What he's doing with us: tenor Dimitri Pittas made his COC debut as the Duke of Mantua in our 2011 production of Rigoletto. This fall he performs as Rodolfo in La Bohème and in the winter he makes his role debut as Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera. (Fun fact: his co-star, Adrianne Pieczonka, also makes her role debut in Ballo as Amelia!)

Where you might have seen him: Dimitri earned rave reviews for his portrayal as the Duke of Mantua when he was last in Toronto. Recently, Dimitri performed as Rodolfo in La Bohème at Frankfurt Opera, Houston Grand Opera and at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In June he made his role debut as the titular character in Don Carlo at Théâtre du Capitole.

His background: Dimitri's music studies took him to the Crane School of Music, McGill University and SUNY Potsdam, and he was an apprentice artist with the Santa Fe Opera and Pittsburgh Opera. Dimitri later joined the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and made his house debut with the Met as the Herald in Don Carlo.

Interviews and profiles: Classical Source has a long feature about Dimitri and his career prior to his performance as Macduff in the Royal Opera House's 2011 production of Macbeth, he was featured in Opera News, Dimitri and his fellow Rigoletto cast members were featured in this Toronto Star article and he received a glowing review for his role as Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore at Santa Fe Opera.

What's next for Dimitri: After his performances of La Bohème this fall, Dimitri performs Verdi's Requiem with both the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and performs as Oronte in David Alden's production of I lombardi alla prima crociata at the Hamburg State Opera.

You can follow Dimitri on Twitter @DimitriPittas, on Facebook, or on his website.

Watch Dimitri perform as Macduff in Macbeth in the video below.

Photos: (top) Dimitri Pittas. Photo by Kristin Hoebermann; (middle) Ekaterina Sadovnikova as Gilda and Dimitri Pittas as the Duke of Mantua in a scene from the Canadian Opera Company production of Rigoletto, 2011. Photo by Michael Cooper.