Paulo Szot

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Paulo Szot at Tony Awards in New York (2008)

Paulo Szot (/ˈpoʊluː ˈʃɒt/; born July 7, 1969) is a Brazilian operatic baritone singer and actor. He made his opera debut in 1997 and his international career has included performances with the Metropolitan Opera. In 2008, he made his Broadway debut as Emile De Becque in a revival of South Pacific, and for his performance in this musical he won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Theatre World Award. In 2012 he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for best actor in a musical, and in 2014 was nominated for the MAC Award for best Celebrity Artist becoming the first Brazilian to receive such honors.

Biography

Szot was born in São Paulo of Polish parents who emigrated to Brazil after World War II. He began his musical training in piano at the age of five and later added violin and classical ballet. However, at age 21, a knee injury cut short any aspirations for a career in dance, causing him, with encouragement from his instructor, to pursue singing instead.

Szot studied at Jagiellonian University in Poland. He began singing professionally in 1990 with the National Song & Dance Ensemble "Śląsk". Later, he made his professional opera debut in a production of Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Municipal Theatre of São Paulo in 1997. Since then, he has performed with the New York City Opera, the Palm Beach Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, Opéra de Marseille, and Vlaamse Opera, among others, in such operas as L'elisir d'amore, La bohème, Don Giovanni, Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, Carmen, Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro and Maria Golovin. In March 2010 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Kovalyov in Dmitri Shostakovich's The Nose. Szot returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Escamillo sharing the stage with the French tenor Roberto Alagna and as Lescaut in Manon along with Anna Netrebko. Szot returned to the Met in 2014 as the Captain of the Achille Lauro in The Death of Klinghoffer. He sang the role of Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte at the Palais Garnier, and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in Le nozze di Figaro. In 2013 he sang in The Nose at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and at La Scala in the role of Filip Filippovich, the protagonist of the contemporary Russian opera A Dog's Heart.

Of his performance in South Pacific, Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote: "When he delivers 'Some Enchanted Evening' or 'This Nearly Was Mine,' it's not as a swoon-making blockbuster (though of course it is), but as a measured and honest consideration of love."

Awards and nominations

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Szot, 2008 Tony Award

• Prêmio Carlos Gomes for Best Vocal Performance – 2000
• Theater World Award – Winner – Best actor in a musical – 2008
• Drama Desk – Winner – Best actor in a musical – 2008
• Outer Critics Award – Winner – Best actor in a musical – 2008
• Tony Award – Winner – Best actor in a musical – 2008
• Medal Zasłużony Kulturze (Medal for Merit to Culture) "Gloria Artis" – Highest Honorary Mention
• Prêmio Faz Diferença – Winner – Jornal Globo
• Laurence Olivier Award – Nomination – Best actor in a musical – 2012
• Mac Award for Best Celebrity Cabaret Act – Nomination – 2013

