Marco Di Sapia – baritone

Marco Di Sapia opened his 2011-12 season as Danilo in the revival of Marco Arturo Marelli’s acclaimed new production of Die lustige Witwe at the Volksoper Wien, where he also appears as Falke in Die Fledermaus. In November he returned to France with the role of Belcore for Opéra de Limoges and in May 2012 he will join the Volksoper’s annual tour in Japan as Danilo. Upcoming Engagements will include Danilo and Papageno at the Volksoper Wien, and he will return to the Opéra National de Montpellier in the French premieres of Jetzt by Mathis Nitschke and What next? by Elliott Carter.

In recent years Marco Di Sapia has established himself in European theatres in a broad variety of repertoire. In 2010-11 he sang in the world premiere of Cherubini’s “lost” opera Koukourgi at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt (Austria), as well as Danilo and Falke at the Volksoper Wien, Don Profondo in Rossini’s  Il viaggio a Reims at the Staatstheater Nürnberg, Belcore at the Opéra Théâtre de St.Etienne and Opéra de Rouen, and Cavaliere Belfiore in Verdi’s Un giorno di regno at the Teatro Poliziano.

His ongoing collaboration with the Volksoper Wien began in the 2009-10 season with his debut as Lord Cookburn in Auber’s Fra Diavolo. He has also appeared on major opera stages in France, including Reims, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, Nizza and Nancy in the role of Don Profundo in Il viaggio a Reims, a production of the Centre Français de Promotion Lyrique. Other important debuts in France include Massenet’s Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame (alongside Roberto Alagna) at the Opéra National de Montpellier (2007), where he also sang the role of L’étranger in the world premiere of Affaire Étrangère and Jupiter in Offenbach’s Orphée aux Enfers. He has also sung with Opéra de Lyon, Opéra Théâtre de St.Etienne and Opéra de Toulon.

Marco Di Sapia has enjoyed successes in several Mozart roles, including Papageno, Count Almaviva, Guglielmo and both Don Giovanni and Leporello, which he sang at the National State Opera Ulan Bator (Mongolia). He also performed Dottore Malatesta in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale at the Schlosstheater Schönbrunn, Figaro in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Klassikfestival Schloss Kirchstetten (Austria), all Four Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the City Opera Stettin (Poland), Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier at the State Opera Gdansk (Poland), Plistene in Antonio Salieri’s La grotta di Trofonio at the Wiener Konzerthaus, Alidoro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the Bucharest National Opera, Mirko in the world premiere of Eine Marathon-Familie at the Bregenzer Festspiele, Danilo at the Operettensommer Kufstein as well as Pappacoda in J. Strauss Jr.’s Eine Nacht in Venedig and Boris in Shostakovich’ only operetta Moskva, Cheremushki both at the Wiener Kammeroper.

Marco Di Sapia started his professional career in 2000 with his debut in Vienna with the Neue Oper Wien, taking on the role of Sid in Britten’s Albert Herring, marking the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with this contemporary production company. The Genoa born baritone grew up in Rome, where he initially trained as an actor, before dedicating himself to singing. He moved to Vienna in 1997 to major in solo singing, and graduated with honors from the Conservatory in 2005.  He received an additional diploma in opera, Lieder and oratorio singing at Vienna’s University for Music and Performing Arts. He has won a multitude of awards, including a stipend at the Concours International de Musique de Chambre de Lyon, which resulted in his engagement by the Centre National d’Insertion Professionnelle des Artistes Lyriques (CNIPAL) in Marseille for the 2006-07 season.