Giuseppe Filianoti

Giuseppe Filianoti is the pre-eminent lyric tenor of his generation. The beauty of his voice, the passionate lyricism of his artistry, and the dramatic fervor of his approach to the stage have won widespread critical acclaim and recognition.

Born in Reggio Calabria, the Italian tenor obtained first a degree in Literature, a background he considers to be an essential background to his operatic foundation and discipline. In 1997, he graduated from the “F. Cilea” Conservatory, studying under Anna Vandi. Filianoti won a prestigious two-year scholarship to the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala in Milan. During this period of intensive fine-tuning of his artistry, he met Alfredo Kraus, who became his mentor and his decisive influence in artistic style, nuance, technique, and virtuosity. Filianoti is at home equally in the bel canto and lyric Italian opera as well as the 19 th century French repertoire, including Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Massenet's Werther and Manon, Gounod's Faust and Romeo et Juliette.

Filianoti made his début in 1998 at Bergamo as Dom Sébastien . In 1999, after singing Argirio in Tancredi at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, he was engaged by Maestro Riccardo Muti to sing in Paisello's Nina pazza per amore. In 2003 again under Muti, he opened the season of La Scala with Rossini's Moïse et Pharaon. He made his Covent Garden début in 2000 as Alfredo in La Traviata, returning in the title role of Donizetti's Dom Sébastien in 2005 and recently as Nemorino in L'Elisir d'amore. He is a frequent guest at La Scala, where he has performed in Falstaff, Rigoletto, Lucrezia Borgia, Gianni Schicchi, Un giorno di Regno, and Lucia di Lammermoor. At the Teatro dell´Opera in Rome, he has sung Faust, Gianni Schicchi, Die Zauberflöte, Werther, and Idomeneo.

In 2005 he made his widely celebrated American début at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor. Signature roles at the Met include Nemorino (in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'amore), the Duke of Mantua (in Verdi's Rigoletto), and Ruggero (in Puccini's La Rondine). In addition to the Met, in the United States he has also appeared to great accolades at the San Francisco Opera as Edgardo in Lucia, at Carnegie Hall in New York as Federico in L'Arlesiana, and as Nemorino at the Los Angeles Opera and at the Chicago Lyric Opera.

Giuseppe Filianoti has performed in the major opera houses of Europe, including: Berlin (in the title role of Gounod's Faust, Verdi Requiem under Daniel Barenboim); Vienna (as Nemorino, Alfredo and Edgardo); Barcelona (as the Duke of Mantua, Alfredo, Nemorino, and Edgardo); Florence (as Alfredo, Tamino and Don Ottavio); Hamburg (in the title role of Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, and in the title role of Mozart's Idomeneo); Madrid (as Alfredo); Paris (as Ruggero in La Rondine and as Nemorino); Munchen (as Nemorino).

Filianoti's repertoire balances the steadfast sense of artistic discipline and control with the dedicated commitment to dramatic and lyric character depiction that he derives from his literary studies and theatrical training. His lyric tenor orientation does not preclude singing roles by composers as wide-ranging as Strauss, Stravinsky, Boito, Britten, Massenet, Mozart, Debussy, Monteverdi, Cilea, and, of course, Donizetti, Rossini, and Verdi.

The tenor's steadily increasing discography includes the complete recordings of Giuseppe Sarti´s Giulio Sabino (on CD with Dantone on Bongiovanni), Rossini's Tancredi (on CD with G. Gelmetti, D. Barcelona at the Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro), Rossini´s Moïse et Pharaon (on DVD with R. Muti, B. Frittoli and I. Abdrakazov on TDK), Donizetti´s Dom Sébastien (on CD with V. Kasarova and Simon Keenlyside on Opera Rara); La Traviata (on DVD with B. Campanella, M. Devia and Renato Bruson on La Voce). His most recent recording are Boito's Mefistofele (on DVD with F. Furlanetto, D. Theodossiou) and Cherubini's Medea (on DVD with Antonacci).

In 2004, Giuseppe Filianoti was awarded the Franco Abbiati Italian Critics´ Prize as Best Singer of the Year.