Roberto Abbondanza was born in Rome where he studied under soprano Isabel
Gentile. Interested in the lieder repertoire, he specialised at the
Mozarteum in Salzburg and at the Musikhochschule in Köln with Hartmut
Höll. A finalist at the "Toti Dal Monte" International Singing Competition
in Treviso and at the "Sperimentale" in Spoleto, he won the "Laboratorio
Lirico" Competition in Alessandria and the "L'Accademia Barocca"
Competition in Rome.
In the ancient and baroque repertoire, he collaborates regularly with
Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante: recording of Scarlatti's Caino,
awarded the Diapason d'or; first performance and recording for Virgin
of SS. Trinità by Scarlatti; staging of Scarlatti's works by
Massimo Puppieno; Il trionfo dell'onore (PREMIO ABBIATI 2001);
La Principessa fedele and Carlo Re d'Alemagna at the Teatro
Massimo in Palermo; performance of Vivaldi's La Senna festeggiante
at the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris; Handel's Lucio Silla at
the Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia; Cavalli's Dido and Le virtù de'
strali d'amore at La Fenice; Messiah in Madrid, Valencia and
Barcelona; Agrippina at La Fenice, at the Halle Festival and in
Krakow; Leo's oratorio S. Elena al Calvario at the Salzburg
Festival. With Rinaldo Alessandrini and Concerto Italiano she sang in:
Jommelli's L'isola disabitata with the Opera of Rome; Il
combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda recorded for Opus 111, winner
of the "Choc de l'annee 1999" and performed in Paris, Brussels, Madrid,
Copenhagen, Köln, Oslo, Tokyo, Kyoto, Singapore, at the Colon in Buenos
Aires and in S. Paolo of Brazil.
In Italy, he sang at La Scala, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the
Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia and the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, La
Fenice and the Biennale di Venezia, the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Teatro
San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Arena di Verona,
the Comunale in Bologna, the Carlo Felice in Genoa, the Petruzzelli in
Bari and with the Orchestra Nazionale della RAI.
Abroad, he has performed in Monte Carlo, Lyon, Nice, Nancy, Montpellier,
Bordeaux, Lisbon, Barcelona, Bilbao, Vienna, Manchester (BBC
Philharmonic), Budapest, New York, Washington, Toronto, Mexico City,
Istanbul, Taipei, Hong Kong, etc.
He has collaborated, among others, with conductors Myung Whun Chung,
Zubin Mehta, Gianandrea Noseda, Bruno Bartoletti, Zoltan Pesko, Alan
Curtis, Alessandro De Marchi, Gabriele Ferro, Gustav Kuhn, Charles
Mackerras, Andrea Molino, Paolo Olmi, Renato Palumbo, Marcello Panni,
Evelino Pidò, Jordi Savall, Michel Tabachnik, Arturo Tamayo, Jonathan
Webb, Ralph Weikert, Omer Wellber, Lothar Zagrosek, Alberto Zedda; with
directors such as Daniele Abbado, Pier'Alli, Roberto Andò, Giorgio
Barberio Corsetti, Robert Carsen, Giancarlo Cobelli, Hugo De Ana, Andrea
De Rosa, William Friedkin, Deni Krief, La Fura Dels Baus (Alex Ollè),
Davide Livermore, Valter Malosti, Mario Martone, Francesco Micheli,
Damiano Michieletto, Eimuntas Nekrosius, Pierluigi Pizzi, Jean-Pierre
Ponnelle, Franco Ripa Di Meana and Maurizio Scaparro.
Particularly interested in contemporary repertoire, Roberto Abbondanza
has sung works by S. Barber and L. Bernstein (Arias and Barcarollas),
L. Bacalov (Misa Tango), B. Britten (War Requiem, The Rape of
Lucrecia, Curlew River), C. Boccadoro (A qualcuno piace tango
and Robinson), S. Bussotti (The Rara Requiem and Tieste),
L. Dallapiccola (Il Prigioniero and Volo di notte at the
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino PREMIO ABBIATI 2004), H.W. Henze (Elegy for
young lovers PREMIO ABBIATI 2005), G. Ligeti (Le grand Macabre
at the Rome Opera), A. Schönberg, G. Sinopoli (Lou Salome at La
Fenice), I. Strawinsky (The Flood).
He has also performed numerous world premieres, including works and
compositions by C. Ambrosini (Il Killer di parole at La Fenice in
Venice), L. Bacalov (Estaba la madre at the Rome Opera, Un
Ingenioso Hidalgo in Mexico, Y Borges cuenta que... at the
Accademia Chigiana), G. Battistelli, M. D'Amico (Farinelli, la voce
perduta and Dannata Epicurea for the Teatro Massimo in
Palermo), J. Adams (The death of Klinghoffer), F. Del Corno (Orfeo
a fumetti and Non guardate al domani), M. Di Bari (Camera
oscura at the Venice Biennial), I. Fedele (Antigone, at the
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino PREMIO ABBIATI 2007), C. Galante (Combattimento
con l'angelo at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo and La Tempesta
at the Teatro Carignano in Turin), P. Glass (Songs of Milarepa at
the Sagra Musicale Umbra, Nella colonia penale and The Sound
of a voice at the Regio di Torino), E. Morricone (Cantata
Narrazione for the inauguration of the Basilica of St. Pio of
Pietralcina and Canto del Dio nascosto on texts by Karol Woytila),
L. Mosca (Signor Goldoni at the Fenice in Venice, Freud, I love
you at the Filarmonica Romana and L'Italia del destino at
the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), M. Panni (Il giudizio di Paride at
the Nice Opera), F. Pennisi (Tristan at the Comunale di Bologna),
F. Vacchi (Les oiseaux de passage at the Comunale di Bologna and Il
letto della storia at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino PREMIO ABBIATI
2003).
His most recent engagements include Silvia Colasanti's La Metamorfosi,
Prokofiev's L'amore delle tre melarance and Fabio Vacchi's Lo
specchio magico (première) at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino;
Henze's Elegy for young Lovers at La Fenice; Weinberger's Svanda
and Die Zauberflöte at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo; Tosca
at the Sferisterio in Macerata, Naples, Rome, Turin and Parma; Il
barbiere di Siviglia (Bartolo) in Bucharest, Pisa, Jesi, Lucca and
Cartagena; Die Zauberflöte, Turandot and Salome in
Turin; Les Contes d'Hoffmann in Naples; Il Ritorno di Ulisse in
Patria in Hamburg and the world premiere of Silvia Colasanti's L'ultimo
viaggio di Sindbad at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome.
Among his engagements for the 2025/26 season: Tosca in Modena and
Ferrara.
August 2025