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 Segretoand 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’ 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.
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.
Mr Bonfatti recently performed: Guarnieri's Infinita tenebra di luce
in Florence; Otello (Roderigo) in Baden- Baden and on tour in
Japan with the Royal Opera House; Le Nozze di Figaro in Nancy and
Luxembourg, Versailles, London and Paris; Carmina Burana and Salome
in Bologna; Falstaff in Aix-en-Provence; Turandot in
Rome, Naples, Strasbourg, Moulhouse and Dijion; Madama Buttefly
in Nancy, Angers, Nantes and Rennes; a new production of Fedora at
the Teatro alla Scala in Milan under the baton of Marco Armiliato; Salome
and Thefiery Angel in Bari; Dr Cajus in Falstaff at the
Festival Verdi in Busseto, in Paris and in Seoul; and Die Fledermaus
in Cagliari.
Plans include: Salome and La Fanciulla del West in
Naples and Falstaff in Glyndebourne.
February 2025