Károly Szemerédy Bass baritone

In 2008, Hungarian bass-baritone Károly Szemerédy won first place at the Maestro Guerrero International Singing Competition in Madrid, and later reached the finals in the Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in Vienna. In that same year, in Québec, he won third place at the Operalia Plácido Domingo competition.

Highlights of his career include Orest (Elektra) and Dr. Kolenaty (The Makropulos Affair) for Grand Théâtre de Genève, Bluebeard's Castle and Chichkov (From The House of the Dead) for Opera de Lyon, Machiavel (Egmont) at Theater an der Wien, Captain of the Royal Guard (The Bassarids) for the Salzburg Festival Nikitich (Boris Godunov) at Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Escamillo (Carmen) at Teatr Wielki, Lavitski (Boris Godunov), Don Basilio (The Barber of Seville), Orest and First Nazarene (Salomé) at Teatro Real in Madrid.

A regular guest artist of the Hungarian State Opera, he has performed with the house since 2014 in roles including Jochanaan (Salomé), Don Fernando (Fidelio), Marcello (La Bohème), Klingsor (Parsifal), Gunther (Götterdämmerung), Leonardo (Blood Wedding), Escamillo (Carmen), Michele (Il Tabarro), Yeletsky (The Queen of Spade), Il Re d'Egitto (Aida) and Crown (Porgy and Bess).

On the concert platform, he has performed Bluebeard’s Castle with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestra of the Municipal Theater of Bologna, and Orest at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. In 2015, he made his role debut as King Salomon in the rediscovery of K. Goldmark's The Queen of Sheba recorded for CPO classics, with later performances at Theater Freiburg and the Hungarian State Opera.

In the 2022-23 season, he performs Bluebeard’s Castle at Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires and Opéra national de Lyon , and sings the roles of Orest at Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Klingsor and Thoas (Iphigénie en Tauride) at Hungarian State Opera House. He will revive Orest for the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich next season.

Paris Opera debut