 Born in Belgium in 1990, the young baritone Ivan Thirion was accepted into the Royal Conservatory in Brussels at the age of 17, where he studied under the Belgian baritone Marcel Vanaud. After completing a Bachelor degree in Brussels, he joined the Geneva University of Music where he obtained his Master with Professor Gilles Cachemaille. He made his operatic debut at the Royal Opera House of Wallonie Liège as Papageno in Zauberflöte, which led to various reinvitations : Ogre in Auber's La Forêt Bleue, Gazella in Lucrezia Borgia, Tomaso in Un Ballo in Maschera, Marcello in La Bohème. But also in recent years the artist appeared in Liège as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor - next to Annick Massis in the title role and Celso Albelo -, as Lord Cecil in Maria Stuarda and Don Carlo di Vargas in La Forza del Destino (the latter as cover).
Recent engagements & News !
After having participated in several roles at the 2nd edition of the International Opera conducting Competition at ORW-Liège, Ivan Thirion embarked for Genova's Teatro Carlo Felice (his house debut) to perform Somarone in Berlioz' Béatrice et Bénédict and participate in the Magnum Opus of Belgian composer Peter Benoit's "De Oorlog" (The War). The current season will see him appearing as Matteo in the premiere of the French version of Christian Jost's opera Reise der Hoffnung (Voyage vers l'espoir - an opera after Xavier Koller's drama movie) at Grand Théâtre Genève and in the dual role of Messenger & 2nd Sailor in Nicolaï Rimski Korsakov's Tale of Tsar Saltan at Opera national du Rhin Strasbourg (house debut). To finish off the season he will sing his very first Posa in a new production of Don Carlo at the Heidenheim Festival 2023.
Next season 2023/24 he will amongst others return to ORW Liège and the Opera house of Lyon. He will participate in a coproduction at Opéra Grand Avignon and the opera house of Tours.
Noteworthy was Ivan Thirion's election by Génération Opéra (GO) amongst the so called "Promotion 2022", including twelf of the most promising singers within the French speaking territories worldwide. More information about Génération Opéra via following link : https://www.generationopera.fr/promotions/promotion-2022.
During the season 2021/22 Ivan Thirion sang Ramiro in Ravel's L'Heure espagnole at Flanders Opera, made his debut in the title role of Rigoletto both at the Opera house of Rouen and at Paris' Théâtre des Champs Elysées (production for young audiences), took part as Somarone in a new production of Béatrice etBénédict at the Cologne Opera House under the baton of François-Xavier Roth and participated as Nardo (Roberto) in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, at Théâtre des Martyrs in Brussels.
The weird corona times
Only few productions were saved since the corona virus outbreak : a concert version of Mozart's Nozze di Figaro (Il Conte Almaviva) with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège led by Gergely Madaras and a new production of Berlioz' Béatrice et Bénédict (Somarone) directed by Damiano Michieletto and led by Daniele Rustioni at the Opera house of Lyon. Further on, he embarked at Flanders Opera to sing Don Fernando in excerpts of Beethoven's Fidelio, made successful his debut as Roderick Usherin The House of Usher (Debussy/Van Parys) and Albert in Massenet's Werther.To finish off the season, the artist participated in Tristan und Isolde (Steuermann) under Sir Simon Rattle's baton at the Aix-en-Provence Festival 2021.
Some facts
Noteworthy pre-corona productions in which Ivan Thirion took part, are : Schreker's Der Schmied von Gent as Joseph, Glass' In the penal Colony as The Officer both at Flanders Opera, OPERA XXI (Antwerp), Operadagen Rotterdam and at Grand Théâtre Genève. There, he also appeared in Bizet's Carmen as Dancaire and Purcell's King Arthur as Grimbald, 3rd Man and Comus in King Arthur. Operazuid Maastricht invited him to sing Albert in Massenet's Werther and Sparck in Offenbach's Fantasio. He sang his first Golaud in Impressions de Pelléas in the semi-staged production with performances in Belgium and Italy, under the artistic direction and the accompaniment by the piano duo Jan Michiels and Inge Spinette.
In concert he toured (including main halls in Ghent, Leuven, Brussels and Versailles) with tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen and his Ensemble A nocte temporis proposing under the title "Un Noël français" a programme entirely dedicated to Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Further more he was offered a Residence at the renowned Festival of Aix-en-Provence where he deepened the Lied repertoire and distinguished himself in a series of recitals (2018). He also appeared in the solo baritone part in Brahms' "Ein deutsches Requiem" at the Opera house of Montpellier and most recently at Salle Gaveau Paris upon invitation of M° Xavier Ricour.
 Achievements
July 2013 Ivan Thirion was awarded with the "Wil Keune Prize for a young singer with real potential" at the 32th edition of the "Hans Gabor Belvédère Competition" (Amsterdam edition). The same year he won the 2nd Prize at the 6th edition of the St Petersburg Opera Competiton. He is also finalist of the 26th "Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers" at the Houston Grand Opera (2014).
During that time, Ivan Thirion was also chosen to join the prestigious Young Singers Project (edition of Summer 2015) initiated by the renowned Salzburg Festival. Within that framework he has appeared as Bartolo in a reduced version of Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Festival, sung with the Mozarteum Orchestra and taken part in a tour to China, including peformances at the Shangai Grand Theatre, the Beijing National Opera, the Xi’an Concert Hall …
Eventually he has been chosen for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition 2017, being the first Belgian to reach the final rounds since 30 years.
Breakthrough of a young career
From 2011 to 2013 Ivan Thirion was affiliated with CNIPAL the so called Opera Studio of Marseille, where he appeared in many concerts and opera productions. The latter in collaboration with other French theatres that proved fruitful afterwards such as the Opera Houses of Montpellier (where he sung his first Figaro (Nozze di Figaro), Marseille and Avignon where he sang Frank (Die Fledermaus) and Maharadja(L’amour masqué), next to Toulon, Nancy, Limoges and Bordeaux. Making himself a name Ivan Thirion was invited by the Festival of Radio France to participate in Benjamin Godard's La Vivandière.
Subsequently he joined the International opera studio of the Zurich Opera House, where he was cast as Ping (Turandot), Lakai (Ariadne auf Naxos), Bello (La Fanciulla del West), Rodomonte in Haydn’s Orlando Paladino and Coryphée (Le Comte Ory) next to Cecilia Bartoli ...
Whilst trained and breaking through Ivan Thirion has repeatedly sung under conductors as Fabio Luisi, Marco Armiliato, William Christie, Kazushi Ono, John Fiore, Paolo Arrivabeni and Leonardo Garcia Alarcon ... and worked toghether with stage directors such as David Pountney, Giancarlo del Monaco, Stefano Mazzonis di Pralafera, Andreas Homoki, Philippe Sireuil, Claus Guth, Marcial di Fonzo Bo, Waut Koeken, Simon Stone …
CV UPDATE : January 2023. Please contact the Agency, to get the most recent version of the artist's biography (or to get the short version). |
