Mario Malagnini

Born at Salò on Lake Garda in 1958, Mario Malagnini began as a trombonist at the Brescia Conservatory before turning to the voice, studying with Pier Miranda Ferraro in Milan and graduating in 1984. He won prizes at the Tito Gobbi in 1983, then the Belvedere in Vienna, the Caruso in Milan and the Francesco Paolo Neglia at Enna — and he took counsel from Giuseppe Di Stefano, Tito Gobbi, Franco Corelli and Carlo Bergonzi. His debut came in 1984 as Corrado in Verdi's Il corsaro, and the spinto roles followed: Pinkerton, Calaf, Radamès, Manrico, Don Carlo, Cavaradossi, Don José, Otello, Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur, Loris in Fedora. He sang at La Scala, the Arena di Verona, the Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Paris Opera, under Muti, Abbado and Sinopoli. Among his recordings is Leoncavallo's La bohème alongside Carmen, I masnadieri, Giovanna d'Arco and Stiffelio. Placido Domingo engaged him for three productions that the tenor himself conducted: Carmen in Los Angeles, Aida at the Terme di Caracalla in Rome, and Calaf in Turandot for the opening of the Royal Opera House in Muscat, in a new staging by Franco Zeffirelli. At La Scala he has appeared in Nabucco, Carmen, Adriana Lecouvreur, Fedora and Madama Butterfly, and his Otello has been heard in Lisbon, Athens and several Italian cities. He has also sung in Moscow, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, New York, Houston, San Francisco, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Santiago. The Greek National Opera’s biographical account places the 1984 Il corsaro debut in Bergamo, while Anna Marra’s artist biography places it in Milan. His singing diploma came that year from the Verdi Conservatorio, after a first diploma in trombone at Brescia, and he worked further with Gianni Raimondi and Gian Giacomo Guelfi. Madama Butterfly in Nice and Oslo, Simon Boccanegra in Munich and La traviata in Bari followed the debut, and his roles, Luisa Miller and Un ballo in maschera among them, have been heard in Madrid, Barcelona, Monte Carlo, at the Bolshoi, in Budapest, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Hong Kong and Bombay. His colleagues have included Scotto, Caballé, Ricciarelli, Verrett, Kabaivanska, Marton, Dimitrova, Freni, Cossotto, Bumbry, Baltsa, Bruson, Cappuccilli, Zancanaro, Milnes and Ghiaurov, and he has sung under Giuseppe Patanè.