Cameroon-born bass Jacques-Greg Belobo enjoyed great success as Ramfis in Verdi’s “Aida” at the Montpellier Opera House and sang the Re d’Egitto in that same opera at the Royal Danish Opera House in Copenhagen in 2023. 2021 he sang Don Basilio in Rossini’s “Il barbiere di Siviglia” also in Montpellier and Osmin in Mozart’s “The Abduction from the Seraglio” at the Austrian opera festival Oper Burg Gars.
Recent highlights were the role of Nourabad in Bizet’s “Les pêcheurs de perles” in Toulon, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in Istanbul with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. On a tour of Japan, he was the star guest of the Maribor Opera as Escamillo (Carmen), and at the Festival de Minería in Mexico, directed by Sergio Vela, he was heard as Somarone in Berlioz’s “Béatrice et Bénédicte”. A guest performance of “American Lulu” by the Komische Oper Berlin took him to the Theater an der Wien, and the role of Le Roi/Le Chancellier in a concert performance of the opera rarity “Cinq-Mars” by Charles Gounod under Ulf Schirmer to Munich, Vienna and Paris. In Taipei, he made his role debut as Gremin in “Eugene Onegin”.
After Jacques-Greg Belobo was a member of the Young Ensemble of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, he moved to the Semperoper Dresden, where he sang roles such as Sarastro (“The Magic Flute”), Il Re and Rafmis (“Aida”), Colline (“La bohème”), Banco (“Macbeth”), Brander (“Faust”), Lodovico (“Otello”), Giorgio (“I Puritani”), Escamillo (“Carmen”), Taddeo (“L’italiana in Algeri”), Leporello and Il Commendatore (“Don Giovanni”), Figaro (“The Marriage of Figaro”), Oroveso (“Norma”), Timur (“Turandot”), Biterolf (“Tannhäuser”), Un Frate (“Don Carlo”), Ferrando (“Il Trovatore”), Kaspar and Eremit (“The Marksman”) Dijab (“L’Upupa”), Titurel (“Parsifal”).
He has worked with conductors such as Philippe Bender, Ivor Bolton, Myung-Whun Chung, Jacques Delacôte, James Levine, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Michel Piquemal, Marc Soustrot, Sebastian Weigle, Johannes Wildner and Massimo Zanetti, and has also proved himself as a concert singer with works such as “Scenes from Goethe’s Faust” (Schumann), Mahler’s 8th. Symphony, Verdi’s “Requiem”, Dvorak’s “Stabat Mater”, Mozart’s “Coronation Mass”, Rossini’s “Petite Messe Solennelle”, Brahms’ “A German Requiem”, a series of Bach cantatas and Fauré’s “Requiem”.
Among the orchestras with which he has performed are the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Santa Cecilia, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, and the Staatskapelle Dresden.
Jacques-Greg Belobo studied at the Conservatoire National de Musique in Nice, where he won the gold medal for voice. He graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris.
He was a prize-winner in numerous international competitions, including the International Singing Competition in Geneva and the International Belvedere Competition in Vienna, where he won five prizes, including engagements at the Semperoper Dresden, the Strasbourg Opera, the Vienna Chamber Opera and for concerts at the Cologne Philharmonic.
09/2024
