Born in Cluj, Romania, Tiberius Simu receives his early musical training at the Sigismund Toduta School of Music, as a student of violin, piano and later singing. Following the completion of his studies at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in his home town, Tiberius Simu furthers his education by attending the courses of the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, where he receives master classes from prestigious artists, such as Mirella Freni, Renato Bruson, Leyla Gencer and Luigi Alva, and he makes his Scala debut as Aceste in Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba.
After making his stage debut in Romania at the National Opera in Cluj, with Alfredo in Verdi’s La Traviata, Tiberius Simu becomes a regular guest of several opera and philharmonic houses in Romania such as the National Opera Bucharest, the National Radio Bucharest, The Timisoara National Opera, where he adds to his repertoire roles such as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Almaviva in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Lenski in Tchaikovski’s Eugene Onegin, as well as the tenor roles in Bach’s B minor Mass, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Nelson Mass or Mozart’s Requiem, to name only a few. Alfredo from La Traviata also marks Tiberius Simu’s international debut at the Leipzig Oper, and it is here that, as a soloist of the ensemble, he will add to his list new roles such as Tamino in Mozart’s Magic Flute, role that marks Tiberius Simu’s Wiener Staatsoper debut.
Over the last years, Tiberius Simu has been the guest of several opera houses such as Opera Royal de Wallonie in Liege where he appeared as Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff, Nantes/Anger Opera where he sang the title character in Lucio Silla by Mozart, Opera de Toulon where he was Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Frankfurt Oper where he interpreted Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The operetta is present in Tiberius Simu’s repertoire, as he was Carlos in Lopez’s La belle de Cadix, in the Follies D’O festival in Montpellier, Rosillon in Lehar’s La vedova allegra, in Hugo De Ana’s flamboyant staging at the Teatro Verdi di Padova, the Zarewitsh, in the operetta with the same name by Franz Lehar at the Seefestspiele Mörbisch, and Prunier in Puccini’s only operetta, La Rondine, at the Leipzig Opera.
As a director, Tiberius Simu has signed the staging of two operettas, Lehar’s The Merry Widow at the National Opera in Cluj Napoca, where he worked for 2 years as Opera Director, and Lehar’s The Land of Smiles at the Brasov Opera House, as a guest Opera Director, as well as yearly productions with the Opera Class of the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy of Cluj where he is PhD lecturer since 2018, having formerly been an assistant professor since 2014.
In recent years, Tiberius Simu has been involved in two major productions directed by Andrei Serban at the National Opera in Bucharest, where he sang the roles of Danilo in Lehar’s The Merry Widow and Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, both experiences having brought significant knowledge of musical theater directing and staging through working with such an accomplished director as Andrei Serban.
