Krisztián Cser was born in 1977, in
Szeged,
Hungary. He grew up in a family of musicians. His grandmother Tímea Cser was a soprano, grandfather Gusztáv Cser was a composer-conductor, father
Miklós Cser was a conductor. His mother Andrea Balló is a painter. He has 5 siblings. One of his brothers,
Ádám Cser is a musician too, he is a composer-conductor. He grew up in
Szeged,
Hungary, where he began his musical studies by playing the
piano in his early childhood. After leaving high school, he graduated in physics at the
University of Szeged in 2002 (
Hungary) and began to work as a PhD student at the
Institute of Biophysics of the Szeged Biological Research Centre. But his artistic roots proved strong, science was replaced by music in his life. He studied classical singing at the
University of Szeged, where his vocal trainer was István Andrejcsik, then he attended the Department of Vocal and Opera Studies at the
Liszt Academy, where the famous operatic singer
Éva Marton was his professor and studied stage movement and acting with Balázs Kovalik. Krisztián Cser succeeded in several Hungarian and international singing competitions, either he got into the finals, got a special prize, or even won. He came out as an oratorio soloist in
J. S. Bach's
Saint John Passion in 1998. His repertoire includes a wide range of musical styles from early
baroque to
contemporary music. In opera roles he appeared first in 2008, since when he has been a member of the
Hungarian State Opera. His first lead role at the
Hungarian State Opera was Pomádé in
Ránki's King Pomádé's New Clothes. He has sung under the baton of renowned Hungarian and foreign conductors such as
Pierre Cao,
Péter Eötvös,
Helmuth Rilling,
Peter Schreier,
Muhai Tang,
Gábor Hollerung,
Kirill Karabits,
Zoltán Kocsis,
Ádám Fischer,
Iván Fischer,
Zoltán Peskó,
György Vashegyi,
Ken'ichiro Kobayashi,
Zsolt Hamar and
Tamás Vásáry. During the years, his title-role singing in
Béla Bartók's
Bluebeard's Castle became emblematic, he sings it in many Hungarian and international performances successfully with the contribution of renowned conductors. In some of the countries during his tour around the world, the audience could listen to and watch this opera for the first time in his performance. Above all, on the CD published in 2018 for the centenary of the
Bluebeard's Castle premiere, Krisztián Cser sings
Bluebeard. Besides
Bartók's opera, he has played other remarkable roles on opera stages. He frequently sings the bass roles of
Mozart's operas as Figaro, Leporello and Sarastro, and authentically plays the protagonists in
Verdi and
Wagner's operas, such as The Grand Inquisitor and Philip II in
Don Carlos or Wotan in
The Rhinegold. His other leading roles have included Colline in
Puccini's
La bohème and Don Basilio in
Rossini's
The Barber of Seville. His ever-expanding repertoire includes more than 60 operas and nearly 80 roles. He regularly performs on Hungarian opera and concert stages. He gave recitals also at the
Royal Festival Hall in
London, at the
Elbphilharmonie in
Hamburg and many more famous concert hall. He has debut as Wotan in
Wagner's
The Rhinegold in 2018, and as Don Pizarro in
Beethoven's Fidelio at the
Opernhaus Chemnitz. In 2019 he sang the role of Bluebeard with the
Budapest Festival Orchestra conducted by Iván Fischer, at
Carnegie Hall in
New York City. He also sang the role of Wotan in the fall of 2019 in
Mexico City, where the 150th anniversary of the staging of
Wagner's
The Rhinegold was celebrated. == Career ==