South Korean baritone Sangmin Lee has been a member of the Staatstheater Nürnberg ensemble since the 2018/19 season. Verdi is central to his work, alongside Wagner, Strauss and French opera. His 2026 engagements include Renato in Un ballo in maschera at Theater Erfurt and an announced appearance as Wotan in Das Rheingold with Korea National Opera at the Seoul Arts Center in the autumn.

In Nuremberg, Mr. Lee’s recent work includes Nabucco and Germont, following Macbeth and Escamillo in Carmen in 2024/25. His repertoire with the company also encompasses Count di Luna, Rodrigue in Don Carlos and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. Beyond the Italian repertoire, he has sung Telramund in Lohengrin and Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande.

His guest engagements reflect these areas of his repertoire. He has appeared as Germont at Vienna State Opera and the National Theatre Prague, as Rigoletto at Deutsche Oper am Rhein and in Darmstadt, and as the Duke of Nottingham in Roberto Devereux at Polish National Opera. In Magdeburg, he sang Scarpia in Tosca and Jochanaan in Salome.

From 2012 to 2018, Mr. Lee belonged to the Theater Dortmund ensemble, developing his Verdi repertoire through Count di Luna in Il trovatore, Rodrigo in Don Carlo, Renato and Germont in La traviata. He also sang Iago in Otello and the title role in Nabucco. His work there extended to Eugene Onegin, Mandryka in Arabella and Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde.

He had previously been an ensemble member at the Semperoper Dresden from 2007 to 2012. His roles in Dresden included Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Ford in Falstaff, Marcello in La bohème and Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia. In 2007, he won first prize at the Competizione dell’Opera in Dresden.

Mr. Lee studied voice at Yonsei University in Seoul before completing his diploma and postgraduate studies with Jürgen Hartfiel at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden. During his studies, he gained his first stage experience as a member of the Semperoper’s young ensemble.