South African tenor Levy Sekgapane studied under Kamal Khan and Hanna van Niekerk at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town.
He came to international attention after winning the first prize at the 2015 International Belvedere singing competition, first prize at the 2015 Montserrat Caballé singing competition and first prize at Operalia 2017. Debutsat major opera houses followed, including Opera National de Paris, Bavarian State Opera in Munich and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
For the shortened 2019/20 season, he performed Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo and Rossini's Adina with Wexford Festival Opera. At Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège, he made his house debut as Ramiro in La Cenerentola, a role he also performed with the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.
In the previous season, he debuted at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro in Adina. He made his South American debut in The Barber of Seville in Santiago di Chile and also appeared for the first time at the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo. He made his house debut at National Opera Bordeaux as Almaviva, which he also performed in a new production with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and he returned to the Hamburg State Opera in Il Turco in Italia. He also made his house and role debut as Ernesto in Don Pasquale at the Latvian National Opera in Riga and debuted as Arbace in Mozart’s Idomeneo at the Salzburg Festival.
Other highlights of his young career include his debut as Almaviva at National Opera Paris and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. At the Royal Opera Copenhagen, he performed Conte di Libenskof in a new production of Il Viaggio a Reims. He debuted as Ramiro in La Cenerentola at Bavarian State Opera and Hamburg State Opera. During the Whitsun Festival at State Theatre Wiesbaden, he debuted as Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore On the concert stage he gave his debut at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg singing a New Years Eve gala concert together with soprano Olga Peretyatko under the baton of James Conlon.
His first solo CD with Rossini arias was released by Prima Classic in 2019, recorded with the Munich Radio Orchestra conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti.
Learn more at LevySekgapane.com.
