Artist Of The Week: Luca Pisaroni
Bass-Baritone Makes His Highly Anticipated Role Debut As Don Giovanni
By Francisco SalazarFor over 10 years, bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni has been the go-to Leporello in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” performing the role all over the world at such companies as the Teatro alla Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, Salzburg Festival, Baden Baden Festival, Wiener Staatsoper, and at Tanglewood, among others. His interpretation has been hailed by critics as “dynamic” and “youthful” and a number of performances have been published on DVD; there is also a studio recording on CD.
After years as Leporello, Pisaroni will finally take on the title role in that very opera for the first time in his career. The new role is the third in a series of role debuts for Pisaroni this season and it also marks the bass-baritone’s return to the production he originated back in 2011. He sang the production in 2015 and has taken on the opera a whopping 19 times at the Met to this point.
This run of performances will also mark the second time that Pisaroni does two roles in the same opera. He previously sang Figaro in “Le Nozze di Figaro” for his Met debut; years later, he switched to the Count in the same opera, also at the Met.
For those not in New York, Pisaroni will return to the opera later this season at the Wiener Staatsoper as Leoporello and will sing a young Da Ponte in the world premiere of “The Phoenix.” He will also go on a concert tour of “Agrippina” and will also sing “Golaud” in “Pelléas et Mélisande” at the Staatsoper Berlin.
Recordings
It’s hard to choose just one specific recording of Pisaroni to recommend so we will look at his five recordings of “Don Giovanni.”
Pisaroni is on the 2015 Salzburg recording of the opera with Ildebrando d’Arcangelo as well as on the 2014 recording from Baden Baden with Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott. He can also be seen on the recording from Glyndebourne with Gerald Finley and on the 2007 Salzburg recording with Thomas Hampson and Piotr Beczala.
His CD recording from Baden Baden stars D’Arcangelo, Rolando Villazón, Diana Damrau, and Joyce DiDionato.
Here is a clip of Pisaroni as “Don Giovanni.”
