Željko Lučić was born in Serbia and was awarded first prize at the International Francisco Viñas Competition in Barcelona in 1997. He joined the troupe of the Frankfurt Opera where he performed many of the great dramatic baritone roles (Silvio in Pagliacci, Lescaut in Manon Lescaut, The Count di Luna in Il Trovatore, Germont in La Traviata, Ford and the title role in Falstaff, Belcore in L’Elisir d’amore, Marcello in La Bohème, Gérard in Andrea Chénier, the Count of Toulouse in Jérusalem, the Comte de Nevers in Les Huguenots, Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades, Michele in Il Tabarro, and the title roles in Eugene Onegin, Simon Boccanegra and Gianni Schicchi…). He has performed at many of the great opera venues including the Royal Opera House in London (Sharpless in Madame Butterfly, Germont, Carlo Gérard in Andrea Chénier, the Count di Luna, Iago in Otello, the title role in Macbeth); the San Francisco Opera (Don Carlo in La Forza del destino, Germont), the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich (Don Carlo, Macbeth, Miller in Luisa Miller, Scarpia, the title role of Simon Boccanegra), the Bregenz Festival (the Count di Luna), the Aix Festival (Germont in Peter Mussbach’s 2003 production of La Traviata); the New York Metropolitan Opera (Barnaba in La Gioconda, Macbeth, the Count di Luna, Michele in Il Tabarro, the title role in Rigoletto, Iago, Scarpia in Tosca, Jochanaan in Salomé, the title role in Nabucco, Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana, Jack Rance in La Fanciulla del West, Iago); the Vienna Staatsoper (Germont, Nabucco, Don Carlo, Jochanaan, Macbeth); the Dresden Semperoper (Rigoletto, Amonasro in Aida, Simon Boccanegra) the Deutsche Oper in Berlin (Amonasro, Iago, Scarpia, Nabucco), the Teatro Real in Madrid (Rigoletto), Milan’s La Scala (Scarpia, Renato in Un ballo in maschera, Amonasro in Aida, Giorgio Germont), the Salzburg Festival (Macbeth and Nabucco with Riccardo Muti conducting), the Paris Opera (the Count di Luna, Rigoletto, Germont, Scarpia), the Lyric Opera in Chicago (Nabucco), and the Zurich Opera (Iago).