Cesare Lana

Through August 2004 Cesare Lana sang in the Italian summer tour of the I.C.O. symphony orchestra and chorus — Volterra, San Gimignano, Todi, Montecatini Terme — in a company that mixed Italian and Bulgarian soloists on that tour, among them Ventseslav Anastasov, Massimiliano Pisapia, Silvia Dalla Benetta, Alexander Gospodinov, Mario Kulev and the Romanian baritone George Petean. In 2001 he sang Ashby in Puccini's La fanciulla del West at the Teatro del Giglio in Lucca, conducted by Tiziano Severini and staged by Lorenzo Mariani. The Coro Palestrina in Suzzara counts him among the basses with whom it has worked. Born in Milan and settled in Ferrara, Lana took a degree in geology and came to singing during his military service; on the advice of Sesto Bruscantini he turned to a solo career, and was placed in national and international competitions. He made his debut in 1996 as Monterone at Riccione, and that same year sang Cold Genius, First Priest and Comus in the first Italian staging of Purcell's King Arthur, in the courtyard of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. From 1998 he gave himself wholly to opera. He sang Montano in the Otello that closed the Piermarini hall of La Scala on 7 December 2001 under Riccardo Muti, in Graham Vick's staging, and took the part again on the company's Tokyo tour of 2003; Traviata, Tosca, Gianni Schicchi, Turandot and Macbeth followed there. His repertoire includes early and baroque music for bass.