Franco Maximiliano Fagioli (born 1981, in Tucumán) is an Argentinian

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

tic countertenor.

Life

Born in Argentina, Fagioli initially studied piano and then singing at the Superior Art Institute of the

Teatro Colón The Teatro Colón (Spanish: ''Columbus Theatre'') is the main opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic. According to a survey carried out by the acousti ...

in Buenos Aires. He began his international career in 2003, when he won the Bertelsmann singing competition Neue Stimmen in Gütersloh, Germany. Franco Fagioli has since made regular appearances at opera houses in Buenos Aires, Karlsruhe, Bonn, Zurich, Essen and Genoa, at the

Theater an der Wien The is a historic theatre in Vienna located on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district. Completed in 1801, the theatre has hosted the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, and symphonic music. Since 2006, it has served prima ...

in Vienna and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. He has also been invited to perform at a number of festivals, including those in Halle, Ludwigsburg, Innsbruck and Froville. He has worked with conductors such as

Rinaldo Alessandrini Rinaldo Alessandrini (born 25 January 1960) is a virtuoso on Baroque keyboards, including harpsichord, fortepiano, and organ. He is founder and conductor of the Italian early music ensemble Concerto Italiano, performing music of Monteverdi, ...

, Alan Curtis,

Gabriel Garrido Gabriel Garrido is an Argentinian conductor specialising in Italian baroque and the recovery of the baroque musical heritage of Latin America. Garrido was born 1950 in Buenos Aires, and at the age of 17 with the Argentine recorder quartet, Pro Arte ...

, Nikolaus Harnoncourt,

René Jacobs René Jacobs (born 30 October 1946) is a Belgian musician. He came to fame as a countertenor, but later in his career he became known as a conductor of baroque and classical opera. Biography Countertenor Born in Ghent, Jacobs began his music ...

, José Manuel Quintana, Marc Minkowski,

Riccardo Muti Riccardo Muti, (; born 28 July 1941) is an Italian conductor. He currently holds two music directorships, at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and at the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. Muti has previously held posts at the Maggio Musicale ...

and

Christophe Rousset Christophe Rousset (; born 12 April 1961) is a French harpsichordist and conductor, who specializes in the performance of Baroque music on period instruments. He is also a musicologist, particularly of opera and European music of the 17th and 1 ...

. Franco Fagioli is one of the five countertenors to appear in the opera, TV, CD and DVD production of

Leonardo Vinci Leonardo Vinci (1690 – 27 May 1730) was an Italian composer known chiefly for his 40 or so operas; comparatively little of his work in other genres survives. A central proponent of the Neapolitan School of opera, his influence on subsequ ...

’s ''

Artaserse ' is the name of a number of Italian operas, all based on a text by Metastasio. ' is the Italian form of the name of the king Artaxerxes I of Persia. There are over 90 known settings of Metastasio's text. The libretto was originally written for, ...

'', which has been awarded numerous national and international music prizes for example the

Echo Award Echo Music Prize (stylised as ECHO, ) was an accolade by the , an association of recording companies of Germany to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The first ECHO Awards ceremony was held in 1992, and it was set up to hono ...

2013 and 2014 or the

Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik The Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik ("German Record Critics' Award") was established in Germany in 1963 by publisher Richard Kaselowsky with the aim of setting the "most rigorous standards for supreme achievement and quality" in the field ...

. The 2013/2014 season was launched with the release of the CD Arias for Caffarelli, which includes many world premieres; this was accompanied by concerts in Germany, France and Denmark. Franco Fagioli made his debut at the 2014

Salzburg Whitsun Festival The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amad ...

with his programme Giambattista Velutti. In the same year, there were two debuts with works by Mozart: after performing the part of Sesto in ''

La clemenza di Tito ' (''The Clemency of Titus''), K. 621, is an ''opera seria'' in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Pietro Metastasio. It was started after most of ' (''The Magic Flute''), the last o ...

'' in Nancy, he debuted as Idamante in Martin Kušej’s new production of ''

Idomeneo ' (Italian for '' Idomeneus, King of Crete, or, Ilia and Idamante''; usually referred to simply as ''Idomeneo'', K. 366) is an Italian language opera seria by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a Frenc ...

'' at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in November 2014. In the autumn of 2014, his solo CD Il maestro Porpora – Arias was released, in which Franco Fagioli paid homage to the Italian composer and singing teacher

Nicola Porpora Nicola (or Niccolò) Antonio Porpora (17 August 16863 March 1768) was an Italian composer and teacher of singing of the Baroque music, Baroque era, whose most famous singing students were the castrati Farinelli and Caffarelli (castrato), Caffarel ...

(1686–1768). He also made an appearance on the CD

Siroe ''Siroe, re di Persia'' ('' Siroes, King of Persia'', HWV 24), is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. It was his 12th opera for the Royal Academy of Music and was written for the sopranos Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bord ...

– Re di Persia, which was released at about the same time, as well as featuring on a CD entitled La Concordia de’ pianeti, a rediscovered work by the Baroque composer

Antonio Caldara Antonio Caldara (ca 1670 – 28 December 1736) was an Italian Baroque composer. Life Caldara was born in Venice (exact date unknown), the son of a violinist. He became a chorister at St Mark's in Venice, where he learned several instruments, ...

