Leonardo Capalbo

In the 2017/18 season Capalbo makes his Baden-Baden Festspielhaus debut as Rodolfo La bohème, a role he also performs in a new production at Theater St Gallen. Capalbo also returns to Teatro Real to star as Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex in Sir David McVicar’s new production of Britten’s Gloriana, Opéra de Lyon as Macduff Macbeth and to Teatr Wielki as Don José which is quickly becoming one of his signature roles. Capalbo also appears in the 2018 Marilyn Horne Song Celebration at the Zankel Hall in New York and returns to Dorset Opera to make his role debut as Rodrigue in Massenet's Le Cid.

Last season Capalbo returned to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden to perform the title role in Offenbach’s Les contes d'Hoffman and made his debut at Perm State Opera as Rodolfo La bohème with Teodor Currentzis. Other engagements included Don José Carmen in Sevilla and at the inaugural Grange Festival, Gustavo Un ballo in maschera at Kungliga Operan, Duca Rigoletto at Wichita Opera, and Alfredo La traviata at Teatr Wielki - Opera Narodowa in Warsaw.

A trainee of the Juilliard School of Music, The Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and L’Académie Musicale de Villecroze, Capalbo worked under the guidance of the legendary Marilyn Horne. He made his operatic debut in 2004 as Paco in de Falla’s La Vida Breve for Opera North. Further engagements with the company included Ismaele Nabucco, later released on Chandos; Roméo Roméo et Juliette; Narraboth Salome; and Juan in Weill’s Der Kuhhandel. In 2005 he debuted with the Israeli Opera as Alfredo La traviata and a year later debuted with the New York City Opera as Nemorino in a new production of L’elisir d’amore. In 2007 he made his debut at the Berliner Staatsoper as Fenton in Falstaff and at the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor.

Recent debuts include Mariusz Trelinski’s Powder Her Face at La Monnaie, Ismaele Nabucco at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Other important debuts include his first Cavaradossi at Minnesota Opera, Don José Carmen at Palm Beach Opera, which he reprised at the Greek National Opera, and Arturo in La Straniera at the Concertgebouw, part of the prestigious Saturday Matinee Series.

Recent highlights include a return to Candide at Berlin Staatsoper and his Teatro del Liceu debut as Alfredo in a new production of La traviata. Other highlights included Nemorino L’elisir d’amore and Major Bennet Marco in The Manchurian Candidate for Minnesota Opera; a new production by Mariusz Trelinski of Powder Her Face in Warsaw; and his role debut as Jacopo in I Due Foscari at St Gallen Festspiele, the title role of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux in new productions at Canadian Opera Company, alongside Sondra Radvanovsky, and at Welsh National Opera; his role debut as Hoffman in Laurent Pelly’s celebrated production for Opéra de Lyon and then on tour in Japan; his house and role debut as Tom Rakewell in David McVicar’s new production of The Rake’s Progress at the Teatro Regio di Torino; the title role in a new production of Candide at the Berliner Staatsoper and Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; the Spanish premiere of Daniel Catan’s Il Postino at Teatro Real in Madrid; Nemorino at Berlin Staatsoper and the Glyndebourne Festival; and Alfredo in a new production for Welsh National Opera and Grand Théâtre de Genève and then in Hamburg and Dresden.

2017/18 season / 642 words. Not to be altered without permission