Biography

Simon Baddi (Bagdadishvili) was born in Tiflis, Georgia. He studied at the Conservatorium in Tiflis and Moscow. Still a student he debuted at the age of 22 in Tiflis as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohème. Invitations to the Bolschoi Theatre in Moscow and the opera in Kiev as well as to the other most important Russian opera houses followed. His biggest successes were Othello, Aida, Il Trovatore, La Forza del Destino, Un Ballo in Maschera, Don Carlos, La Traviata, Rigoletto, Ernani, Tosca, Turandot, La Bohème, Carmen, Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana, Norma, Lucia di Lammermoor, Andrea Chenier, Adriana Lecouvreur, Pique Dame, Iolante and Eugen Onegin. With the beginning of the perestroika, Simon Baddi was able to sing also in the Western hemisphere. Between 1988 and 1991 he was the first tenor at the state opera in Belgrade (former Yugoslavia). There he sang numerous premieres, such as Forza del Destino, Carmen and Il Trovatore. Due to the war in Yugoslavia he had to leave the country in 1991 and moved to Vienna. From there he started a new career in Western as well as Central Eastern Europe (State Theatre in Karlsruhe, Bratislava Opera House, Brno Opera House). Since 1991, Simon Baddi has been teaching more than 200 singers in the fields of opera, operetta, musical and acting in Vienna. A highlight of his career as a teacher was the invitation for a master class at the renowned Britten Pears School in London, where he taught as guest professor in the same period as Joan Sutherland. Additional master classes led him to Italy and Germany.