Stage Productions

• The Barber of Seville – 1996 – Teatro Paulo Eiró, São Paulo
• Gianni Scchicchi – 1997 – Sesc Ipiranga, São Paulo
• La Bohème – 1998 – Teatro Alfa Real, São Paulo
• The Barber of Seville – 1997 – Teatro Municipal de Santo André
• Carmen – 1998 – Teatro Municipal de São Paulo
• La Bohème – 1998 – Teatro Municipal de São Paulo
• L'elisir d'amore – 1998 – Festival Ópera de Manaus
• Don Giovanni – 1999 – Teatro Alfa Real, São Paulo
• The Barber of Seville – 1999 – Teatro São Pedro, São Paulo
• Don Giovanni – 1999 – Municipal de São Paulo
• The Barber of Seville – 1999 – Teatro São Pedro de Porto Alegre
• O Guarani – 1999 – Teatro Amazonas
• Carmen – 2000 – Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro
• Cavaleria Rusticana – 2000 – Teatro Alfa Real, São Paulo
• I Pagliacci – 2000 – Teatro Alfa Real, São Paulo
• Die Fledermaus – 2000 – Teatro Rio de Janeiro
• Cavaleria Rusticana – 2000 – Teatro Municipal de São Paulo
• Pagliacci – 2000 – Teatro Municipal de São Paulo
• Tanhäuser – 2001 – Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro
• Carmen – 2001 – Teatro Alfa, São Paulo
• Carmen – 2001 – Teatro Municipal de São Paulo
• Don Giovanni – 2001 – Teatro Amazonas
• La bohème – 2001 – Teatro Amazonas
• Hansel and Gretel – 2001 – Teatro Municipal de São Paulo
• Manon – 2002 – Teatro Amazonas
• Manon – 2002 – Teatro Alfa – São Paulo
• Pagliacci – 2002 – Teatro Amazonas
• Hansel and Gretel – 2003 – Teatro Municipal de São Paulo
• Cavaleria Rusticana – 2003 – Teatro Amazonas
• Don Pasquale – 2003 – Teatro São Pedro, São Paulo
• Don Pasquale – 2003 – Teatro Municipal de Santo André
• Merry Widow – 2003 – Porto Alegre
• Carmen – 2003 – New York City Opera
• Don Giovanni – 2003 – Michigan Opera
• Le nozze di Figaro – 2004 – New York City Opera
• Carmen – 2004 – Palm Beach Opera
• Eugene Onegin – 2004 – Ópera de Marseille
• Orfeo – 2004 – Teatro Sérgio Cardoso
• L'elisir d'amore – 2005 – New York City Opera
• Rita – 2005 – Festival de Campos do Jordão
• Dido and Aeneas – 2005 – Opera de Marseille
• Don Giovanni – 2005 – Opera de Toulon
• Don Giovanni – 2005 – Opera de Bordeaux
• Così fan tutte – 2006 – Opera de Marseille
• Maria Golovin – 2006 – Opera de Marseille
• Così fan tutte – 2007 – Opera de Nice
• Le nozze di Figaro – 2007 – Boston
• Maria Golovin – Spoleto Opera Festival, Italy
• Le Portrait de Manon – 2007 – Liceo de Barcelona
• Le nozze di Figaro – 2007 – Vlaamse Opera, Antwerp
• Le nozze di Figaro – 2008 – Vlaamse Opera, Ghent
• South Pacific – 2008 – Lincoln Center Theater, New York
• The Merry Widow – 2008 – Opera de Marseille
• South Pacific – 2009 – Lincoln Center Theater, New York
• The Nose – 2010 – Metropolitan Opera New York
• South Pacific – 2010 – Lincoln Center Theater, New York
• Carmen – 2011 – Metropolitan Opera New York
• Così fan tutte – 2011 – Opera Garnier de Paris
• South Pacific – 2011 – Barbican – London
• Carmen – 2011 – San Francisco Opera
• South Pacific – 2011 – Oxford
• Manon – 2012 – Metropolitan Opera House New York
• Le nozze di Figaro – 2012 – Aix En Provence Festival
• Don Giovanni – 2012 – Washington Opera
• The Nose – 2013 – Opera di Roma
• A Dog's Heart – 2013 – La Scala
• The Nose – 2013 – Metropolitan Opera
• Die Fledermaus - 2013/2014 – Metropolitan Opera
• Eugene Onegin - 2014 - Melbourne Opera House
• Candide 2014 - Sala São Paulo - OSESP
• The Death of Klinghoffer – 2014 – Metropolitan Opera
• Le Nozze di Figaro 2014 - National Theater of Bahrain/Aix en Provence
• Carmen - 2015 - Glyndebourne Festival
• Manon Lescaut 2015 - Theatro Municipal de São Paulo
• Die Fledermaus 2015/2016 - The Metropolitan Opera
• Madama Butterfly 2016 - Opera de Marseille
• Romeo and Juliette 2016 - Belo Horizonte
• My Fair Lady- 2016

External links

• Classic Talk – live interview from New York – part 1 on YouTube
• Classic Talk – live interview from New York 2014 – part 2 on YouTube
• [1]official website
• Paulo Szot at the Internet Broadway Database
• TheaterMania.com interview with Szot
• "Brief Encounter With Paulo Szot", Playbill article
• Szot singing "Some Enchanted Evening" for the South Pacific cast recording, Masterworks Broadway video
• Stephen Holden's New York Times review of Paulo Szot's performance at the Cafe Carlyle.
• Interview with Szot in English and Portuguese