Bass-baritone Gábor Bretz began his vocal training in Los Angeles and in his home city of Budapest. In 2005 he won the International Maria Callas Grand Prix Competition in Athens. Since graduating from Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy, he has appeared regularly at the city’s State Opera, where his roles have included the title roles in Mefistofele, Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro, Leporello (Don Giovanni), Banco (Macbeth), Colline (La bohème), Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia) Escamillo (Carmen), Gurnemanz (Parsifal), Zaccaria (Nabucco) and Orestes (Elektra). Within the framework of the Budapest Wagner Festival he has also sung Landgrave Herrmann (Tannhäuser) under Ádám Fischer at the Palace of Arts.

Other notable appearances include Scarpia (Tosca) at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, a staged version of the Verdi Requiem at the Hamburg State Opera, King Henry (Lohengrin) at La Monnaie in Brussels, Fasolt (Das Rheingold) for the Odense Symphony Orchestra’s Ring cycle, the Dutchman (Der fliegende Holländer) at the Oberammergau Passion Theatre, Ferrando (Il trovatore) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Escamillo at the Bavarian State Opera, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the New National Theatre in Tokyo and the Hamburg State Opera, Colline at Covent Garden and Philippe II (Don Carlos) under Renato Palumbo at the Hamburg State Opera. He has also sung Bluebeard in performances of Duke Bluebeard’s Castle with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic under Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, Ádám Fischer, Edward Gardner, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Michele Mariotti and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Other eminent conductors with whom he has appeared include Alain Altinoglu, Philippe Jordan, Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle, Juraj Val?uha and Omer Meir Wellber.

Plans for 2018/19 include Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte) at the Monnaie and the bass soloist in Verdi’s Requiem both at Covent Garden and in a revival of the staged version in Hamburg, where he will also be seen as Escamillo and Philippe II. He will also be singing Gurnemanz with the Hallé Orchestra, the title role in Massenet’s Don Quichotte at the Bregenz Festival and Bluebeard at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. As a concert artist he will performing Bartók’s Cantata profana and Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricus with the Orchestre de Paris.