Antonio Di Matteo

Young Italian bass Antonio Di Matteo is one of the most promising singers of his generation. He studied at the Salerno Conservatory and was also a member of the Opera Studio of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where he worked with Renata Scotto, Anna Vandi and Cesare Scarton, among others, while additionally attending masterclasses with Walter Alberti, Thomas Hampson and Bonaldo Giaiotti.

Highlights of his career to date include the Commendatore (Don Giovanni) under James Conlon at the Spoleto Festival, Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte) at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Rome Opera and the Opéra de Toulon, Leone (Attila) at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna and in Palermo, Sparafucile (Rigoletto) in Bologna, Naples, Pisa, Rovigo, Ravenna and Menorca, Colline (La bohème) in Palermo and Antibes, Timur (Turandot) at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, Ramfis (Aida) in Bologna, Tom (Un ballo in maschera) at the Liceu in Barcelona and Gualtiero Walton in Bellini’s I puritani at the Savonlinna Festival. He also sang Guido in Mercadante’s Francesca da Rimini under Fabio Luisi at the 2016 Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca following the opera’s rediscovery – a live recording was released on CD and DVD the following year.

As a participant in the 2013 Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project he sang Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte for Children, also appearing that summer in Don Carlo under Antonio Pappano. Among his most recent engagements have been Sarastro in Graham Vick’s new production of Die Zauberflöte at the 2018 Macerata Opera Festival and Sparafucile under Riccardo Muti at Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan Festival in 2019.

Antonio Di Matteo has also performed in gala concerts in Europe, including a memorial concert for Boris Christoff at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Among his many awards are the critics’ prize at the International Ottavio Ziino Singing Competition in Rome in 2012, the special prize of the Fondazione Pavarotti at the 2013 Ravello Singing Competition and the first prize in the 2014 Benvenuto Franci Competition in Pienza.