Named the “Most Promising Singer of the Year” in 2005, Pavol Breslik is one of the most popular opera singers in the world today. He won the prestigious Antonín-Dvořák Competition in 2000 and took part in the 2017 opening ceremony of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. He has performed on the world’s greatest stages, from the Metropolitan Opera in New York to Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival and the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.

Australian audiences will remember him as Nadir in Opera Australia’s 2016 production of Bizet’s The Pearlfishers at the Sydney Opera House, and for his 2018 performance as Romeo in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Breslik was scheduled to return to Hobart this October as Alfredo in La Traviata, however the concert was cancelled due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. After three months in lockdown, Breslik made a triumphant return to the Bayerishe Staatsoper in June performing Janáček’s song cycle The Diary of One Who Disappeared. Jansson J. Antmann caught up with the tenor during rehearsals for Die Csárdásfürstin, opening in September at the Zürich Opera House.