At long last a new Italian tenor is emerging on the operatic scene, the young Roman, Vittorio Grigolo, who lives up to the highest expectations. His premiere this June at London’s Royal Opera House Covent Garden caused a sensation: Vittorio Grigolo celebrated a triumphant debut alongside Anna Netrebko, in a new production of Manon by Jules Massenet. The part was originally intended for Netrebko’s longstanding partner, Rolando Villazón. Grigolo seized his opportunity and enthralled both audience and music critics alike: “But the evening really belongs to her (Anna Netrebko’s) Des Grieux, Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo […] making the most sensational debut to be heard at Covent Garden for some time. He’s got everything the role demands – a voice that flows, terrific looks, an instinctive sense of theatre” The Guardian.

For a long time, the great tenor roles had seemed reserved for Spanish and Latin American artists. Pavarotti was the last great representative of a glorious tradition, with such glittering predecessors as Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, Giuseppe di Stefano and Carlo Bergonzi, all magnificent singers from the homeland of opera. With Vittorio Grigolo, Italy announces its formidable return to the tenor stage.

Vittorio Grigolo was born in Arezzo, Tuscany and grew up in Rome. A soloist in the celebrated Sistine Chapel Choir as a child, he debuted at the Rome Opera as the Pastorello in Tosca alongside the great Luciano Pavarotti when only 13 years old, before starting his vocal training in earnest. At twenty-three years of age, he was the youngest tenor to debut at La Scala, and within a few years he was singing at major opera houses under the baton of Riccardo Chailly, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Daniel Oren and Antonio Pappano, with a repertoire that encompasses Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, Gounod, Massenet, Offenbach, Bernstein and the sacred works of Rossini.

With a solo album that went gold and platinum, and a Grammy-nominated recording of West Side Story, this charismatic stage performer has already tasted success beyond the confines of the classical world. Away from the operatic stage, he has risen to the challenge of live concert appearances with an equal energy. He made a recent appearance in Chicago before a crowd of over forty thousand people, to pay homage to Luciano Pavarotti.

The coming months will be pivotal for Grigolo: this Fall his first CD with Sony Classical will be released, devoted to Italian repertoire, with well-known and less familiar arias by Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. He is accompanied by the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio di Parma, under Pier Giorgio Morandi.

On 4 and 5 September, Grigolo will take the role of the Duke in a spectacular televised production of Rigoletto with Plácido Domingo, conducted by Zubin Mehta. Both evenings will be broadcast by numerous television stations in Europe.

In October, Grigolo will make his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in La Bohème.
Photo: © Alessandro Dobici