Franco Vassallo Baritone

© Roberto Raisoni

Biography

Franco Vassallo is a native of Milan where he attends the Civic School of Music in Milan Vassallo besides studyingLiterature and Philosophy at the State University of Milan.
His singing career really took off in 1994 when he won the international singing competition ‘As. Li. Co’ in Milan. In 1997 he won the competition for the Verona Arena to sing Ford alongside Renato Bruson in Verdi’s Falstaff. These performances quickly led on to an outstanding success in the title role in Rossini’s Barber of Seville. For a number of years Vassallo was the performer of choice in that role almost everywhere.
In the following years he specialised in the bel canto roles of Donizetti and Bellini that took him to la Scala Milan, the Staatsoper Vienna, and the Metropolitan Opera New York.
He performed under the baton of such maestri as Riccardo Chailly, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, James Levine, Nello Santi, Jeffrey Tate, James Conlon, Fabio Luisi, Daniel Oren, Anton Guadagno, Marco Armiliato, Marcello Viotti, Michele Mariotti, and Gianandrea Noseda. He worked as well with great directors as Robert Carsen, David McVicar, Hugo De Ana, Gianfranco De Bosio, Giancarlo Del Monaco, Claus Guth, Denis Krief, Christof Loy, Ermanno Olmi, Pierluigi Pizzi, Toni Servillo, Bartlett Sher, Ferruccio Soleri, Graham Vick, and Franco Zeffirelli.
In his more mature years Vassallo has stayed true to his belcanto roots while developing his career as an interpreter of the great Verdi baritone roles which include Simon Boccanegra, Attila, Un ballo in maschera, Don Carlo, Rigoletto, Macbeth, Nabucco, Otello, Il Trovatore and La Forza del destino, with performances in all the great Opera Houses of the world.
He has recently sung Falstaff in the title role at Geneve while Ford at the Bayerische Staatsoper and at the Metropolitan Opera.

Biography

Debut at the Paris Opera

Immerse in the Paris Opera universe

Follow us

Back to top