tenor
O artyście
Rafał Bartmiński graduated from the Vocal and Drama Faculty of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, having studied under Eugeniusz Sąsiadek. He won the 3rd prize in the 11th International Ada Sari Vocal Artistry Competition in Nowy Sącz (Poland) as well as the 2nd prize and a few additional awards in the 6th International Stanisław Moniuszko Competition in Warsaw in 2007. He launched a busy performing career already as a student.
Rafał Bartmiński made his stage debut singing Lensky in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera (2002). To date, he has sung the following tenor roles in Warsaw: Tamino in The Magic Flute and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni by Mozart, Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Ismaele in Nabucco, Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto and Alfredo in La traviata by Verdi, Števa and Laca in Jenůfa and Boris in Káťa Kabanová by Janáček, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Rodolfo in La bohème and Calaf in Turandot by Puccini, Madwoman in Britten’s Curlew River, Don José in Bizet’s Carmen, Drum Major in Berg’s Wozzeck, Wacław in Statkowski’s Maria and Shepherd in Szymanowski’s King Roger. He is the only singer whose repertoire includes all main tenor parts in Moniuszko’s operas (Janek in The Raftsman, Kazimierz in The Countess, Idamor in The Pariah, Stefan in The Haunted Manor and Jontek in Halka).
Moreover, the artist can often be heard on concert stages. He has sung leading tenor parts in Krzysztof Penderecki’s works (Te Deum, Kosmogonia, Credo, Seven Gates of Jerusalem, Polish Requiem, Utrenja). He has also performed Verdi’s Messa di Requiem, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Szymanowski’s Harnasie, Handel’s Messiah and Beethoven’s Missa solemnis and Symphony No. 9. Rafał Bartmiński has interpreted Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 3 ‘Song of the Night’ with the Warsaw Philharmonic under Antoni Wit (DVD), the Sinfonieorchester des Bayreischen Rudfunks in Munich and Cologne under Mariss Jansons (CD) and the Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE in Madrid under Hannu Lintu.