George Oniani

Biography

Born in Georgia, George Oniani graduated from the Tbilisi State Conservatoire and continued his studies in Munich and at the Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan. His first operatic engagements in his native Tbilisi were Duca Rigoletto, Cavaradossi Tosca, Don José Carmen, Radames Aida, Riccardo Un Ballo in Maschera, Manrico Il Trovatore, Samson Samson et Dalila and the title role in Verdi’s Don Carlo.

George Oniani appeared at Teatro alla Scala in Milan as Riccardo in Verdi's Oberto and repeated this role later at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova. He sang Arrigo I Vespri Siciliani at the Verdi Festival in Busseto and the Ravenna Festival and performed Ugo in Donizetti’s Ugo, Conte di Parigi at Teatro alla Scala and Teatro Bellini in Catania. In the meanwhile George Oniani’s repertoire consists of 40 leading roles such as Turiddu Cavalleria rusticana, the title role of Ernani, Manrico Il Trovatore, Rodolfo La Bohème, Canio I Pagliacci, Pinkerton Madama Butterfly, Don José Carmen, Pollione Norma, Calaf Turandot, Des Grieux Manon Lescaut, Laca Jenufa, Boris Katya Kabanova, Carlo VII Giovanna d’Arco, Foresto Attila, Vassili Siberia, Herman The Queen of Spades.

Since 2008/2009 George Oniani is a member of the ensemble of the Bonn Opera and has appeared as a guest at the opera houses in Milan, Catania, Brescia, Cremona, Pavia, Como, Mantova, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Poznan, Rio de Janeiro, Vienna Volksoper, Kiel, Tallinn, Vilnius, Riga, Zagreb and the Festivals in Dalhalla, Macau, Toscana, Heidenheim and Kazan.