(Credit: Operabase official website)

The Royal Opera House Covent Garden has announced that Italian baritone Davide Luciano is indisposed and has withdrawn from performing the role of Count Almaviva in all performances of Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” from Jan. 9-27, 2022.

As a result, Argentine baritone and former Jette Parker Young Artist Germán E. Alcántara will take over the role.

Alcántara joins a cast that includes Giulia Semenzato as Susanna, Federica Lombardi as Countess Almaviva, Hanna Hipp in the role of Cherubino, Gregory Bonfatti as Don Basilio, Monica Bacelli as Marcellina, Gianluca Buratto as Bartolo, and Riccardo Fassi in the title role. Sir Antonio Pappano and Christopher Willis conduct a production by Sir David McVicar.

Alcántara made his Royal Opera debut during the 2018-19 season as Dancaïro in Bizet’s “Carmen,” and has also appeared as Baron Douphol in Verdi’s “La Traviata,” Wagner in Gounod’s “Faust,” and Dumas in Giordano’s “Andrea Chénier,” among others. The baritone has recently performed the role of Count Almaviva in “Le Nozze di Figaro” at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt.

Luciano is slated to appear in the role of The Duke of Nottingham in Donizetti’s “Roberto Devereux” at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo in March 2022.