Mandla Mndebele
Born in South Africa in 1990, baritone Mandla Mndebele graduated with a degree in singing from Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria. He then joined the choir of the Black Tie Ensemble and Opera Africa. From 2013 to 2017, he was a soloist at Cape Town Opera.
Previously, he played Crown (Porgy and Bess) at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and in 2015 he appeared at the Teatro Real in Madrid and in 2016 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. In 2017, he won third prize and the audience prize at the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition and took part in the Bertelsmann Foundation's New Voices Competition. In 2018, he won first prize at the Voices of South Africa International Opera Singing Competition and performed Escamillo (Carmen) at the DomStufen-Festspiele of the Theater Erfurt.
Since the 2018/19 season, he has been a permanent member of the ensemble at the Dortmund Opera. Here he has sung Amonasro (Aida), Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Scarpia (Tosca), Joe Coltello in the world premiere of Bernhard Lang's Otello reworking Der Hetzer, Hilpéric (German premiere of Frédégonde), Montézuma (Fernand Cortez oder Die Eroberung von Mexiko) and the Speaker (Die Zauberflöte). In the 2023/24 season, he appeared as Marcello (La Bohème) and Aslar (in the German premiere of La Montagne Noire), among others. In 2024/25, he played Giorgio Germont (La traviata) and Wotan/Wanderer/Gunther (Der Ring an einem Abend).
During the 2025/26 season, Mandla Mndebele appeared in Dortmund as Count Almaviva (The Marriage of Figaro) and in the title role of the first German staged production of Mazeppa, among other roles, and will perform the baritone solo in Carmina Burana. In the 2024/25 season, he made guest appearances at the Aalto Theatre in Essen as Paul Devon in the German premiere of Missy Mazzoli's The Listeners and at Opera North as Paolo in Simon Boccanegra.
