Riccardo Massi

Massi worked as a stuntman and stand-in from 2000 to 2007 — fencing and ancient and medieval weaponry, on Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York and the HBO series Rome — and paid for his singing lessons with the fees. Born in 1978 in the Marche, he trained with David Holst, joined the academy of La Scala in 2007 and made his stage debut in 2009 at Salerno as Radamès in Aida under Daniel Oren. The same role took him to the Metropolitan Opera in February 2012; Il trovatore in Toronto followed that autumn, Calaf in Turandot at the Royal Swedish Opera in 2013, Don Alvaro in La forza del destino for Opera Australia, and Cavaradossi at the Liceu in Barcelona and at Covent Garden in 2014. He has kept to the spinto Verdi and Puccini repertoire — Radamès, Cavaradossi, Calaf, Des Grieux, Pinkerton, Andrea Chénier.