Luca Pisaroni

In Busseto, he states that "as a kid, I used to go to the opera with my grandfather, and when I was 11, I already knew I wanted to be an opera singer." While not actually attending the musical academy run by the famous local tenor Carlo Bergonzi—he listened-in to his master classes after school— Pisaroni was influenced by the tenor:

Although born in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela, Pisaroni's family moved to Busseto in Italy – the home of Giuseppe Verdi — when he was four years old. There, his father owned a car-repair firm and his mother was a teacher; it was in that town where he noted "you feel Verdi's spirit all over the place!" and where his love of opera began.

Pisaroni appeared as Alidoro in La Cenerentola in Santiago, Chile, and, in 2012, as the title character in Maometto II at The Santa Fe Opera, which presented the world premiere of the new critical edition prepared by Philip Gossett from the 1820 edition.

In a different vein, he sang Caliban in the baroque pasticcio The Enchanted Island at the Met in 2011 and he returned there in April/May 2014 for performances in La Cenerentola. He returned to the Met in 2015 as Leporello in the company's production of Don Giovanni.

Pisaroni has since appeared in major opera houses and festivals across Europe and America. In 2002, he debuted at the Whitsun Baroque Festival with Haydn's Nelson Mass, and at the Salzburg Summer Festival as Masetto in Don Giovanni, where he has performed every summer since.

It was through his 2002 appearance in Salzburg that Pisaroni met both the American baritone Thomas Hampson (who was singing the Don) and his daughter Cate. Cate and Pisaroni were subsequently married and now make their home in Vienna.

After his musical training in Milan, Buenos Aires and New York, Pisaroni's professional operatic debut was in the title role of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro in Klagenfurt, in 2001. That same year, he was awarded the Eberhard-Wächter-Medal as "Newcomer of the Season" by the Vienna State Opera. Pisaroni sang Masetto at the 2002 Salzburg Festival in Mozart's Don Giovanni. These early appearances led to engagements throughout the world in the major Mozart operas.

Luca Pisaroni (born 1975) is an Italian operatic bass-baritone, known for his roles in Mozart's operas, but who has steadily expanded his repertoire into the Baroque as well as moving beyond into Rossini.