Christian Badea is just as well known as a symphonic conductor as he is for his work in opera. He has conducted nearly every major orchestra in the world's most renowned concert halls. Mentored by Herbert von Karajan, over the course of his decades-long career he has worked with such famous artists as Leonard Bernstein, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yo-Yo Ma, Yefim Bronfman, Shlomo Mintz, Mitsuko Uchida and Gerhard Oppitz. Famous singers he has had the chance to partner with include Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming, Bryn Terfel, Natalie Dessay, Simon Keenlyside and Thomas Hampson while also working alongside directors like Stefan Herheim, Bruce Beresford, David Pountney, Franco Zeffirelli, Andrei Serban and Keith Warner. He is a recurring guest at the most important venues in international opera life – having conducted more than 160 performances at New York's Metropolitan Opera, including a number of live international simulcasts. In North America, he has worked on productions of opera companies in Houston, Dallas, Toronto, Montreal, Baltimore and Detroit, and in Europe at the Wiener Staatsoper, Covent Garden, Munich's Bayerische Staatsoper, as well as making guest appearances at the opera houses of Hamburg, Genoa, Brussels, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Turin, Bologna and Lyon. His opera repertoire includes more than 80 works, ranging from pieces by Mozart, Strauss, Wagner, Verdi, Puccini and Mussorgsky all the way to the 20th century, with works by artists like Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Berg and Samuel Barber.
