The famous Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto will be guest-performer in “Don Carlo” on 20 September
Sofia Opera and Ballet will festively open the season 2014-2015 on 20 September at 19.00 h with Verdi’s opera “Don Carlo”. The spectacle will be with the participation of the famous Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto in the frames of the celebrations of Boris Christoff’s Jubilee and with it will be marked also the 100th Anniversary of the opera director Mihail Hadzhimishev.
”I grew up with in admiration for Cesare Siepi and Boris Christoff and they were something like a guiding star for me… I met Christoff still at my second opera in Turin, when I was singing the Monk in “Don Carlo”, and he was singing Filippo II. He gave me the idea to be not just a singer, but also an interpreter, to love the actor’s play on the stage, to like creating characters and to be successful in this. To watch him and to study the fine gestures he was making, to understand how the small movement and the fine gestures can be much more important than the big ones – this was of a great value for me, so much, as the use of the voice”, told Furlanetto.
This is the first guest-performance of the star of the world’s opera stage in Bulgaria. One of the greatest basses of our time, Ferruccio Furlanetto, is among the most sought-after performers. The critics praise him for his vast range, impressive vocal power and excellent acting ability.
His amazing international career began with the role of King Filippo II in Verdi’s “Don Carlo” at the Salzburg Easter Festival under the baton of Herbert von Karajan in 1986. In the same year he debuted at the Salzburg Summer Festival with the role of Figaro in Mozart’s opera. His debut on the leading opera stages preceded these participations: La Scala (1979), the Metropolitan Opera (1980), the Vienna State Opera (1985).
He has worked with some leading orchestras and conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Carlo Maria Giulini, Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Bernstein, Valery Gergiev, Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Barenboim, Georges Prêtre, James Levine, Semyon Bychkov, Daniele Gatti, Riccardo Muti, Mariss Jansons, and Vladimir Jurowski.
He has participated in concerts and recitals at the leading world’s concert halls, in the repertory ranging from Verdi’s “Requiem” to Russian songs and Schubert’s “Winterreise”.
He has made numerous recordings of opera on CD and DVD, and his performances were broadcasted all over the world over the radio and television.
He feels equally at home at many opera houses such as La Scala Milan, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, the Opera National de Paris, and the New York Metropolitan Opera as well in Rome, Turin, Florence, Bologna, Palermo, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, San Diego and Moscow
At the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, he has become the first Italian bass to appear in the title role of Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov”. He also performed the role on the stage of Bolshoi Theater with great critical and public acclaim, becoming the only Western artist who sang Boris Godunov on both main stages of Russia.
Ferruccio Furlanetto is Honorary Ambassador to the United Nations as well as Kammersänger and Honorary Member of the Vienna State Opera.
In the 2013-14 season Ferruccio Furlanetto appeared at the world’s greatest opera houses and concert halls, including the Vienna State Opera, La Scala in Milan, the Gran Theater in Geneva, the Teatro Real Madrid, the San Diego Opera, the Canadian Opera in Toronto, Suntory Hall in Tokio, Berlin Philharmonia, Moscow Big Conservatory Hall, Salle Pleyel in Paris and at the Auditorium in Barcelona.
Ferruccio Furlanetto took part with two Verdi’s bass parts at the Vienna State Opera. “Today’s best Fiesco” (Chicago Tribune) returns to “Simon Boccanegra” and later as Filippo II in “Don Carlo”.
He won international acclaim in both parts at the Royal Opera Covent Garden (“singing with an imposing authority”, Financial Times, 2013) and at the Metropolitan Opera.
He performed the role of Boris Godunov in Vienna and Moscow, and also in concert performance with L'Orchestre National de Toulouse under the baton of Tugan Sokhiev in France and Spain.
Furlanetto returned to one of his most beloved characters – Massenet’s Don Quichotte, at the San Diego Opera and at the Opera Company in Toronto, as well as at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.