RETURN

Matteo Manuguerra

Soloist, Baritone
He was born in Tunisia on 5/10/1924. He was established as a Verdi singer. He studied voice in Buenos Aires under Umberto Landi-Maurini (1959). He premiered as a tenor in Mozart’s Requiem. In 1961 he settled in France. He premiered as a baritone in the role of Valentino [Faust] at the Lyon Opera, where he remained for three years. He first performed at the Paris Opera as Rigoletto and then Escamillo [Carmen], Giorgio Germont [La Traviata] and Enrico [Lucia di Lammermoor], while he regularly collaborated with Radio France. He premiered in the USA (Seattle, 1968) as Carlo Gérard [Andrea Chénier] to then appear at the Metropolitan Opera of New York as Enrico (1971), Barnaba [La Gioconda], Don Carlo di Vargas [The Power of Fate/La forza del destino], Amonasro [Aida], and Alfio [Cavalleria rusticana]. He performed at the Vienna State Opera (1968), the San Francisco Opera, the Operas of Dallas, Chicago (1977) and Houston (1983) in the USA, the Operas of Nice (1974) and Marseille (1979), the Royal Opera of London (1991), as well as in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Santiago, the Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Naples, and elsewhere. His repertoire included main and supporting baritone roles from the operas Pagliacci, Luisa Miller, Il trovatore, A Masked Ball [Un ballo in maschera], L'Africaine, Tosca and more. He has recorded works by Verdi, Puccini, Massenet, Bellini (EMI, DECCA/LONDON, PHILLIPS, DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON) under the baton of Ricardo Muti, Michel Plasson, James Levine and Mstislav Rostropovich. He passed away in Montpellier on 25/7/1998. At the Greek National Opera he performed the title roles in Rigoletto (1968/69) and Nabucco (Athens Festival, Odeon of Herodes Atticus, 1991/92).