Gregory Bonfatti, born in Bologna, graduated in Voice, Piano and
Composition and successfully participated in numerous national and
international competitions. Winner of the “A. Belli” competition in
Spoleto, he made his debut as Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola.
He then started an intense operatic activity performing, among
others: Il Matrimonio Segreto and I Capuleti e i
Montecchi in Ravenna; Amor Rende Sagace, La
Cambiale di Matrimonio, Rota’s La Notte di un Nevrastenico and Gianni
Schicchi in Bologna; Falstaff in Pisa, Mantua,
Naples and Turin; L’Italiana in Algeri in Reggio Emilia
and Ravenna; L’Arcadia in Brenta by Galuppi in Paris and
Parma; I Pagliacci in Paris; Il Barbiere di
Siviglia in Limoges; L’Ultimo Giorno di Pompei by
Pacini in Catania; Salome in Bologna and Genoa; Wozzeck and
Reimann’s King Lear in Turin; Tosca in
London; Turandot in Sassari and Naples; Luisa
Miller, Falstaff and Candide at
the Teatro San Carlo in Naples; The Gambler at the
Staatsoper Berlin; I Due Foscari and Nabucco in
Modena and Lucrezia Borgia in Ancona.
He is a returning guest at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he has
performed: I Due Foscari; Salome; Falstaff;
Corghi’s Il Dissoluto Assolto; Tchaikovsky’s Cherevichki
(The Slippers); Prokofiev’s The Gambler under the
baton of Daniel Barenboim and Turandot conducted by Riccardo
Chailly.
Bonfatti collaborated with such conductors as Paolo Arrivabeni, Maurizio
Benini, Gary Bertini, Giuliano Carella, René Clemencic, Andrew Davis,
Diego Fasolis, Gabriele Ferro, Daniele Gatti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Carlo
Maria Giulini, Riccardo Muti, Antonio Pappano, Zoltán Pesko and Donato
Renzetti, and directors such as Daniele Abbado, Alfredo Arias, Robert
Carsen, Giancarlo Cobelli, Piero Faggioni, Michael Hampe, Jonathan Kent,
Gabriele Lavia, Luca Ronconi and Luigi Squarzina. He sang opposite such
artists as Placido Domingo in I Pagliacci; Ruggero Raimondi
in Boris Godunov; with Leo Nucci in I Due Foscari;
Mariella Devia in La Donna del Lago; Barbara Frittoli and
Ambrogio Maestri in Falstaff; Michele Pertusi in Les
Contes d’Hoffman; Juan Diego Florez in Il Viaggio a Reims, La
Donna del Lago and Matilde di Shabran; William
Matteuzzi in L’Ultimo Giorno di Pompei; Renato Bruson, Samuel
Ramey and many others.
He also performed: Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero at the
Teatro alla Scala under Daniel Harding; Falstaff (Dr.
Cajus) in Cagliari, Liège, Bilbao and Toulouse; Il Corsaro and I
Lombardi alla prima crociata at the Teatro Regio in Parma;
Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci in
Cagliari; Gianni Schicchi at the Accademia Nazionale di
Santa Cecilia in Rome under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski; Madama
Butterfly (Goro) at the Teatro Regio in Turin, at the Théâtre
du Capitole in Toulouse and in Cagliari; Bolcom’s A View from the
Bridge (Toni) at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, where he also
performed in Candide, Samson et Dalila, La
Gioconda and Turandot (Pang); La forza
del destino with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino on tour in
Japan; Les Vêpres Siciliennes in Naples with Gianluigi
Gelmetti; Il cappello di paglia di Firenze at the Maggio
Musicale Fiorentino; Wolf-Ferrari’s Il Campiello (Pasqua
Polegana) for the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and in Rovigo; Turandot (Pang), Carmina
burana, Tchaikovsky’s Cherevichki (The Slippers) in
Cagliari; Carmen and Madama Butterfly in
Sassari; Rigoletto at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam;
Haydn's Stabat Mater in Bologna; Turandot in
Toulouse and at the Festival in Torre del Lago where he also sang Madama
Butterfly; Haydn's La Canterina with Cappella
Augustina in Kohl and Bruhl.
Mr Bonfatti recently performed: Tutino’s Le Braci and Turandot
at the Teatro dell’Opera in Florence; Madama Butterfly on
tour in Italy; Le Nozze di Figaro in Toulouse;
Mozart’s La finta giardiniera in Rennes; Don
Carlo at the Teatro Regio in Parma; Tristan und Isolde at
the Opera in Rome; Falstaff (Dr. Cajus) at the Teatro
Regio in Parma; Strauss’Salome (first jew) at the Teatro Regio
in Turin and in Bologna; Infinita tenebra di luce by
Guarnieri in Florence; Otello (Roderigo) in Baden-Baden,
in Berlin and on tour in Japan with the Royal Opera House; Madama
Butterfly and Le Nozze di Figaro in Nancy and Luxembourg,
London, Versailles, Paris; Falstaff in Aix-en-Provence and Madama
Butterfly in Angers, Nantes and Rennes.
He recorded for Decca (Rossini’s Matilde di Shabran opposite
Juan Diego Flórez and Andrea Chénier under Marco
Armiliato), Nuova Era (Mercadante’s Caritea, Regina di Spagna),
Dynamic (Pacini’s L’Ultimo Giorno di Pompei, Lucia di
Lammermoor, Rossini’s Otello and La
Sonnambula in DVD), Virgin Classics (Busoni’s Turandot);
Bongiovanni (Piccinni’s Dixit Dominus, Porpora’s Salve
Regina, Sammartini’s Miserere and Braga’s San
Domenico di Guzman) and EMI (Madama Butterfly, in the role of
Goro, opposite Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann under the baton of
Antonio Pappano). He also appears in the DVDs of Poulenc’s Les
Dialogues des Carmelites conducted by Riccardo Muti and
in Le Nozze di Figaro (Don Basilio) filmed at the Teatro
alla Scala, where he performs opposite Diana Damrau; Salome in
Bari; Turandot in Strasbourg, Mulhouse and Dr Cajus in Falstaff
at the Festival Verdi in Busseto.
Plans include: Turandot in Naples and Dijon and The fiery
Angel at the Petruzzelli in Bari.
November 2023