Born in Lisbon, José Fardilha began his vocal studies with Cristina de
Castro and made his debut in 1984 at the Teatro São Carlos performing the
role of Masetto in Don Giovanni. Also in Lisbon, he has sung Le
nozze di Figaro (Figaro), La bohème (Marcello), L’italiana
in Algeri (Taddeo), La traviata (Germont), La
Cenerentola (Dandini and Alidoro), Carmen, Manon Lescaut,
Gianni Schicchi, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Fille du
régiment, Candide, and Der Schauspieldirektor.
Winner of the 21st “Toti dal Monte” International Competition, in 1989 he
sang Leporello in Don Giovanni in Treviso and Rovigo, a role he
later reprised at the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg and the Teatro Verdi in
Trieste. This was followed by Falstaff in Treviso under Peter
Maag; Rinaldo (Argante) in Lisbon in a production by Pier Luigi
Pizzi; and his debut at La Scala in Milan in Pergolesi’s Lo frate
'nnamorato (Don Pietro), conducted by Riccardo Muti and directed by
Roberto De Simone. In 1993 he debuted as Figaro at the Opéra de Paris and
in Falstaff at La Scala, where he later returned for La bohème
(Schaunard), Les contes d’Hoffmann (Schlemil), La Cenerentola
(Dandini), and Il turco in Italia (Poet).
José Fardilha has performed in major Italian and international opera
houses and at prestigious festivals. Among his most acclaimed appearances:
Otello (Montano) with Claudio Abbado in Berlin, Salzburg, and
Turin; Don Giovanni (Masetto) at the Salzburg Festival; and
international tours with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Zubin Mehta in
China (Turandot) and Japan (La traviata, Turandot).
Past season highlights include: Le jongleur de Notre Dame (Moine
Peintre) at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; La pietra del paragone
(Macrobio) at the Martina Franca Festival; La rondine (Rambaldo),
Le convenienze e inconvenienze teatrali (Mamm’Agata), and Jerusalem
(Count of Toulouse) at the Teatro Regio in Turin. He has appeared at the
New Israeli Opera in Don Pasquale (Malatesta), La Cenerentola,
L’italiana in Algeri, and Don Giovanni; at the Teatro de La
Maestranza in Seville in Lucia di Lammermoor; at the Opernhaus
Zürich in Le nozze di Figaro, L’elisir d’amore, Turandot,
and La Cenerentola; at the Wiener Staatsoper in L’elisir
d’amore; and at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Don Giovanni
(Leporello) and La Cenerentola (Dandini).
He has performed Marcello (La bohème) at the Staatsoper Unter den
Linden in Berlin and Schaunard at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze. He sang
Oedipus Rex with the Orchestra Sinfonica “Giuseppe Verdi” in Milan
conducted by Riccardo Chailly; and Roméo et Juliette (Capulet)
with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester conducted by Paolo Carignani. His
repertoire also includes Titta in Una cosa rara by Martín y Soler,
La Diana schernita, The Dream of Gerontius, Un segreto
di importanza by Rendine, Handel’s Semele at La Fenice in
Venice, and Paisiello’s La passione di Gesù Cristo (recorded with
RTSI Lugano).
More recently, he has performed Don Giovanni in Berlin,
Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Geneva, Dresden, Athens, Budapest, Edinburgh, and
New York; Don Pasquale (Malatesta) in Lisbon, Leipzig, and at the
Glyndebourne Festival; Il cappello di paglia di Firenze and Gianni
Schicchi in Lisbon; La bohème in Paris, Genoa, and Toulouse;
Manon Lescaut on tour in Italy, Lisbon, and Leipzig; Tosca
in Toulouse and Warsaw; La Cenerentola (Don Magnifico) in Zurich,
Lisbon, and Leipzig; L’italiana in Algeri (Taddeo) in Santiago de
Chile; Il barbiere di Siviglia in Madrid, Barcelona, Stuttgart,
Berlin (Staatsoper), London, Leipzig, Santiago de Chile, Copenhagen, and
Moscow; La damnation de Faust at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and in
Turin; Il viaggio a Reims (Trombonok) in Copenhagen and Moscow; Così
fan tutte (Don Alfonso) in Glyndebourne, Santiago de Chile, and on
tour with the Welsh National Opera; La rondine on tour in Korea
with the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
August 2025