Discography

Solo recitals * ''Arte Nova Voices. Händel, Mozart. Opera Arias''

Gustav Kuhn Gustav Kuhn (born 28 August 1945) is an Austrian conductor and manager, also a composer, and a teacher and author. During his international conducting career, he founded the later "Accademia di Montegral" for young musicians and singers in 1987, ...

(ARTE NOVA) 2005. * ''Franco Fagioli. Canzone e Cantate.'' (

Carus Verlag Carus-Verlag is a German music publisher founded in 1972 and based in Stuttgart. Carus was founded by choral conductor Günter Graulich and his wife Waltraud with an emphasis on choral repertoire. The catalogue currently includes more than 26,0 ...

/SWR) 2010. * ''Arias for

Caffarelli Caffarelli may be *Caffarelli (castrato), stage name of the castrato Gaetano Majorano (1710-1783)Carmela Cafarelli(1889-1979) was proprietor of Cleveland Ohio's Cafarelli Opera Company *Luis Caffarelli (born 1948), American-Argentine mathematician * ...

'': Vinci, Leo, Hasse,

Pergolesi Pergolesi is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, (1710–1736), Italian composer, violinist, and organist * Michael Angelo Pergolesi, 18th-century Italian decorative artist {{Surname Italian-langu ...

, Santo. ''

Il pomo d'oro ''Il pomo d'oro'' (''The Golden Apple'') is an opera in a prologue and five acts by the Italian composer Antonio Cesti with a libretto by Francesco Sbarra (1611-1668). It was first performed before the imperial court in a specially constructed ope ...

''.

Riccardo Minasi Riccardo Minasi (born 1978) is an Italian violinist and conductor in the field of historically informed performance. Life Born in Rome, Minasi received his first music lessons from his mother, studying modern violin with Paolo Centurioni and A ...

(

Naïve Records Naïve Records is a French independent record label based in Paris, specializing in electronic music, pop music, jazz and classical music. Founding and expansion It was founded in 1998 by Patrick Zelnik, former CEO of Virgin France, Gilles Paire ...

) 2013. * ''Il Maestro Porpora – Arias'' (

) 2014. * ''Franco Fagioli. Rossini''

George Petrou George Petrou ( el, Γιώργος Πέτρου) is a Greek conductor, pianist and stage-director. Biography George Petrou was born in Greece. He studied at the Athens Conservatoire, the Royal College and the Royal Academy of Music in London. He ...

(Deutsche Grammophone) 2016. * ''Handel: Arias'' Zevira Valova (Deutsche Grammophone) 2018. *''Veni, Vidi, Vinci'', Arias by Leonardo Vinci, ''Il pomo d'oro'', Zevira Valova (Deutsche Grammophone), 2020. Opera * Christoph Willibald Gluck: '' Ezio'' (Oehms Classics/SWR) 2008. * George Frideric Handel: ''

Teseo ''Teseo'' ("Theseus", HWV 9; ) is an opera seria with music by George Frideric Handel, the only Handel opera that is in five acts. The Italian-language libretto was by Nicola Francesco Haym, after Philippe Quinault's ''Thésée''. It was Han ...

'' (Carus Verlag/SWR) 2009. * George Frideric Handel: ''Berenice'' (EMI/Virgin Classics) 2010. * unknown composer: Germanico, Ottaviano Tenerani, (

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

Deutsche Harmonia Mundi Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (founded 1958) is a German classical music record label. It was founded by Rudolf Ruby and based in Freiburg, Breisgau. The company was acquired by BMG Music in 1992 and is now part of Sony Music Entertainment. Ruby had Alf ...

) 2011. *

: ''

'' (Virgin Classics/EMI) 2013. *

Johann Adolph Hasse Johann Adolph Hasse (baptised 25 March 1699 – 16 December 1783) was an 18th-century German composer, singer and teacher of music. Immensely popular in his time, Hasse was best known for his prolific operatic output, though he also composed a co ...

: ''

'' (

DECCA Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

) 2014. *

: ''La concordia de' pianeti'' (ARCHIV) 2014. * Gluck: '' Orfeo ed Euridice'' Laurence Equilbey (ARCHIV) 2015. * Vinci: ''

Catone in Utica ''Catone in Utica'' (; ) is an opera libretto by Metastasio, that was originally written for Leonardo Vinci's 1727 opera. Following Vinci's success, Metastasio's text was used by numerous composers of the baroque and classical eras for thei ...

'' Riccrdo Minasi (DECCA) 2015. * Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: ''

Adriano in Siria ''Adriano in Siria'' (''Hadrian in Syria'') is a libretto by Italian poet Metastasio first performed, with music by Antonio Caldara, in Vienna in 1732, and turned into an opera by at least 60 other composers during the next century. Metastasio ...

'' Jan Tomasz Adamus (DECCA) 2016. * Händel: ''Rodelinda'' Diego Fasolis (DYNAMIC) 2016. Sacred works * Agostino Steffani: Stabat Mater (DECCA) 2014. * Vivaldi: ''Gloria, Nisi Dominus, Nulla in mundo pax'' (Classica) 2018.

References

External links

Official website of Franco Fagioli

Franco Fagioli biography
on parnassus.at {{DEFAULTSORT:Fagioli, Franco 1981 births Living people Operatic countertenors 21st-century Argentine male opera singers