BIOGRAPHY
Following Rijeka, Mr Surian obtained the education in music at Ljubljana Academy of Music and Trieste and Padua Conservatories of Music; he was trained at the prestigious La Scala opera school in Milan (Centro di Perfezionamento per Cantanti Lirici del Teatro alla Scala).
He was only 20 years old when he debuted at Croatian National Theatre (HNK Ivana pl. Zajca) in Rijeka, continuing his prolific international career at he world's most renowned stages – the Scala of Milan, the Metropolitan Opera, Straatsoper in Wien, Opera de Lyon, Arena di Verona, Opera national de Paris, Royal Opera House in London, El Liceo in Barcelona, Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Teatro Real in Madrid, Salzburg Festival, etc.
As for Croatian appearances, he made appearances in the operas of Zagreb, Rijeka and Split and at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival...
During his thriving career, thanks to a wide vocal range, he was able to accomplish and get engaged in more than 160 bass and bass-baritone roles (operas, masses, oratorios...) As a basso profondo, he was exceptional in the roles of Fiesco ("Simon Boccanegra"), Seneca ("The Coronation of Poppea"), Polifemo in Oratorio ("Aci Galatea and Polifemo"), etc. Taking the role interpretations of basso cantabile, he sang in the operas – "Ernani", "Attila", "Nabucco", "Don Carlos", "The Lombardians", "Luisa Miller", "Sicilian Nights", "The Force of Destiny", "Anna Bolena, "Don Sebastian", "Lucrezia Borgia", "Marino Faliero", "Favorita", "Sonnambula", "Lucia di Lammermoor", "Puritani", "Norma", "Maometto II", "Moses", etc., and those of a bass-baritone in the operas "Faust", "The Damnation of Faust", "The Tales of Hoffman", "Robert le diable", etc. As a baritone, he took the stage away in the operas "Falstaff", "Tosca", "Gianni Schicchi", "Carmen", "Flying Dutchman", "Pirata", "Francesca da Rimini", and so on. It is to his outstanding acting talent that he owes parts in a string of comic operas: "The Barber of Seville", "Love Potion", "Don Pasquale", "The Journey to Reims"...
He sings in various languages: Italian (entire opus), Croatian ("Nikola Šubić Zrinski"), French ("Carmen", "The Tales of Hoffman"), German ("Flying Dutchman"), Portuguese ("La Serrana"), Russian ("The Lady Spade"), Czech ("Jenufa"), Latin ("Requiem") and English ("Reix Progress").
He performs in front of the batons of prominent conductors: Claudio Abbado, Carlos Kleiber, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Lovro von Matačić, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Placido Domingo, to name but a few. He cooperates with top directors, such as: Franco Zeffirelli, Ugo De Ana, Luca Ronconi, Werner Herzog, Chris Kraus, William Friedkin, Andrei Konchalovsky...and with the most distinguished opera stars.
From 2008 on, he pursues a career in pedagogy, at the Academy of Music in Zagreb.
In 1996, Mr Surian was decorated with "Order of Danica Hrvatska" with the face of Marko Marulić, and it was that same year that he was awarded the "Orlando" prize for the greatest accomplishments in music and drama programme and the "Varaždin Baroque Evenings" prize. In 2006, he received the "Milan Pihler" award for the role of Don Alfonso in the opera performance "Cosi fan' tutte", followed by "Mario Tiberini" award in 2008 and "Milka Trnina" award in 2009. In 2012. receives a "Vladimir Ruždjak" award for Dulcamare role in opera "Love Potion".
