Ouverture Baritono Caruso

Carmelo Corrado Caruso started his singing studies under the guidance of M° R. Federighi. After graduating at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, he specialised with M° Bettarini and with Bianca Maria Casoni. He further attended several masterclasses with A.Kraus, L.Gencer, P.Cappuccilli, and with M.Baker and D.Baldwin for the chamber music repertoire. His operatic repertoire includes more than forty roles ranging from Monteverdi to Henze.

Highlights:

2007: Mr. Caruso received the Nomination for the GRAMMY Award for the CD recording of Donizetti´s Dom Sébastien (Camoens), life recording at the ROH Covent Garden for OPERA RARA.

Competitions and awards:

1984: first prize at the As.Li.Co in Milano; first prize at the Pergolesi Competition in Rome;

1985: Prize for Young Opera Singers awarded by the Lirica Arena di Verona;

1986/7: the Briccialdi Singing Competition in Terni;

1990: the Viotti Singing Competition in Vercelli;

Operatic debuts and activity:

1984: Mayr’s L’amor Coniugale (Moroski) –Bergamo, Teatro Donizetti within an As.Li.Co. production;

1985: La Bohéme (Marcello) – Varese; Don Giovanni (Masetto) – Bergamo;

1991: Rigoletto (Rigoletto) – Benevento; La traviata (Germont) – Bruxelles;

1992: La traviata (Germont) – Zuerich; Madama Butterfly (Sharpless)- Savona, Opera Giocosa

1994/5: Il barbiere di Siviglia (Figaro) – Savona; Britten’s Noah’s Fludde (Noah)- Palermo,

1996: Ibert’s Angélique (Boniface) – Palermo; Teatro Massimo (CD recording). Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni) – Savona, Opera Giocosa;

1997: I pagliacci (Tonio; Silvio); Donizetti’s La Parisina (Azzo d’Este) – Lugo;

1998: Simon Boccanegra (Simone) –Bologna, Teatro Comunale, conducted by D.Gatti;

Donizetti’s Dom Sébastien (Camoens) – Bologna; Teatro Comunale, conducted by D.Gatti; I pagliacci (Tonio) –Lima, Cuba; Rigoletto (Rigoletto) –S.Gimignano, Summer Festival;

1999: Il barbiere di Siviglia (Figaro) and Le nozze di Figaro (Figaro) at the San Gimignano Summer Festival; Tosca (Scarpia) – Spoleto, Perugia, staged by H.Brockhaus; Lucia di Lammermoor (Enrico) – Messina, conducted by M° Arena;

2000: Falstaff (Falstaff) – Brescia; Fedora (De Siriex) with Mirella Freni and Wolf-Ferrari’s Sly (Conte di Westmoreland) with José Carreras in Torino; Teatro Regio; Rigoletto (Rigoletto) – Busseto, -Ravenna;

2001: Il trovatore (Conte di Luna) – Montecarlo, Opéra; Simone Boccanegra (Simone) and Traviata (Germont) touring in Japan with Teatro La Fenice; La fanciulla del West (Jack Rance) – Lucca, Livorno, Pisa, Bergamo, Ascoli Piceno; Macbeth (Macbeth) – Messina;

2002: Aida (Amonasro) – Cairo; La Traviata (Germont) – Ravenna staged by F.Zeffirelli; Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero (prigioniero) – Torino, Teatro Regio; Tchaikovsky’s Orleanskaja Deva (Lionel) with Mirella Freni – Torino; Teatro Regio;

2003: Berlioz’ Lélio – Roma, Teatro dell’Opera; Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni) – Thessaloniki; Orléanskaja Deva (Lionel) again with Mirella Freni – Palermo, Teatro Massimo; Tosca (Scarpia) – Torino, Teatro Regio; La traviata (Germont) – Catanzaro with the Arturo Toscanini Orchestra, staging by F.Zeffirelli; Luisa Miller (Miller) – Palermo, Teatro Massimo;

2004: Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero (Prigioniero) and Job (Job) – Palermo, Catania; Il Prigioniero and Volo di notte (Riviére) – Firenze, Maggio Musicale, conducting Bruno Bartoletti and staging by D.Abbado. This production won the prestigious ABBIATI Award for the best operatic production in 2004. Il barbiere di Siviglia (Figaro) – Modena; Luisa Miller (Miller) – touring in the Netherlands; La Bohéme (Marcello) – Palermo;

2005: Mma Butterfly (Sharpless) – Catania; Dom Sébastien (Camoens)- London, debut at Covent Garden, conducting Mark Elder; Macbeth (Macbeth) – Dresden, SemperOper; Manon Lescaut (Lescaut) – Parma;

2006: Zandonai’s I cavalieri di Ekebu’ (Cristiano) – Catania; Alfano’s Cyrano de Bérgerac (De Guiche, Ragueneau) with Placido Domingo – London, Covent Garden, conducted by Mark Elder; Tosca (Scarpia) – Seoul;

2007: Adriana Lecouvreur (Michonnet) – Messina; Cyrano de Bérgerac – Valencia; Traviata (G.Germont) – Osijek;

2008: Cyrano de Bergerac – Milano, Teatro alla Scala, Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni) – Chieti; Volo di Notte (Rivière) – Frankfurt; Traviata (Germont) – Firenze Festival, Tosca (Scarpia) – Brescia Festival; Tosca (Scarpia) – Firenze, Teatro Comunale, Macbeth (Macbeth) – Amsterdam, Concertgebouw; Rigoletto (Rigoletto) – Cheti;

2009: Carmen (Escamillo) – Messina; Le Roi Arthus (Merlin) – Cagliari; Tosca (Scarpia) – Chieti; Aida (Amonasro) – Firenze Opera Festival;

2010: Nabucco (Nabucco) – Lecce, Tosca (Scarpia ) – Chieti; Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni) – Solothurn, Classic Open Air Festival; Don Pasquale (Don Pasquale ) – Nationale Reisopera; NL, Nabucco (Nabucco ) - Amsterdam Concertgebouw;

Sacred and symphonic repertoire:

His concert repertoire goes from Bach’s to Haendel’s oratorios, and includes Lieder by Mahler, Ravel, Ibert, Poulenc, Stravinsky. He took part in several concerts and recitals singing French and German chamber compositions. He specialised in this repertoire under M° D. Baldwin.

He recently sang Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Haydn’s Die Schoepfung (Raphael, Adam); Orff’s Carmina Burana – Milano and Parma; Faure’s Requiem;

World premiére of Derek Healy´s Mass for St. Corrado for baritone, chorus and sax octet;

Recordings:

He was one of the main characters of the musical movie Maggio Musicale directed by Gregoretti with Shirley Verrett and Chris Merritt. He partecipated to the recordings of: Ibert’s Angélique ; Haendel’s Messiah for KICCO MUSIC; Faure’s Requiem with the Philarmonic Orchestra of Torino; Donizetti’s Dom Sébastien (Camoens) with the ROH Orchestra under the baton of Mark Elder for OPERA RARA;

He collaborated with such eminent conductors as Arena, Bartoletti Bettarini, Calligari, Carignani, David, De Bernart, Elder, Gatti, Gavazzeni, Handt, Licata, Maag, Mega, Olmi, Oren, Pesko, Ranzani, Severini, Stefanelli, Steinberg, Taverna.