Marian Pop

Marian Pop is a Romanian operatic baritone who has performed in operas and concerts since the mid-1990s. He has appeared in several Verdi leading roles in broadcast performances released by OperaVision and SWR Fernsehen at Opernfestspiele Heidenheim. He played the title role in the 21st-century opera Cyrano by David DiChiera in 2011. His most performed role is Figaro in Gioachino Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, which he has performed over 600 times. Pop represented Romania in the 1997 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. In the later part of his career, he has focused on the Italian repertory, especially the operas of Verdi, performing 11 major roles.

Biography

Early life and training

Born in Cluj, Pop initially trained as a violinist before turning to vocal studies after being encouraged by a teacher who recognised his vocal potential. During this period he appeared alongside Leo Nucci, Simon Keenlyside and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and worked with Jonathan Miller in his 1997 production of Fedora. That same year he appeared at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition representing Romania.

He subsequently appeared as a guest at the Opéra Bastille in Paris and the Staatsoper Stuttgart, performing roles including Marullo, Eisenstein, Beckmesser and Dr. Falke which received a favourable review in The New York Times, and the title role in Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria. In 2005 he joined the permanent soloist ensemble of Theater Basel.

Pop created and premiered the title role in David DiChiera’s opera Cyrano, based on Edmond Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac, at Michigan Opera Theatre in October 2007. DiChiera wrote the role specifically for Pop, collaborating with him during the composition and rehearsal process. He later performed the role in Philadelphia and at Florida Grand Opera, where the production received critical attention.

In 2013, Pop joined the permanent soloist ensemble of Staatstheater Kassel, where he was awarded the Kassel Volksbühne Prize in 2015 following a public vote.

Since then, Pop has gone on to sing almost all the major baritone Verdi roles, including Count di Luna in Il trovatore, Renato in Un ballo in maschera, Rigoletto, Germont in La traviata, Macbeth, Don Carlos in Ernani, Ezio in Attila, and the title role in Alzira. He has appeared as Rigoletto at Staatstheater Kassel, Maribor Slovene National Theatre and Stadttheater Bremerhaven, and sang Macbeth in Bremerhaven. He performed Alzira and Attila at the Opernfestspiele Heidenheim. He has also performed La forza del destino at Operklosterneuburg near Vienna and the Requiem at the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre.

In 2017 Pop sang the title role of Cardillac at the Salzburger Landestheater. Pop has also appeared as a guest artist at Stadttheater Klagenfurt.

In 2026 it was announced that Pop would return to Opernfestspiele Heidenheim to sing Jago

Personal life

He lives with his wife and their son in Austria.

Teaching

In 2017 Pop completed a doctorate in vocal pedagogy, titled Improving Stage Diction in Opera Performance, at the Gheorghe Dima National Music Academy. In 2020 he joined the Anton Bruckner Private University (Institute for Voice and Music Theatre) in Linz as a lecturer in singing

Selected operatic roles

David DiChiera Cyrano – Cyrano Gaetano Donizetti Don Pasquale – Dottor Malatesta L'elisir d'amore – Belcore Charles Gounod Faust – Valentin Roméo et Juliette – Mercutio Paul Hindemith Cardillac – Cardillac Thomas Johnson The Four-Note Opera – Baritone Erich Wolfgang Korngold Die tote Stadt – Frank Franz Lehár Die lustige Witwe – Graf Danilo Ruggero Leoncavallo Pagliacci – Tonio; Silvio Jules Massenet Cendrillon – Pandolphe Pietro Mascagni Cavalleria rusticana – Alfio Claudio Monteverdi Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria – Ulisse Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Le nozze di Figaro – Conte Almaviva Don Giovanni – Don Giovanni Così fan tutte – Guglielmo La clemenza di Tito – Publius Amilcare Ponchielli La Gioconda – Barnaba Sergei Prokofiev L'amour des trois oranges – Pantalone Giacomo Puccini La bohème – Marcello; Schaunard Turandot – Ping Gianni Schicchi – Gianni Schicchi Tosca – Scarpia Manon Lescaut – Geronte

Gioachino Rossini Il barbiere di Siviglia – Figaro La Cenerentola – Dandini L'italiana in Algeri – Taddeo Richard Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos – Harlekin Der Rosenkavalier – Faninal Die Frau ohne Schatten – Der Einäugige Johann Strauss II Die Fledermaus – Eisenstein; Dr. Falke Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin – Eugene Onegin Giuseppe Verdi Il trovatore – Conte di Luna Don Carlo – Rodrigo, Marchese di Posa Un ballo in maschera – Renato Macbeth – Macbeth Rigoletto – Rigoletto; Marullo Ernani – Don Carlo Alzira – Gusmano Attila – Ezio Otello – Iago La forza del destino – Don Carlo di Vargas; Un chirurgo La Traviata – Father Germont Richard Wagner Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – Beckmesser Götterdämmerung – Gunther Das Rheingold – Donner Tristan und Isolde – Melot Mieczysław Weinberg Die Passagierin – Tadeusz

Discography

CD

DVD

Publications