Swedish baritone Peter Mattei studied music in Stockholm and made his stage debut in 1990 at the Drottningholm Palace Theater singing the role of Nardo in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera. He was soon engaged by the Stockholm Royal Opera, singing his first Figaro in Mozart’s Nozze in the 1994-95 season; his debut as Don Giovanni followed at Göteborg during the same season. Mozart—above all the three Da Ponte operas—remains a focus of his artistry to the present. His interpretations of these roles have been heard at the Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne, and Salzburg Festivals, among others. In addition, Mattei’s repertoire extends to such works as Donizetti’s L’elisir d‘amore (Belcore), Verdi’s Don Carlo (Posa), Puccini’s La Bohème (Marcello), and Tchaikovsky’s Jeanne d’Arc (Lionel). At La Scala in Milan, he undertook Wolfram in Wagner’s Tannhäuser in 2005, and in 2007 he performed Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Salzburg Festival. Frankfurt Opera engaged Peter Mattei in the ensuing season as the title hero in a new production of Britten’s Billy Budd, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York recently invited him to appear as Rossini’s Barber and as Šiškov in Janáček’s From the House of the Dead. Peter Mattei is also in demand as a concert singer and has collaborated with such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly, Daniel Harding, Antonio Pappano, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Georg Solti. His discography includes an especially notable recording of Les Troyens of Berlioz, on which he appears as Chorèbe. Conducted by Colin Davis, this recording garnered two Grammy Awards. In 2004 Peter Mattei was named a Swedish Royal Court Singer.
Peter Mattei makes his LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut with this concert.
May 2010