He started singing classes in 1995 at the Fryderyk Chopin State Music High School in Warsaw. He was taught by Jerzy Knetig, who continued to instruct Ruciński when he went to the Music Academy in Warsaw. After completing his higher education, he perfected his vocal skills with Kaludi Kaludov. In 1999, he was awarded a grant from the German Foundation of Hans and Eugenia Jütting.
He has received numerous awards in singing competitions in Poland, such as the National Vocal Competition for Music High Schools in Łódź (2nd prize, 1996), the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Vocal Competition in Bydgoszcz (Honourable Mention, 1999), National Vocal Competition in Duszniki-Zdrój (3rd prize, 2000), the International Adam Didur Opera Singers’ Competition in Bytom (2nd prize, 2000), the International Kiejstut Bacewicz Chamber Music Competition in Łódź (3rd prize, 2001). He has also been recognized abroad: at Internationale Hans Gabor Belvedere Gesangswettbewerb in Vienna, the Solomiya Krushelnytska International Competition of Opera Singers in Lviv, and at Competizione dell'Opera in Treviso.
The artist has been working at the Warsaw Chamber Opera since 2001, where he has mainly taken part in stagings of Mozart’s works (The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte). Together with the opera, he has travelled to France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, and Lebanon. In 2002, he made his debut on the stage of the Grand Theatre - National Opera in Warsaw as the titular protagonist of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Later on, he was invited to play further parts at the theatre; he sang in Puccini’s Turandot and Madame Butterfly, Georges Bizet’s Carmen, Tchaikovsky The Queen of Spades, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Stanisław Moniuszko’s Halka, Zygmunt Krauze’s Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy, Gioacchino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffman, and Charles Gounod’s Faustus (this is the part which he performed at the National Opera’s guest performance at the Lviv Opera).
2002 was also the year in which Ruciński started cooperating with the Mazovian Music Theatre ‘Operetta’. At the concert opening the first season of the theatre’s artistic activity, which took place at the Congress Music Hall in Warsaw, he sang the part of Dr Falke in Johann Strauss’s The Revenge of the Bat.
In 2003, he performed the role of Ricardo in the concert version of Vincenzo Bellini’s opera The Puritans. Since 2005, he has been simultaneously collaborating with the Kraków Opera, where he sang in La Bohème by Puccini, Così fan tutte, The Revenge of the Bat, The Queen of Spades, Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, and The Devils of Loudun by Krzysztof Penderecki.
The artist has also performed on international opera stages – at Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo (Turandot), the Varna Opera (Marcello in La Bohème), the Lviv Opera (Silvio in Pagliacci by Ruggiero Leoncavallo), Teatro Liceu in Barcelona, (the main part in Karol Szymanowski’s King Roger), the Berlin Staatsoper (lead role in Euguene Onegin), Teatro Real in Madrid (Tadeusz in The Passenger by Mieczysław Weinberg), and at the Pafos Aphrodite Festival in Cyprus (Turandot , Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto,).
He has collaborated with some of the most prominent directors from Poland, such as Maria Fołtyn, Mariusz Treliński, and Marek Weiss-Grzesiński, and with internationally renowned conductors: Kazimierz Kord, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Jacek Kaspszyk, Daniel Barenboim, Valery Giergiev, Neville Mariner, Frühbeck de Burgos, Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez, Gerd Albrecht, Antoni Wit, Tadeusz Kozłowski, Gabriel Chmura, José Maria Florêncio, and Łukasz Borowicz.
Artur Ruciński and Kristine Opolais(Tatiana) in Euguene Onegin, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, 2014, photo courtesy of the artist
Artur Ruciński is also an experienced performer of arias and cantatas – his repertoire includes works by J. S. Bach, G. F. Handel, W. A. Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Gustav Mahler, Gabriel Fauré, Benjamin Britten, Johannes Brahms, and other classical and contemporary composers. He has performed in majority of concert halls and festivals in Poland. He has repeatedly performed at Viva il canto Festival in Cieszyn, European Jan Kiepura Festival in Krynica Górska, Warsaw Autumn, and Beethoven Festival in Warsaw.
