Born in Budapest, Gábor Bretz began his vocal training with Stephan Czovek in Los Angeles and with Prof. Albert Antalffy in Budapest. He subsequently studied at the Béla Bartók Conservatory of Music with Maria Fekete and the Franz Liszt Academy of Music with Sandor Solyom-Nagy, and won the 2005 Maria Callas Grand Prix Competition in Athens.

Since graduating from the Franz Liszt Academy, Gábor’s regular performances at the Hungarian State Opera have included the title roles in Mefistofele and Le Nozze di Figaro, Leporello and the title-role in Don Giovanni, Banquo in Macbeth, Colline in La Bohème, Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Escamillo in Carmen, Gurnemanz in Parsifal, Zaccaria in Nabucco, Orestes in Elektra, Landgraf in Tannhauser at the Wagner Festival under Adam Fischer in Budapest.

Other notable appearances include the title role in Der fliegende Holländer at the Passionstheater GmbH in Oberammergau; Ferrando in Il Trovatore at the Royal Opera House; Escamillo in Carmen at the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Royal Opera House, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, the New National Theatre in Tokyo and the Hamburg State Opera; Colline in La Bohème at the Royal Opera House; Shaklovity in Khovanshchina at Dutch National Opera; Phillipe II in Don Carlos under Renato Palumbo at the Hamburg State Opera, in a Peter Konwitschny production; and numerous performances in the title role of Bluebeard’s Castle with The Berlin Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra, Oregon Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic under Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, Adam Fischer, Ed Gardner, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Michele Mariotti and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Gábor Bretz has also worked with other eminent conductors including Alain Altinoglu, Philippe Jordan, Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle, Juraj Valčuha and Omer Meir Wellber

Gábor Bretz sings regularly in concert; his repertoire includes the major oratories of Bach, Haydn, and Mozart; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9; Tippett’s A Child of our Time; Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ; Verdi’s Requiem; Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and Handel’s Messiah under Sylvain Cambreling, Carlo Montanaro and Helmuth Rilling.

Last season saw Bretz performing the role of Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte at La Monnaie, followed by Verdi’s Requiem at the Royal Opera House and a reprise of his role in the staged Verdi Requiem at the Hamburg State Opera. Bretz appeared in the roles of Escamillo in Carmen and Filippo II in Don Carlos at the Hamburg State Opera, and Gurnemanz in Parsifal with the Hallé Orchestra. He performed the title roles in both Don Quichotte at the Bregenzer Festspiele and in Bluebeard’s Castle at Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, and with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. Bretz also sang Bartók’s Cantata Profana and Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricus with the Orchestre de Paris.