Edgardo Rocha

Biography

Edgardo Rocha was born in Rivera, Uruguay, where he graduated in piano, studied choral-orchestral conducting at the University of the Republic and began his voice preparation with Beatriz Pazos and Raquel Pierotti. He moved 2008 to Italy, where he studied with the prestigious tenor Salvatore Fisichella and attended the Rossini-Master Classes of the tenor Rockwell Blake and of the baritone Alessandro Corbelli. He is the winner of several singing competitions including the 51th Competition of Young Musicians of the Uruguay, Maria Callas International Singing Competition in Sao Paulo, (Brazil), Giulio Neri Competition in Siena (Italy) and the First Stage Competition in Cesena, (Italy), where he debuted the role of Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini.

The artist sustains a rich concert activity, interpreting Mozart’s Requiem, Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, Weihnachtsoratorium, Osteroratorium, Magnificat and Cantatas BWV 10, 147 and 182 by J. S. Bach, together with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Montevideo and the SODRE in Uruguay, The ways of Zion do mourn by Haendel with the Baroque Orchestra of Pisa, Charpentier’s Te Deum at the Teatro Comunale Firenze with the Camerata del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Rossini’s Stabat Mater at the Teatro Verdi Trieste, Maggio musicale Fiorentino, Teatro la Fenice di Venezia, Festival de Saint-Dennis, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse and Orchestra della Rai di Torino.

In 2010, at the Festival della Valle d’Itria Martina Franca, he made his debut as Donizetti’s Gianni di Parigi, role written for the great tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini.

Due to the obtained success, he began his career in Italy and abroad. He sang Gianni di Parigi at the Wexford Festival, La Cenerentola at the Teatro Lirico Cagliari, Circuito Lirico Lombardo, Bergen Festival, Seattle Opera, Opera di Stuttgart, Teatro Maestranza di Siviglia, Beaune Festival, Lausanne, Bilbao, Montecarlo, Dortmunt, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Concergebawn Amsterdam, Luzern Festival, Auditorio de Madrid, and Opera de Versailles. Don Pasquale at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Filarmonico di Verona. Così fan tutte at the Teatro San Carlo Napoli and Teatro Regio Torino, L’italiana in Algeri at the Opera Giocosa Savona, Teatro Petruzzelli Bari, Wiener Staatsoper, Opera de Nancy, Liceu de Barcelona and Salzburg Festspiele. Il matrimonio segreto at Teatro Coccia Novara, Rossini’s La scala di seta and Otello (as Jago next to Cecilia Bartoli) at the Opernhaus Zürich. In December 2012 he made his debut at the Wiener Staatsoper as Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini. He sang the Count Almaviva also in: Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia di Valencia, Teatro Real de Madrid, Opera de Lausanne, Bayerische Staatsoper, Semperoper Dresden, Opera National de Paris, Israeli Opera, Hamburg Staatsoper, Opera di Roma, Filarmonico di Verona and Arte Lugano e Cultura.

In April 2014 he made his Parisian debut in the role of Rodrigo in Otello by Rossini at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with the mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli. With the same role he appear for the first time at Pfingstfestpiele in Salzburg. In the role of Count Alberto from La Gazzeta by Rossini, he made his debut at the Opera Royal de Wallonie in Liège. Il turco in Italia by Rossini at the Teatro Regio di Torino. He debuts at La Scala as Jago in Rossini's Otello with Juan Diego Florez and Gregory Kunde. Il viaggio a Reims in the role of Belfiore and Le comte Ory by Rossini at the Zürich Opernhaus. Right away he sings Nadir on The pearl fishers by Bizet at the Nancy Opera, Arturo in Bellini's I Puritani at the Stuttgart Opernhaus and Leopold in La Juive by Halevy at the Bayerische Staatsoper. He begins 2017 with a great european tour of La Cenerentola with Cecilia Bartoli for celebrate the 200 years of the first representation of Rossini's master piece. He appears again at Teatro alla Scala as Gianetto in La Gazza ladra by Rossini. He made his debut in the role of Giacomo V from La donna del lago by Rossini in the Salzburg Pfingstfestpiele and at Opéra de Marseille. He sang for the first time the role of Riccardo Percy from Anna Bolena by Donizetti at Opéra de Lausanne in the original version.

He has collaborated with following conductors: Giacomo Sagripanti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Riccardo Frizza, Myung-Whun Chung, Alan Curtis, Jonathan Webb, Christopher Franklin, Daniele Rustioni, Michael Güttler, Bruno Campanella, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Omer Meir Wellber, Enrique Mazzola, Stefano Montanari, Rani Calderón, Betrand de Billy, Stefano Ranzani, Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, Antonello Allemandi, Donato Renzetti, Gianluca Capuano, Ottavio Dantone, and stage directors: Jonathan Miller, Damiano Michieletto, Moshe Leiser/ Patrice Caurier, Ettore Scola, Joan Font, Rosetta Cucchi, Emilio Sagi, Antonio Albanese, Carlo Verdone, Filippo Crivelli, Stefano Mazzonis, Adriano Sinivia, Jossi Wieler, Christopher Alden, Pier Francesco Maestrini, Calixto Bieito, Jürgen Flimm.

Edgardo Rocha is Don Ramiro in the film La Cenerentola una favola in diretta, produced by Andrea Anderman for the Rai Television and broadcasted Live in Mondovision in June 2012, directed by Carlo Verdone and conducted by Gianluigi Gelmetti.