Giuseppe Filianoti

Biography

Born in Reggio Calabria, he obtained first a degree in Literature. In 1997, he graduated from the Francesco Cilea Conservatory, studying under Anna Vandi, than won a two-year scholarship to the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Studied under Alfredo Kraus.

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, o sia La 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, and at Carnegie Hall in New York as Federico in L’Arlesiana. Nemorino was the role of his debut at the Los Angeles Opera in 2009 and at the Chicago Lyric Opera in 2010.

Giuseppe Filianoti has performed in the major opera houses of Europe, including: Berlin (in the title role of Gounod’s Faust, the 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).

After a successful debut at the 2011 Salzburg Festival in a new production of Macbeth under the direction of Riccardo Muti, Mr. Filianoti opened the 2011-2012 season at Teatro alla Scala in a new Robert Carsen production of Don Giovanni, conducted by Daniel Barenboim and partnered by Anna Netrebko, which was seen around the world in a live telecast. To begin the new year, he sang his first Des Grieux in a new Coline Serreau production of Massenet’s Manon at the Opéra de Paris opposite Natalie Dessay. He then returned to the Hamburg State Opera for a revival of the Andreas Homoki production of Gounod’s Faust, which he premiered last season, and also sang Rodolfo in Gala performances of Puccini’s La bohème opposite Angela Gheorghiu, under the direction of Music Director Simone Young.

The tenor’s steadily increasing discography includes the complete recordings of Giuseppe Sarti´s Giulio Sabino, Rossini’s Tancredi, Rossini´s Moïse et Pharaon, Donizetti´s Dom Sébastien; La Traviata. His most recent recording are Boito’s Mefistofele and Cherubini’s Medea.

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