Awarded of the Cross of Saint George, Francesco Meli is one of the world’s most charming and sought-after tenors.
He made his debut at a very young age in Macbeth, Petite Messe Solennelle and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria at the Festival dei due Mondi di Spoleto, beginning an amazing career in the Belcanto and Rossini repertoire. He now has a twenty-two-year career behind him, twenty years of collaboration with the Teatro alla Scala where he made his debut at only 23 years of age in Les Dialogues des Carmelites conducted by Maestro Riccardo Muti, and returned there in the following years for Otello, Idomeneo, Don Giovanni, Maria Stuarda, Der Rosenkavalier, Carmen, Giovanna d’Arco, I due Foscari, Don Carlo, La traviata, Ernani, Tosca, Il Trovatore, Aida, L’elisir d’amore, Macbeth, Un ballo in maschera and Don Carlo.
Francesco Meli has over fifty roles in the repertoire sung in the most important Italian, European and international theatres and working with the world’s leading conductors, including Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Whun Chung, Daniele Gatti, Fabio Luisi, Riccardo Muti, Christian Thielemann, Gianandrea Noseda, Antonio Pappano, Riccardo Frizza, Daniele Rustioni, Yuri Temirkanov.
He is featured on numerous DVDs published by Deutsche Grammophon, Unitel and Opus Arte.
In the 2023 season, he took part in three productions of the Teatro del Maggio (Don Carlo, La traviata and Carmen), before returning to the Royal Opera House to sing again as Radamès in Aida and in Tokyo on tour with Traviata, a role he also sings at the Arena di Verona Festival.
After the opening of the 202–24 Season at La Scala in Don Carlo, Francesco Meli sang Un ballo in maschera at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Il corsaro at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, L’elisir d’amore at the Regio in Parma, Simon Boccanegra at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and made his debut in Attila in Tokyo with Maestro Muti.
Among his recent and future engagements: the debut of Otello, season opening title of La Fenice, Messa da Requiem at Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under Daniele Gatti, Tosca at Teatro alla Scala, at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and at Festival Pucciano at Torre del Lago, Nabucco and Carmen at Arena di Verona, I lombardi alla prima crociata at Teatro Real de Madrid and Trilogia Verdiana at Teatro Municipale in Piacenza, the debut in Medea in Naples, Simon Boccanegra in Venice and Nabucco at La Scala.
2025
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSO by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
