Irakli Kakhidze

The Georgian tenor Irakli Kakhidze received his musical training at the conservatory in his home town of Batumi, Georgia, and graduated in 2005. He attended master classes with Leo Nucci and Ruggero Raimondi and, following his studies, became a member of the Opera Studio of the State Music Center of Batumi. Here he took on his first roles and was able to acquire a wide range of roles. These include Alfredo in “La traviata”, Edgardo in “Lucia di Lammermoor”, Turridu in “Cavalleria rusticana”, Don José in “Carmen”, Nadir in “Die Perlenfischer”, Rodolfo in “La bohème”, Nemorino in “L'elisir d'amore” and Don Ottavio in “Don Giovanni”. As a soloist at the opera in Tbilisi, he has appeared in roles such as Ismaele in Verdi's “Nabucco” and Cavaradossi in “Tosca”. He has since made guest appearances as Ismaele at the Theater Dortmund, the Bergen National Opera, the Latvian National Opera and the Chorégies d'Orange Festival, among others.
Irakli Kakhidze is a prizewinner of the Georgian Theatre Society and the Lado Atanéli Competition. In 2014, he was a finalist in the Paris Opera Awards and subsequently performed at the opera houses in Marseille, Avignon and Toulouse. From 2011 to 2013, he was a member of the Center National d'Artistes Lyriques (CNIPAL) in Marseille and Avignon. Further engagements have taken him to the Opéra National de Lorraine (Nancy), the Festival Radio France in Montepellier, the Tallinn Opera Festival (Estonia) and the Daegu International Opera Festival (South Korea), among others.
After appearing as Cavaradossi at the Nationaltheater Mannheim in the 2016/17 season, he became a permanent member of the ensemble in the 2017/18 season and has since appeared there in “Ernani”, “Don Carlo”, “Norma”, “Cavalleria rusticana”, “Aida”, “Lucia di Lammermoor” and “L'elisir d'amore”, among others.
He was awarded the Medal of Honor and is an honorary citizen of his home town of Batumi, Georgia.