Hailed by critics for his stage presence and glorious basso cantabile voice, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo has made an outstanding name for himself as Mozart’s Figaro, Count Almaviva, Leporello, and Don Giovanni. In recent years he has added a number of major Verdi roles to his repertoire, most notably Attila, Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra) and Banco (Macbeth) as well as Méphistophélès in Gounod’s Faust and in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust.
In 2023, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo can be seen at the Opéra Bastille in Paris as Escamillo in Calixto Bieito’s production of Carmen. The role of Escamillo also brings him to Théâtre Antique in Orange, where he performs together with the Orchestre national Avignon-Provence. At the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo appears as Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor. Later in the year the bass returns to Milan to sing Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro.
His most recent engagements include Count Almaviva at the Berlin State Opera, Méphistophélès (Faust) and Philippe II (Don Carlos) in Liège, Alvise (La Gioconda) at the Liceu in Barcelona, Don Giovanni at the Dresden Semperoper, Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte) and Alidoro (La Cenerentola) for the Los Angeles Opera, Escamillo at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Gounod’s Méphistophélès, and Berlioz’s Méphistophélès in a concert performance at the Philharmonie de Paris.
Ildebrando D’Arcangelo is a frequent guest at the world’s foremost opera houses, including the Vienna and Berlin State Operas, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Paris Opéra, La Scala, Milan, the Teatro Real in Madrid, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He made his Salzburg Festival debut in 1996 as Mozart’s Figaro, subsequently returning as Leporello and Don Giovanni. Among the conductors with whom he has worked are Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Myung-Whun Chung, John Eliot Gardiner, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Tugan Sokhiev and Antonio Pappano. Ildebrando D’Arcangelo was a prizewinner at the International Toti Dal Monte Singing Competition in Treviso in 1989 and again in 1991.
In addition to the aforementioned composers, his extensive repertoire also encompasses works by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Handel, Bizet, Boito and Stravinsky. Some of his finest performances have been released on DVD by labels that include Deutsche Grammophon, Decca and Virgin Records.
© CSAM, January 2023