Franco Vassallo

To stage Verdi's Il Trovatore, according to Arturo Toscanini, you need to bring together the four best singers in the world. This stunning production at Milan's La Scala unites four luminaries of today's opera scene to great effect: with his lilting legato, Marcelo Álvarez (Manrico) does justice to the opera's bel canto character; Franco Vassallo brings assurance and flair to the Count di Luna; Maria Agresta (Leonora) effortlessly rises to the challenges of the score; and Ekaterina Semenchuk (Azucena) also masters the most difficult notes. With the fastidious Daniele Rustioni leading La Scala's world-class orchestra, the music leads the action apace, resounding alongside the hall's legendary chorus and amid monumental sets and decor in this sublime production of one of the world's favorite operas.

"This is Vienna State Opera live at home". March 2015.

Live from Munich 2009

La soprano Anna Netrebko a pris d'assaut New York lorsqu'elle a interprété le rôle de la fragile jeune fille puritaine Elvira. Son interprétation audacieuse de la célèbre scène folle de l'héroïne lui a valu des ovations enthousiastes de la part des maisons à guichets fermés nuit après nuit. Débordant d'airs et d'ensembles ravissants, ce joyau du bel canto met également en vedette Eric Cutler dans le rôle d'Arturo, l'amour d'Elvira, Franco Vassallo dans le rôle de son prétendant Riccardo et John Relyea dans celui de son oncle Giorgio.

Live performance from Oper Leipzig, 26 November 2005.

Le directeur musical James Levine dirige sa première nouvelle production Met après une absence de deux ans : la mise en scène à succès de Robert Carsen de la grande comédie humaine de Verdi. Ambrogio Maestri est un Falstaff idéal, à la tête d'un ensemble extraordinaire de stars vétérans et montantes du Met, dont Angela Meade (Alice), Stephanie Blythe (Mistress Quickly), Franco Vasallo (Ford) et Jennifer Johnson Cano (Meg). Lisette Oropesa et Paolo Fanale sont les jeunes amants, Nannetta et Fenton.

Conspiracies and regattas form the backdrop to the fortunes of a young singer. Harassed by a heartless spy, she sacrifices everything to save the man she loves and the woman he prefers over her. Ponchielli based his flamboyant opera on Victor Hugo’s play Angelo, tyrant of Padua. An expert on Hugo, director Olivier Py offers us a dream-like version of this dark Romantic tragedy, presided over by sex and death. Paolo Carignani conducts an exceptional cast in the six demanding main roles.

"This is a family tragedy, and in many ways, it is a very contemporary story." This is how Robert Wilson described Il trovatore, or Le Trouvère in its French version, commissioned from Verdi after the incredible success of the premiere of his Italian version in 1853. With a few changes and alterations to the original music, this version was first performed in 1857 at the Paris Opera. A light show unique to the stage director unfolds in the cold architecture, creating the perfect framing for Verdi’s music, dramatic and dark in this timeless opera.

Discover this rare Verdian jewel! Aroldo—one of the composer’s least performed works—premiered in 1857 in Rimini, Italy. The work was created in response to the censorship of Verdi’s 1849 Stiffelio, whose tale of a protestant pastor publicly pardonning an adulterer and his wife proved too scandalous for 19th-century Italian society. In creating Aroldo, Verdi’s librettist and collaborator Francesco Maria Piave transposed Stiffelio’s story and characters to the more distant setting of Great Britain at time of the Crusades, and the composer took advantage of this new version to add a fourth act to the opera, and to rewrite part of the first act as well as a few arias.

Ernani is a gripping drama about love and revenge by Giuseppe Verdi. Written in his unique style it brims with poignant arias, rousing choruses and enthralling ensemble scenes. The rebel leader Ernani recognises his father's murderer in the Spanish King Carlo and seeks revenge on him. Both men love Elvira – as does old Silva whom she is to be married to ... Director Lotte de Beer and her set and costume designer Christof Hetzer devote themselves to the fictional plot which bears references to the 16th century. They demonstrate their rich scenic imagination in this production, conducted by Enrique Mazzola who “provides musically magic moments at the stand of the Wiener Symphoniker” (Schwäbische Zeitung). “Great singers, fiery music and an action-packed staging” (Allgäuer Zeitung). “A mixture of Tarantino’s ‘Kill Bill’ and Monty Python’s ‘The Knights of the Coconut’” (Deutschlandfunk).