He was born in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi (ex USSR), on 12/2/1955. He received his vocal education at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire under Olimpi Khelashvili. In 1975, while he was still a student, he appeared as Mephistopheles [Faust] and in 1976 he started working with the State Opera of Tbilisi. In 1978 he continued his studies in Italy (1978/81). In Milan he was educated under the mezzo-soprano Giulietta Simionato and made numerous appearances at the Teatro alla Scala, where he sang the role of Banco [Macbeth], Pagano [I Lombardi], Count Walter (Luisa Miller) and Zaccaria (Nabucco). In 1981 and 1982, he won the Verdi and Tchaikovsky Competitions, respectively. In 1984 he made his debut in London. He performed exquisitely in Russian and Verdian operas due to his impressive performance on stage as well as his darker timbre. He received special acclaim for his roles in the operas Don Giovanni, Iolanthe and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Boris Godunov; the latter consisted a triumph for Paata Burchuladze at the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow. In 1987/88, he appeared at the Salzburg Festival. He sang in Western Europe and the United States the operas: Aida, Nabucco, Faust, Boris Godunov, Ernani, Don Giovanni, Prince Igor, Mephistopheles etc. He recorded for the labels DECCA, DGG, HMV and Melodiya-Eurodisc the operas Il barbiere di Siviglia, Simon Boccanegra, Aida, Rigoletto, Samson et Dalila, Nabucco, Prince Igor and songs by M.P. Mussorgsky and S. Rachmaninoff. With the GNO he worked in the roles of: Boris (Boris Godunov) at Olympia (1985/86), Zaccaria (Nabucco) at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus (2010/11) and Faust (Faust) at the Athens Concert Hall (2011/12). // Last update of the biography: January 2012 - The list of the productions below is complete.