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 and Lucca; Die Zauberflöte, Turandot
and Salome in Turin; Les Contes d'Hoffmann in Naples; Il
Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria in Hamburg.
Future engagements include the world premiere of Silvia
Colasanti's L'ultimo viaggio di Sindbad at the Teatro dell'Opera
in Rome.
August 2024