after the premiere of “The Pearl Fishers” at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.