Umberto Chiummo graduated at the Music Conservatory in Pescara and attended master classes with Ettore Campogalliani and Claudio Desderi. After winning the "A. Belli" Competition in Spoleto in 1986, he made his debut in Le Nozze di Figaro staged by Gigi Proietti and in Cimarosa's Il mercato di Malmantile. His repertory ranges from Baroque to Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Bizet and Gounod. He has worked with conductors Ivor Bolton, Bruno Campanella, William Christie, Myung-Whun Chung, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Charles Mackerras, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti and Wolfgang Sawallisch and directors David Alden, Jean-Luc Bondy, Robert Carsen, Peter Hall, David McVicar, Pier Luigi Pizzi and Graham Vick.
He is a returning guest at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, where he performed Rodelinda (Garibaldo); Ariodante (King of Scotland); La Calisto (Giove); Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Don Basilio); Lucia di Lammermoor (Raimondo); and Le Nozze di Figaro (Figaro) conducted by Zubin Mehta, role that he also interpreted at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan under the baton of Riccardo Muti. Among his numerous successful appearances: Don Giovanni at the Frankfurt Oper and at the Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie in Brussels; Lucia di Lammermoor at the Opernhaus Zurich and in Tel Aviv; I Capuleti e I Montecchi with Bruno Campanella at the Chicago Lyric Opera; Il Matrimonio Segreto (Il Conte Robinson) at the Staatsoper Berlin; La Bohème (Colline) in Montpellier; Il Viaggio a Reims (Lord Sydney) in La Coruña; Luisa Miller (Wurm) in Frankfurt; Il Turco in Italia in Marseille; Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria with Ottavio Dantone in Ravenna; Rodelinda at the San Francisco Opera and at the Glyndebourne Festival; Le Nozze di Figaro (Bartolo) in Genoa and Stuttgart; the première of La Tempesta, music by Henry Purcell/Carlo Galante, in Turin (2006); Ariodante and La Clemenza di Tito (Publio) at the Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona; Carmen (Escamillo) in Jesi; L'Italiana in Algeri (Mustafà) in Bologna and Ferrara; La Cenerentola (Alidoro) at the Glyndebourne Festival; and Tancredi (Orbazzano) at the Teatro Real in Madrid; Der Freischütz (Kilian) under the baton of Wolfgang Sawallisch in Florence; Linda di Chamounix (Prefetto) with Roberto Abbado, La Clemenza di Tito (Publio) with Charles Mackerras, production that received an "Olivier Award" in 1998, and Roméo et Juliette with Michel Plasson at the Opéra Comique de Paris; Ricciardo e Zoraide (Ircano) at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro; Oedipus Rex (Créon) in Trieste and Reutlingen. He also starred in several concerts: Mozart's Requiem, Krönungsmesse and Mass in C minor KV427 (performed at the Salzburg Festspiele in 2003 under the baton of Ivor Bolton); Beethoven's Mass in C Op.86; Rossini's Stabat Mater and Petite Messe Solennelle; and Handel's Messiah performed in Salzburg (2007).
Mr. Chiummo’s recent collaborations include: Cavalli's La Calisto at the Royal Opera House in London; Cavalli's L'Ercole Amante with Ivor Bolton at Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam; Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria (Antinoo) in Madrid and in Paris with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie; Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Kungliga Operan in Stockholm; Agrippina at the Theater an der Wien and the MiTo Festival in Milan with Il Complesso Barocco and Alan Curtis; Giulio Cesare (Achilla) in Paris; Don Giovanni (Leporello) in Messina; Le Nozze di Figaro (Bartolo) and Petite Messe Solennelle in Florence; Le nozze di Figaro al Teatro La Fenice di Venezia; La Donna del Lago in Moscow; Deidamìa (Lycomede) in Amsterdam; La Cenerentola (Don Magnifico) in Parma and at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Agrippina (Claudio) at the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp, in Baroque concert in Cartagena and Le Nozze di Figaro in Venice and Munich; La Cenerentola in Strasbourg, Glasgow and on tour in Mulhouse and Colmar and then in Treviso and Ferrara; Messa in C minor at the Teatro Regio in Turin; Die Schöpfung in Belfast; Mozart's Requiem in Naples; Beethoven's Mass in C major in Florence; Così fan tutte in Antwerp; L'Occasione fa il ladro in Paris; I Capuleti and Montecchi in Stavanger under Fabio Biondi; Le Nozze di Figaro (Bartolo) in Amsterdam; Così fan tutte (Don Alfonso) in Oviedo under Corrado Rovaris and Rodelinda in Madrid; Gianni Schicchi (Betto di Signa) in Amsterdam.
Among his recordings: Don Giovanni (Masetto and Commendatore) conducted by Charles Mackerras for Telarc; I Capuleti e i Montecchi with Roberto Abbado for BMG; Rodelinda with William Christie; Serse (Ariodate) and a second version of Rodelinda both under the baton of Ivor Bolton for Farao Classics; and Massenet's Werther conducted by Vladimir Jurowski for BMG. He has also recorded for Ricordi, Bongiovanni and RAI.
2018