Within the particularly intimate and revealing setting of piano-accompanied aria and song recitals, Freddie de Tommaso will present Neapolitan songs, while Asmik Grigorian will perform works by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff in the Hungarian State Opera’s Stars' Recitals with Piano series. Of the two opera stars, the British-Italian tenor will be accompanied by Audrey Saint-Gil at his concert on 25 January 2026, while the Lithuanian soprano’s partner for her performance on 13 February will be the pianist Lukas Geniušas.
With his beautiful Italian tenor voice and his direct, friendly personality, Freddie de Tommaso captivates audiences all over the world. The young artist burst into public awareness with a last-minute debut as Cavaradossi in London in 2021, and since then has been steadily building his repertoire at the world’s leading opera houses. In the current season, he has appeared as Cavaradossi in London, Berlin, and Paris, and has portrayed Rodolfo in Luisa Miller and La bohème in Vienna, New York, and Valencia as well. Hungarian audiences first had the opportunity to admire his performing talent at the Opera House in 2024, at the gala of the Sir Georg Solti Academy. For his appearance on 25 January, de Tommaso arrives with an authentic bouquet of Italian songs, including the emotional Neapolitan songs of Tosti, De Curtis, and Di Capua. Several of these were made famous by his great role model, Enrico Caruso, such as the world-renowned ’O sole mio, as well as the dramatically powerful Core ’ngrato and the nostalgically tinged Torna a Surriento. His partner for the concert will be the French pianist and conductor Audrey Saint-Gil, Head Vocal Advisor of the Vienna State Opera’s Young Artists Programme, an acknowledged expert in the French and Italian repertoire and a regular contributor to opera productions at leading lyric theatres across Europe and the United States.
Thanks to her exceptional dramatic soprano voice and compelling character portrayals, Asmik Grigorian, who appears at the Opera House on 13 February, is considered one of today’s outstanding international opera stars. At the peak of her vocal powers this season, the Lithuanian soprano has sung Salome in Munich and Manon Lescaut in Barcelona; later she will appear as Tatiana (Eugene Onegin) in Vienna and New York, as Carmen in Salzburg, and as Senta (Der fliegende Holländer) in Bayreuth. The singer, who was recognized for the third time at the 2025 International Opera Awards, could be said to have been born for the profession: her father is the Armenian tenor Gegam Grigorian, who performed several times in Hungary, and her mother is the Lithuanian soprano Irena Milkevičiūtė. For her February debut at the Opera House, Asmik Grigorian will present Rachmaninoff songs selected from her first solo album, Dissonance, released in 2022, including such popular concert pieces as In the Silence of the Secret Night, Dream, and Spring Waters. In the first half of the concert, she will offer an equally high-quality selection of Tchaikovsky romances, among them well-known works such as Amid the Din of the Ball, None but the Lonely Heart, and Why? Grigorian’s partner for the evening will be the Russian-Lithuanian pianist Lukas Geniušas. Coming from a family of musicians and possessing a broad repertoire, the soloist performs regularly in renowned concert halls and festivals around the world, and will also demonstrate his acclaimed artistry in several solo pieces during the concert.
Photos by Craig Gibson, Aldgridas Barkas
