Cosmin Ifrim
Audio & Video
Cosmin Ifrim, seemed to be crying out for greater engagement. He finally got it as he leaned over his seated, dying mistress in "Parigi, o cara", a hallowed phrasing of all four lines in one breath which would have made stones weep, and certainly brought out the best in Miricioiu. This had to be the evening's biggest moment of grace. Earlier, Ifrim was allowed his baby-tenor moment in the sun, capping his buoyant, charming aria of soaring spirits with a ringing top C that deservedly stopped the show.(Traviata, London Feb 2010, David Nice (The Arts Desk))
Born in Ineu (Arad), Cosmin Ifrim studied singing and conducting at the Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca. After winning many important competitions, he was engaged to the Vienna State Opera in 2000, where he first sang Lord Cecil within a new production of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux with Edita Gruberova. He quickly advanced to important and demanding roles like Rinuccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, the Italian Tenor in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, the fisher in Rossini’s Guillaume Tell, or Beppe in Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci. For his portrayal of Squeak in Britten’s Billy Budd, he was awarded with the Eberhard Wächter medal. His major breakthrough at Vienna State Opera was the premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff in 2003, in which he sang the role of Fenton. The same part he already interpreted within a touring production in all the major cities of the Netherlands. During the first years of his career, he also appeared as the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier at the State Opera Berlin, as Alfredo in Verdi’s La Traviata in Mostar as well as in Strauss’s Salome and as Rosillion in Lehár's The Merry Widow in Tel Aviv.
At Vienna State Opera, Ifrim also sang premieres of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Bastien und Bastienne, Janáček's Osud, Italian Tenor in Strauss' Capriccio, the title role in the Austrian premiere of Nino Rota's Aladdin and Raffaele in Verdi's Stiffelio. With the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, he could be heard in Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. Furthermore, he sang a gala duet concert with Victoria Loukianetz in Prague, as well as the MDR's New Year's Concert in Leipzig with Carmina Burana, conducted by Fabio Luisi. In June 2007, he performed the role of Gualtiero in Bellini's Il pirata for the St. Moritz Festival in Switzerland.
In 2008/2009, Cosmin Ifrim started his career as free lance artist. In November 2008, he sang Alfredo in La Traviata for a new production by Hugo de Ana in Maribor and in May 2009 for the first time Tonio in Donizetti‘s La fille du régiment in Bilbao. During summer 2009, he again performed La fille du régiment for the Klosterneuburg Festival and gave his role debut as Duca in Verdi’s Rigoletto for the St. Margarethen Festival.
Engagements in 2009/2010 included his London debut as Alfredo in La Traviata alongside Nelly Miricioiu and Alan Opie in the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the same part for the National Opera in Athens, Billy Budd in Bilbao, his Bavarian State Opera debut in Munich as Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, a new production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Vienna Volksoper in June 2010 as well as Il Pirata in Basel.
In July 2010, he gave his role debut as Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème at the International Pacific Festival in Sapporo, conducted by Fabio Luisi.
During fall 2010, he returned to Bilbao as Little Bat for a new production of Floyd's Susannah and to Vienna for Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Also as Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, he made his Italy debut at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome in April 2011.
In the 2011/2012 season, he will again be heard as Pedrillo at the Vienna Volksoper and for the first time at the Liceu in Barcelona in the title role of Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg.
His concert repertoire includes Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater as well as Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s Lauda Sion.
Among the important conductors he has worked with so far are Richard Hickox, Zubin Mehta, Fabio Luisi, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Donald Runnicles, Ulf Schirmer, Vjekoslav Šutej, Christian Thielemann, Franz Welser-Möst and Marcello Viotti.
August 2011
