ANDREW MANEA
BARITONE
BIOGRAPHY
Lauded for his "charming...robust baritone…” rising Romanian American baritone Andrew Manea Manea recently embarked upon a foray into larger repertoire, with four house débuts: Nashville Opera, singing Tonio in Pagliacci; North Carolina Opera as Germont in La Traviata; Sarasota Opera as Escamillo in Carmen; and The Grange Festival in Hampshire, U.K. singing Scarpia in Tosca. Last season, he returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago to sing Monterone and cover the title role in Rigoletto, North Carolina Opera to sing Don Carlo in Ernani, and The Metropolitan Opera to cover Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Gardiner in Moby Dick. He also participated in The Metropolitan Opera’s workshop of Mason Bates’ The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. He appeared as a soloist in the Masque of the Red Death for the Cleveland Ballet, a Gala concert for Maryland Opera, Belcore in a concert performance of L’elisir d’amore for the Hahnsohl Music Group, and returned to Carnegie Hall for the world premiere of Julio Morales’s Requiem Xantolo.
Mr. Manea’s engagements this season include George Benton (Prison Warden) in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking in a début with English National Opera, Ford in Falstaff in a role and house début at Opéra national de Montpellier, Germont in La traviata for Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, and a role début as Count di Luna in Il trovatore in a return to North Carolina Opera.
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He made his mainstage début with San Francisco Opera as the Duke of Nottingham in Roberto Devereux, these performances “thrust him into the spotlight, solidifying his status as the next leading baritone of his generation…” (OperaWire). Previous engagements have included Scarpia in Tosca with Maryland Opera, Ernani at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Ford in Falstaff and Danilo in The Merry Widow with Palm Beach Opera, a début with Arizona Opera as Escamillo in Carmen, Lorenzo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi for Opera Omaha, Marcello in La bohème with Shreveport Opera, Montano in Pacific Symphony’s Otello, and Escamillo in Carmen in Wuhan, China. He also joined Cleveland Opera Theater for their concert Shakespeare in Cleveland, sang Carmina Burana at Carnegie Hall, joined the Indianapolis Symphony for Handel’s Messiah, and appeared as a soloist in Bravissimo Bel Canto for Maryland Opera.
Mr. Manea was an Adler Fellow with San Francisco Opera. During his tenure, he performed the roles of Marullo in Rigoletto, Huntsman/Gamekeeper in Rusalka, Sciarrone in Tosca, the Marchese d’Obigny in La Traviata, #7 in Transformations, and in the world premiere of John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West. With Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, he sang Danilo in The Merry Widow, the Father in Hänsel und Gretel, and the Forester in The Cunning Little Vixen. On the concert stage, he made his Schwabacher Recital début with esteemed pianist Warren Jones.
Manea is lauded for his concert performances across the United States, having been featured in the San Francisco Opera’s Schwabacher Recital Series two years in a row: in 2018 with Warren Jones and in 2017 he performed Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch. Additionally in 2017, Andrew sang Fauré’s Requiem with Manhattan Concert Productions and the University of Akron Choir & Orchestra, while for Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music he was the baritone soloist in Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. Manea is popular in sacred halls, and especially so with the famed Kirk in the Hills in Michigan, having been invited back many times to perform works such as Handel’s Messiah and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs and Fantasia on Christmas Carols. Manea has also joined Fort Street Presbyterian for Mozart’s Requiem and the First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham for Cooman’s The Acts of the Apostles.
Manea was awarded First Place and Audience Favorite in the Mary Jacobs Smith Singer of the Year Competition with Shreveport Opera, was a Semifinalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, earned Second Place and Audience Favorite in the Opera Columbus Cooper-Bing International Vocal Competition, was a Finalist in the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition, and was a Career Grant recipient in the Giulio Gari Foundation Competition.
A native of Troy, Michigan, Mr. Manea holds his bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and his master’s degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he studied with the prolific Bill McGraw.
Current as of June 17, 2025
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"... stunning..." – Palm Beach Daily News
The Merry Widow – “As the baritone Count Danilo, Andrew Manea began with a stunning rendition of 'O Fatherland!' His perfectly balanced voice and towering presence commanded the stage and easily carried over a rich orchestral texture. In addition, Manea has a gift for comedic timing, and his scenes with Dwayne Croft as the Baron Zeta were wonderfully entertaining. Manea also delivered a brilliant performance of the aria 'You'll Find Me at Maxim's.”
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"...ample vibrance of sound and high notes..." – Palm Beach Daily News
Il barbiere di Siviglia, Palm Beach Opera – “The opera’s hit tune, of course, is Figaro’s entrance aria, and Andrew Manea properly took focus from his very first lines: “Largo al factotum.” The Romanian-American baritone has personal presence, enhanced by ample vibrance of sound and high notes — ringing Gs and As — to burn. As Friday’s performance progressed, Manea dominated the action, as he interacted physically and blended vocally with his colleagues on stage…This Figaro was equally adept in his fluid delivery of the opera’s abundant recitatives (speech-like musical dialogue), inventively punctuated by [the] harpsichordist.”
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"...next leading baritone of his generation..." – Opera Wire
Roberto Devereux, San Francisco Opera – “…the role of Nottingham…thrust him into the spotlight and solidify his status as the next leading baritone of his generation…”
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"perfectly balanced voice and towering presence" – Palm Beach Daily News:
The Merry Widow, Palm Beach Opera – "As the baritone Count Danilo, Andrew Manea began with a stunning rendition of 'O Fatherland!' His perfectly balanced voice and towering presence commanded the stage and easily carried over a rich orchestral texture. In addition, Manea has a gift for comedic timing, and his scenes with Dwayne Croft as the Baron Zeta were wonderfully entertaining. Manea also delivered a brilliant performance of the aria 'You'll Find Me at Maxim's.'"
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"a force to be reckoned with" – Seen and Heard International
Tosca, The Grange Festival – "Andrew Manea's Scarpia is a force to be reckoned with; physically not so much an embodiment of twisted evil as a figure of almost Hvorostovsky-like glamour, with more than a hint of Don Giovanni about him as he lounged on his sofa, enjoying Cavaradossi's suffering and Tosca's distress."
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"looks as suave as he sings" – Opera Today
Tosca, The Grange Festival – "Andrew Manea's hirsute, be suited Scarpia looks as suave as he sings, embodying a sly, compelling vision of evile rather than a caricature..."
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"not a conventional booming British baritone, but a rather sophisticated and sinister figure" – The Telegraph
Tosca, The Grange Festival – "Andrew Manea's Scarpia is not a conventional booming British baritone, but a rather sophisticated and sinister figure who knows- until his final moments - that he is in control of the proceedings."