Biography

Francesco Meli

Current as of August 2019

Italian tenor Francesco Meli was born in Genoa in 1980 and made his debut at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto as Malcolm (Macbeth) in 2002, followed by debuts at other leading Italian houses, including those in Bologna, Venice, Florence, Naples and Turin. He first appeared at La Scala, Milan, under Riccardo Muti as Chevalier de la Force (Dialogues des Carmé lites), returning for Cassio (Otello), Arbace (Idomeneo), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Leicester (Maria Stuarda) and the Italian Singer (Der Rosenkavalier). In 2005 he sang Falliero (Bianca e Falliero) at the Rossini Opera Festival, followed by appearances as Don Ottavio in Genoa and by a series of important international debuts: Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia) in Zurich, Don Ottavio at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and London’s Barbican Centre, Elvino (La sonnambula) in a production in Lyon that was also released on CD, Ferrando (Così fan tutte) at the Vienna State Opera, Erisso (Maometto II) in Tokyo and the Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

From 2009, Francesco Meli began to turn away from the bel canto repertoire and focus increasingly on lyric and spinto roles: after his role debuts as Oronte (I Lombardi alla prima crociata), Gabriele Adorno (Simon Boccanegra) and Werther in Parma, he sang the Duke of Mantua at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Gabriele Adorno in Vienna, Riccardo (Un ballo in maschera) in Parma, Manrico (Il trovatore) in Venice, Werther in Washington and Jacopo Foscari (I due Foscari) in Los Angeles.

After appearing in a new production of Simon Boccanegra under Muti in Rome, he made a name for himself as a Verdi tenor both in 2013 — the bicentenary of Verdi’s birth — and later under leading conductors in major international opera houses. Highlights included Riccardo under Pappano at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Manrico at the Salzburg Festival in 2014 and 2015, Alfredo at the Paris Opéra, Jacopo Foscari at Covent Garden, Ernani in Rome and at the Met, Gabriele Adorno in Venice and Vienna and Carlo VII (Giovanna d’Arco), Jacopo Foscari, Don Carlo and Alfredo at La Scala.

As a concert artist Francesco Meli has appeared in performances of the Verdi Requiem under Chailly, Gatti, Luisi, Maazel, Muti, Noseda and Temirkanov.

Following his role debut as Radamès at the 2017 Salzburg Festival, Francesco Meli will be appearing in new productions in Milan, London, Madrid, Munich and Vienna.

Current as of August 2017

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