Riccardo Zanellato received his diploma in singing and guitar at the Liceo Musicale in Adria in 1995, and won the Iris Adami Coradetti and A. Belli of Spoleto competitions, making his debut in
Faust by Gounod.
In 1996 he won the Operalia competition in Tokyo created by Placido Domingo, and since then he has sung principal roles in the following operas:
Don Carlo, Rigoletto, La Bohème, Turandot, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, I Puritani, Don Giovanni, I Masnadieri.
He achieved great success by the audience and the critics when he sang in
Don Sebastien by Donizetti at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna with repeat performances at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo; in Parma and Piacenza in
Attila and Battaglia di Legnano. In 1999 he interpreted the role of Loredano in
I Due Foscari in Cremona, Brescia and Piacenza alongside Renato Bruson.
Subsequently, he sang in
Stiffelio in Piacenza and
Verdi's Requiem in Lecce. In 2001 he participated in a production of
Rigoletto and
Corsaro in Lecce and he also performed in the Verdi Gala, a concert which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the death of Verdi, given on March 11th at the Palacassa in Parma, alongside Placido Domingo, José Carreras, Daniela Dessì, José Cura, Ruggero Raimondi, Leo Nucci and other very important international artists, conducted by Zubin Mehta; he interpreted the role of Fiesco in
Simon Boccanegra in Catania.
In July and August 2001 he interpreted the role of Zaccaria in
Nabucco in Busseto and Siena which was very successful with the public and critics. Once again in 2001 he made his debut in Maria Stuarda at the Festival Donizetti in Bergamo and in
I Puritani at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste.
Since 2002 he sang in a production of
Norma in the Teatro Regio in Turin,
Aida at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa,
Il Trovatore at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari and with the Fondazione A. Toscanini in Vigoleno,
Anna Bolena at the Helsinki Opera, the participation in the concert for the Italo Montemezzi celebrations in Vigasio alongside José Carreras, Daniela Dessi and Fabio Armiliato,
Idomeneo and Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro delle Muse in Ancona,
L'Assassinio nella Cattedrale at the Teatro Regio in Parma conducted by Bruno Bartoletti. Since 2003 he performed in a production of
Tancredi at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste, a Gala in
Nabucco in Mannheim, his debut at the Staatsoper in Berlin as Banquo in
Macbeth,
Il Trovatore in Lecce,
Norma with the Teatro Bellini in Catania on tour in Japan, his debut at the Arena Sferisterio in Macerata in
Lucia di Lammermoor, a production of
Nabucco (Zaccaria) in Rovigo, Trento, Bolzano and Pisa and his debut at the Festival Pucciniano in Torre del Lago in
La Bohème.
September 2003