SeokJong Baek
Biography
South Korean tenor SeokJong Baek made his debut with The Royal Opera in the 2021/22 Season as Samson (Samson et Dalila). Recent highlights include his Metropolitan Opera debut as Ismaele (Nabucco), Calaf (Turandot) also in New York, his role debuts as Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Radamès (Aida) and Turiddu (Cavalleria rusticana) for The Royal Opera, his Teatro di San Carlo debut as Calaf and his role debut as Cavaradossi (Tosca) for Arizona Opera.
Known For & Full Filmography5 Titles
Movie - 2019, 2h 15m • as Gregorio
The San Francisco Opera Presents Gounod's Romeo and Juliet. Directed for the screen by Frank Zamacona in 2019
Movie - 2024, 2h 15m • as Self - Tenor
An outstanding performance featuring brilliant storytelling, high stakes drama, and unforgettable character arcs.
Movie - 2024, 2h 15m • as Samson
Pious restraint comes face to face with sensuous hedonism in Camille Saint-Saëns’s grand-opera retelling of the Bible story of Samson and Delilah. Multi-Olivier Award winning director Richard Jones returns to The Royal Opera to stage this spectacular fin-de-siècle masterpiece, not performed at Covent Garden since 2004. Elina Garanca stars as the Philistine Dalila, SeokJong Baek as the inspiring Jewish hero Samson and Antonio Pappano conducts the full forces of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. With superb singing in solos and duets of great intimacy and fervour, gorgeous music with thrilling orchestral interludes, and splendid choral numbers for the Royal Opera Chorus – this is a performance to remember.
Movie - 2024, 2h 15m • as Ismaele
The success of Verdi’s third opera, a stirring drama about the fall of ancient Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco), catapulted the 28-year-old composer to international fame. The music and Verdi himself were subsumed into a surge of patriotic fervor culminating in the foundation of the modern nation of Italy. Specifically, the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves ('Va, pensiero'), in which the Israelites express their longing for their homeland, came to stand for the country’s aspirations for unity and that exciting era in Italian history, the Risorgimento, or 'Resurgence'.
Movie - 2025, 2h 15m • as Calaf
The beautiful but icy Princess Turandot will only marry a man who can correctly answer three riddles. Those who fail are brutally beheaded. But when an unknown prince arrives, the balance of power in Turandot’s court is forever shaken, as the mysterious stranger does what no other has been able to.