Born in
Cluj, Agache was trained at the
Cluj Conservatory. He made his professional opera debut in 1979 at the
Cluj-Napoca Romanian National Opera as Silvano in
Giuseppe Verdi's
Un ballo in maschera. He was active at that house throughout the 1980s, singing roles like the Count di Luna in Verdi's
Il trovatore, Germont in Verdi's
La traviata, Iago in Verdi's
Otello, Malatesta in
Gaetano Donizetti's
Don Pasquale, Posa in Verdi's
Don Carlos, Sharpless in
Giacomo Puccini's
Madama Butterfly, Schaunard in Puccini's
La bohème, and the title roles in
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's
Don Giovanni and Verdi's
Nabucco. In 1987, Agache toured to Tokyo, Japan with the
Berlin State Opera where he performed the role of Count Almaviva in Mozart's
The Marriage of Figaro. In 1988, he made his debut at the
Royal Opera House in London as Renato in
Un ballo in maschera. He has since returned there as Amonasro in Verdi's
Aida, Enrico Ashton in Donizetti's
Lucia di Lammermoor, the Miller in Verdi's
Luisa Miller, and in the title roles of Verdi's
Rigoletto and Verdi's
Simon Boccanegra. In 1989, he made his debut at
La Scala in Milan as Belcore in Donizetti's ''
L'elisir d'amore''. In 1992, he made his United States debut at the
Houston Grand Opera as the Count di Luna. In 1999, he made his debut at the
Metropolitan Opera as Simon Boccanegra with
Karita Mattila as Amelia,
Plácido Domingo as Adorno, and
James Levine conducting. In 2000, he made his debut at the
Arena di Verona Festival as Don Alvaro in Verdi's
La forza del destino. He has also sung leading roles as a guest artist at the
Ankara Opera House, the
Bavarian State Opera, the
Grand Théâtre de Genève, the
Hamburg State Opera, the
Hungarian State Opera House, the
Lyric Opera of Chicago, the
Paris Opera, the
Semperoper, the
Teatro Colón, and the
Vienna State Opera among others. ==References==