Giorgio Berrugi

Biography

Giorgio Berrugi has won accolades throughout the world for his radiant, warm Italianate sound, his exceptional musicality, and the expressive nuance of his interpretations. Berrugi has performed at many of the world's leading opera theatres, concert venues, and festivals such as the Teatro alla Scala, the San Francisco Opera, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Tokyo's Suntory Hall, London's Wigmore Hall, the Savonlinna Festival, and the Arena di Verona. He has collaborated with such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Christian Thielemann, Fabio Luisi, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniel Oren, Pinchas Steinberg, Nicola Luisotti, Myung Whun Chung, Jaap van Zweden, Gianandrea Noseda.

Trained as a clarinettist, Giorgio Berrugi had already won several international prizes both as a soloist and as a member of the Alban Berg Duo and occupied the Solo Clarinet chair of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma before beginning his vocal training in 2007. Within months he was engaged by the Teatro La Fenice of Venice for his debut as Rodolfo in La bohème.

From 2010 to 2013 Berrugi was a member of the ensemble of the Dresden Semperoper, where he debuted such important roles as Don José in Carmen, Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera, Mario Cavaradossi in Tosca, Nemorino in L’Elisir d’amore, Duca di Mantova in Rigoletto, and Gennarino in the world première of Hans Werner Henze‘s Gisela.

Highlights of recent seasons for the Italian tenor include Gounod’s Roméo at the Arena di Verona, Rodolfo in Luisa Miller at the Teatro San Carlo of Naples, his role debut as Hoffmann in Piacenza, Rodolfo in La bohème at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo, in Palermo and in Berlin (Deutsche Oper), Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor in Palermo and Turin; Macduff in Macbeth at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, Cavaradossi at the Opéra de Marseille, and Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra at La Scala and in Dresden, as well as performances as the tenor soloist in the Verdi Requiem in Palermo, Lucerne, Salerno, Manchester, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, in Milan with the Filarmonica della Scala conducted by Zubin Mehta, at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and in the Teatro Regio of Turin's tour to Hong Kong.

The 2016/2017 season sees Berrugi as Rodolfo in La Bohème at Regio di Torino (and in the summer tour at the Edinburgh International Festival) and at the Opera in Lausanne, the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Alfredo in La traviata at San Carlo di Napoli, Cavaradossi in Tosca at Terme di Caracalla in Rome. Moreover, he sings the Verdi Requiem with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Lincoln Center in New York and with the Danish National Symphony in Copenhagen.