He took part in the recording of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana for Bulgarian television. He also took part in the world premieres of Osvaldas Balakauskas’s La Lontaine (2002 Warsaw Autumn Festival) Piotr Moss’s De la vie, and Andrzej Marko’s Miners’ Mass and Miners’ Oratorio (CD recording of which was released by DUX). He was one of the artists who participated in the recording of Catholic Hymns in Honour of John Paul II with the Polish Armed Forces Representative Band (The Military Caritas Music Label) and of the album Małgorzata Walewska and Friends – The Best Polish Singers (DUX). In 2009, Polish Radio released the album Artur Ruciński. Songs and Arias, which received a nomination for the Polish Phonographic Industry Award 'Fryderyk' in the Vocal Recital – Album of the Year Category (2010).
In the 2011/2012 season, he once again performed in the Berlin Staatsoper as Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Later, Ruciński also appeared in the Los Angeles Opera as Marcello in Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème. His success in this role resulted in an invitation to the Metropolitan Opera in New York. His performance in the role of Francesco in Giuseppe Verdi’s I Masnadieri at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples sets a new direction in his career as a Verdi baritone. During the 2012/2013 season, he appeared in Bilbao in Traviata, at the Staatsoper in Hamburg as Ford in Falstaff, at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice in I Masnadieri, at the Opera Bastille in Paris in Falstaff, at the Theater an der Wien and at the Arena di Verona as Count Luna in Il Trovatore.
In spring 2014, he performed for the first time at London’s Royal Opera House – Covent Garden as Giorgio Germont (Traviata). In November, he made his debut at Teatro alla Scala in Milan (Simon Boccanegra with Placido Domingo in the title role) and then sang at Teatro La Fenice in Venice (Il trovatore). 2015 started with Ruciński’s first performances in Berlin’s Deutsche Oper (Traviata), soon afterwards he returned to the Wielki Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw as Oniegin, he also appeared in Valencia (Don Pasquale) and at the Staatsoper in Hamburg and the Zurich Opera (Lucia di Lammermoor). The 2014/15 artistic season culminated in the August, when he performed in Il Trovatore at the Salzburg Festival.
In September 2015, he performed in Don Giovanni at the Opera Bastille in Paris. At the end of that year, he premiered one of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s last works, Sanctus Adalbertus, and, together with the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jacek Kaspszyk, he recorded Karol Szymanowski’s Stabat mater for the Warner Classics. Before his February debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, he was admired in the role of Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House in London (January 2016). In the first months of 2017, Ruciński’s calendar was filled with further performances of Lucia di Lammermoor (Covent Garden and New National Theater in Tokyo).
The 2017/18 artistic season was marked by virtuoso performances of Verdi’s operas: La Traviata in San Francisco Opera and I Masnedieri in Rome. At the Bastille Opera in Paris, Artur Ruciński played the role of Gianni Schicchi for the first time and appeared in Puccini’s La bohème. In June and July 2018, he delighted the audience of the Teatro Real in Madrid as Enrico Ashton in Lucia di Lammermoor. In November and December 2018, he sang for the first time in Chicago’s Lyric Opera (Il Trovatore). The first half of 2019 was filled with performances in Zurich (Lucia di Lammermoor), Opera National de Paris (Iolanta) and Madrid (Il Trovatore).
In the 2019/20 artistic season, Artur Ruciński may be seen performing in the Metropolitan Opera in New York (Manon and La bohème), Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris (Roberto Devereux), Teatro Real in Madrid (Traviata), and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London (Lucia di Lammermoor).
In 2015, Ruciński received Kiepura Award in the best singer category (ex aeqo with Rafał Siwek), in 2017, the Annual Award of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. In 2008, the artist was awarded the Polityka Passport award.
Artist’s website: www.arturrucinski.com
Author: Małgorzata Kosińska, Polish Music Information Centre, Association of Polish Composers, October 2007. Translated by AM, August 2014. Updated by MG, December 2019.
