Michele Pertusi

Basso

Born in Parma, Michele Pertusi is one of the most distinguished performers on the international opera scene. In 1995, he received the “Franco Abbiati” Award, and in 2006 he won a Grammy Award for the recording of Falstaff in the title role conducted by Sir Colin Davis. He was also awarded the Gramophone Award for the recording of Il Turco in Italia conducted by Riccardo Chailly.

An acclaimed interpreter of the Verdi repertoire, he has performed the roles of Attila (Teatro alla Scala, Venice, Liège), Philip II in Don Carlo (Milan, Vienna, Lyon, Festival Verdi), Procida in Les Vêpres siciliennes (Rome), Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra (Vienna, Turin, Bologna), and Zaccaria in Nabucco (Arena di Verona, Festival Verdi). A refined Rossini specialist, he made his debut at the Rossini Opera Festival in 1992 as Assur in Semiramide, returning regularly in subsequent seasons in productions including Moïse et Pharaon, Maometto II, Guillaume Tell, La Gazza ladra, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia, eventually receiving the prestigious “Rossini d’oro” award.

Among his most recent successes are Lucia di Lammermoor at the Opéra du Capitole de Toulouse, Nabucco at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, La Forza del destino in Zurich, Simon Boccanegra in Tokyo with Riccardo Muti, and Norma at Teatro alla Scala. As a concert performer, he has appeared in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Zubin Mehta, with the Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Daniele Gatti, and with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Antonio Pappano at the Salzburg Easter Festival.

He has collaborated with Fondazione Arena since 1986, when he made his debut as Count Walter in Luisa Miller at the Teatro Filarmonico. There, he performed in Don Giovanni (2002) and Falstaff (2005), and took part in productions of La Sonnambula, Anna Bolena (2007), and Oberto Conte di San Bonifacio (2008). He made his Arena debut in 2020 during the gala concert Il Cuore italiano della musica.
He returned for the 2021 Festival, performing in Aida (Ramfis and the King under the baton of Riccardo Muti), Nabucco (Zaccaria), Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9; in 2022, he sang Ramfis in Aida and Zaccaria in Nabucco; in 2023, he once again performed Ramfis in Aida and Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. He returns to the Teatro Filarmonico for the 2026 Symphonic Season as a soloist in Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle.