Salvatore Fisichella

He performed Verdi's Requiem in Solingen with The MGV Wupperhorf Choir 1812, of which he is an honorary member.

On this occasion, Fisichella performed together with Rybarska, Baglioni, and Nesterenko and the concert was recorded on CD.

Fisichella was one of the performers at the Megaconcert held in Verona Arena (Concert of Tenors) to commemorate the centenary of Beniamino Gigli's birth, (Corriere della Sera 29/8/1990).

The same year saw him perform in Mario Monicelli's centenary production of La bohème at the 42nd Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago.

Fisichella performed three concerts of Verdi's Requiem conducted by Nello Santi at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona and the Teatro Sociale in Mantua.

Salvatore Fisichella (born 15 May 1943 in Catania, Sicily) is an Italian operatic tenor known for his roles in bel canto operas, especially those of Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini.

He has been recognized for the ease and vocal brilliance of his singing, and for having sung more of the leading roles in Bellini's operas than any other 20th century tenor.

Fisichella began singing as a child at family get-togethers.

He was interested in church music by the age of ten, and was schooled in music at the local seminary.

He sang solos in church services and during small-scale musical productions for special occasions and festivals.

After leaving the seminary, Fisichella began secondary education, first at the liceo scientifico, then moving to study as a surveyor.

After he had successfully completed his secondary studies as a qualified surveyor, Fisichella was invited to the wedding of a client for whom he had drawn up the plans of his new home, and Fisichella filled in for the tenor who had been scheduled to perform.

He studied for six years with renowned Catanese soprano Maria Gentile.

During this time he listened to Mario Del Monaco, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Franco Corelli, Carlo Bergonzi and Gianni Raimondi and began performing in small concerts.

After studying with Maria Gentile, Fisichella studied further in Rome with Ricci and Paoletti.

Fisichella won the XXIV Concorso Lirico Adriano Belli - the prestigious competition held in Spoleto, for his performances of the opera pieces I puritani, La favorite and Rigoletto.

Prior to touring all of Italy, Spoleto was also the venue for Fisichella's debut performance in the leading role of Massenet's Werther conducted by Ottavio Ziino.

Together with Katia Ricciarelli, Fisichella was invited to the closing concert of the Homage to Pietro Mascagni celebrations organised in Vizzini to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Mascagni's death.

The concert took place against the natural backdrop to Cavalleria Rusticana.

In 1971 Fisichella was engaged by the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma for two performances of Rigoletto and no less than seven performances of I puritani conducted by Armando La Rosa Parodi with Mirella Freni and Cornell MacNeil.

In the same year, he also performed at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo alongside Leyla Gencer in Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni.

A year later, he was called upon again by the Opera di Roma, this time to work with Mirella Freni and Ghiaurov in Gounoud's Faust conducted by Georges Prêtre.

In April 1973 he debuted at the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, working with Lidia Marimpietri in a production of La bohème conducted by Zoltan Pesko.

In 1973, Fisichella took part in Elisa e Claudio at the Festival Mercadantiano in Altamura.

In Pesaro in 1975, he sang in Rossini's Messa di Gloria, a score avoided by many of the bel canto elite.

In 1983, he performed in a production of La bohème with Katia Ricciarelli.

In 1984, he sang with Bruna Baglioni, Giorgio Zancanaro and Bonaldo Giaiotti at the State Theatre of Bern in Donizetti's La favorite conducted by Nello Santi.

On this occasion, the critic of Der Bund described Fisichella as "currently the best tenor singer of the Donizetti and Bellini repertoire".

It was around this time that Fisichella began to collaborate with Nello Santi, The Maestro who would encourage the tenor to take up the challenging roles of I puritani, La Gioconda, Guglielmo Tell, La nuit de mai, Rigoletto, Il Pirata, and the Messa di Requiem.

In the same year, Fisichella performed Rossini's Stabat Mater at the Konzerthaus in Vienna.

In 1985, he once again played Arturo in I puritani (this time singing alongside the soprano Edita Gruberova and baritone Giorgio Zancanaro, with the conductor Masini at the Bregenz Festival. Dortmund also saw him play Arturo. Again in 1985, Fisichella performed for the Radio Berlin concert to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Vincenzo Bellini's death.

In November 1986, Fisichella performed the role of Arturo in I puritani at his Metropolitan Opera debut in New York, together with the soprano Joan Sutherland.

The performance created a stir among the New York press.

Fisichella's vocal range, flexibility and incisive phrasing have led the singer to branch out beyond the bel canto repertoire into verismo, as, for example, in his 1988 performance of La Gioconda at the inauguration of the Teatro Regio di Torino.

He performed the role of Mario Cavaradossi in Tosca at the XXXVI Puccini Festival in the summer of 1990.

He was seen playing the role of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at La Scala in Milan in May 1992.

In 1995, Fisichella performed in the production of Donizetti's La favorite broadcast live on Italian National Radio.

He performed together with Leo Nucci in Rigoletto at the Zurich Opera House, as conducted by Nello Santi.

The production was later taken to the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

In 1996, Fisichella returned to Tokyo for a production of La traviata with June Anderson.