The French bass Nicolas Testé initially studied piano, bassoon and music history in Paris before embarking on a career as a singer. He studied at the Opéra National de Paris and Centre de Formation Lyrique. In 1998 he was awarded the Second Prize at the “Voix Nouvelles” competition.

Nicolas Testé regularly performs in many renowned opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera of New York, Bayerische Staatsoper, Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opéra National de Paris, Teatro San Carlo Naples, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Teatro La Fenice as well as at the Glyndebourne Festival and Chorégies d’Orange.

His extensive repertoire comprises principal roles in Iphigénie en Aulide (Agamemnon), Roméo et Juliette (Frère Laurent), Manon (Count Des Grieux), Hamlet (Claudius), Il Trovatore (Ferrando), Die Zauberflöte (Sarastro), Castor et Pollux (Jupiter), Faust (Mephisto), Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Four Villains), Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Basilio), La Gioconda (Alvise) and I Puritani (Sir Giorgio).

In addition to his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in La Bohème (Colline), Nicolas Testé made his debut at the San Francisco Opera in Lucia di Lammermoor (Raimondo) in the 2015/2016 season and made a guest appearance at the Metropolitan Opera New York in a new production of Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles (Nourabad). This was the first time in history that this opera was performed at the Met. Nicolas Testé also followed invitations to the Deutsche Oper Berlin in Lucia di Lammermoor (Raimondo), to the Teatro Real in Madrid in I Puritani (Sir Giorgio) and to Orange in La Traviata (Doctor Grenvil).

In the 2017/2018 season, Nicolas Testé returned to the Bayerische Staatsoper in Lucia di Lammermoor (Raimondo). He made guest appearances at the Opernhaus Zürich in Maria Stuarda (Giorgio Talbot) and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in the same role and had engagements at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in Faust (Mephisto) and La Gioconda (Alvise Badoero). In January 2018, he was heard at the Opéra National de Paris in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Basilio). In the 2018/19 season, he appeared in Les Huguenots (Marcel) and Die Zauberflöte (Sarastro) at the Opéra Bastille in Paris and at the Metropolitan Opera New York as Nourabad in Les Pêcheurs de Perles, as well as Claudius in Hamlet at the Gran Teatre del Liceu and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

In addition to numerous opera productions, Nicolas Testé regularly performs with internationally renowned symphony orchestras. As part of a tour of Asia in November 2017, he performed opera gala and recital programmes in Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei and Beijing together with the coloratura soprano Diana Damrau. In May and June 2018, the VERDIssimo tour project took him to the most important concert halls in Europe.