Franco Vassallo

Biography

Franco Vassallo is one of Italy’s leading baritones and has there been acclaimed at Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Teatro Regio di Torino, Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, Teatro Comunale di Firenze, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro Regio di Parma and at the Arena di Verona.

He has also made several significant international debuts at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper in Berlin, Opernhaus Zürich, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Baden-Baden Festival, Hamburg State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Teatro Real de Madrid, Teatro de São Carlos in Lisbon as well as in Bilbao, Amsterdam, Paris, Washington, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

Highlights of the 12 /13 season included the new production of Rigoletto at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich as well as a new staging of Macbeth at Teatro alla Scala under Valery Gergiev. Franco Vassallo returned to the Metropolitan Opera in the fall of 2013 as Ford in the new production of Falstaff conducted by James Levine. In the summer of 2013, he starred in Zurich Opera’s revival of Bellini’s rarely heard La Straniera along with Edita Gruberová. This production was also revived the following season. He returned to the Arena di Verona as Amonasro in Aida.

During the course of the season 2013/14, he starred as Count Di Luna in Il Trovatore at Teatro alla Scala in Milan and as Rigoletto in Munich and Hamburg. He made his debut at the Teatro Real Madrid as Monforte in a concert version of I Vespri Siciliani.

Vassallo opened the 2014/15 season in Geneva in September as Rigoletto, a role he also sang during the season in Munich. He made his debut at Theater an der Wien in La Straniera and returns to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Germont in La Traviata, to Vienna State Opera as Amonasro in Aida and to the Bavarian State Opera as the Duke of Nottingham in Roberto Devereux.

In 2016 he sang the title role in Rigoletto at the Bolshoi Theatre.