Francesco Meli

Tenor Francesco Meli has appeared in top houses around Italy, Western Europe, and the U.S. His specialties lie squarely in the tradition of Italian Romantic opera. Meli was born in Genoa, Italy, on May 15, 1980. His first vocal lessons came relatively late, at age 17, at the Niccolò Paganini Conservatory in Genoa. Meli stayed on at the school, studying with Norma Palacios and earning a degree there. He went on for further studies with mezzo-soprano Franca Mattiucci and tenor Vittorio Terranova. Meli made his professional debut in 2002 at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, singing a trio of parts: one in Verdi's Macbeth, one in Rossini's Petite messe solennelle, and one in Puccini's Messa di Gloria. All three performances were broadcast on Italy's RAI national network. Soon after that, he made his debut at Milan's La Scala opera house under conductor Riccardo Muti in Poulenc's Les Dialogues des Carmelites. He returned to La Scala in 2004 as Nemorino in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, a role that he has sung at many Italian houses. Meli made his recording debut in 2007 on the Virgin Classics label, appearing opposite soprano Natalie Dessay in a performance of Bellini's La sonnambula. Meli has gone on to appear at many major houses. The year 2005 saw him make debuts at the Teatro Carlo Fenice in Genoa (as Don Ottavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni) and the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris (as Don Giovanni himself). Meli made the first of his several appearances at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 2010. Verdi's operas have made up a substantial part of his repertory, and during the 2012-2013 season, he appeared in Simon Boccanegra, I due Foscari, Ernani, and Nabucco at the Rome Opera House and in Macbeth at the Lyric Opera in Chicago under Muti's baton. Meli has occasionally sung concert works, appearing at the Musikverein in Vienna in Verdi's Requiem, once again with Muti as conductor. Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca has been another specialty; he sang that role opposite Anna Netrebko's Tosca and also on tour in Japan in 2021. Meli has appeared on recordings on the Opus Arte, Dynamic, and Naxos labels; on Naxos, he was heard on a 2022 live recording with the Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Verdi's Ernani that was issued in 2024.
© James Manheim /TiVo