The Italian baritone Fabio Maria Capitanucci, a native of Sabaudia in the province of Latina, Italy, won the Competition for Young Opera Singers of the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale di Spoleto in 1998, when he was 23; shortly after he was accepted into the Opera Studio of La Scala in Milan, where he concluded his training in 2001 with the first-ever Renato Bruson Prize. He has since enjoyed a close association with La Scala, performing such roles as Marcello in Puccini’s La Bohème, Cavalier Belfiore in Verdi’s Un giorno di regno, Lescaut in Massenet’s Manon, and Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. During this time Capitanucci’s international profile also developed through appearances at the Dresden, Vienna, Munich, and Hamburg Staatsoper companies; the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and the Teatro Real in Madrid; the Royal Opera House in London; San Francisco Opera; and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The bel canto operas – such as Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and La Cenerentola, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Pasquale and L’elisir d’amore, and Bellini’s I Puritani – as well as the music dramas of Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini are at the center of his repertoire. It additionally includes such works as Hector Berlioz’s Les Troyens and Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. In the concert hall Capitanucci has participated in performances of such works as Lorenzo Perosi’s oratorio La cena del Signore and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. Along with several rarities, his discography includes accounts of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (with Antonio Pappano as conductor) and Umberto Giordano’s Fedora, which he has recorded with Plácido Domingo and Angela Gheorghiu.
August 2015