Alessandro Corbelli

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Alessandro Corbelli (born 1952) is an Italian opera singer. A preeminent bass-baritone specializing in Mozart and Rossini, Corbelli has sung in many major opera houses around the world and won admiration for his fine, patrician singing style and his sharp characterizations, especially in comic roles. Corbelli was born in Turin, Italy in 1952 and studied with Giuseppe Valdengo and Claude Thiolas. He made his debut in 1973 (at the age of twenty-one) in the northern Italian city of Aosta as Monterone in Verdi's Rigoletto. Subsequently he has appeared at La Scala in Milan (singing in all three of the Mozart/Da Ponte operas under conductor Riccardo Muti), and also in such cities as Turin, Verona, Bologna, Florence, and Naples, as well as major opera houses in Switzerland, France, Austria, Germany, England, Spain, Israel, and North and South America. He has sung and/or recorded such buffo roles as Dr. Bartolo in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Taddeo in Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri, Don Geronio in Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia, Dr. Dulcamara in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, and the title role of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. He has frequently showed his versatility by singing two roles in the same opera (though not in the same performance, of course): Figaro and the Count in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Leporello and the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Guglielmo and Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Così fan Tutte, and Dandini and Don Magnifico in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, among others.

Perhaps the role for which Corbelli is best known is that of Dandini, the valet masquerading as a prince in La Cenerentola. He recorded this role on the Decca label with conductor Riccardo Chailly in a cast that included Cecilia Bartoli; this production later traveled to the Houston Grand Opera and was televised in 1995. Dandini was also the role in which Corbelli debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1997, in a performance that was also televised. Recently he appeared in the Met production of Il Trittico (Puccini’s “triptych” of one-act operas) playing the title role in Gianni Schicchi; the performance was one of six of that Met season transmitted to movie theaters around the world in 2007.

Although primarily associated with Italian-language comic roles (in particular, Mozart and the bel canto repertoire), Corbelli’s résumé shows his wide-ranging interests and versatility, including French and German roles (the Marquis in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites, Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte), baroque opera (Ottone in Monteverdi’s Orfeo) and a twentieth-century English-language opera (Nick Shadow in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress). He has also sung roles in later Italian comic operas, for instance the title roles in Verdi’s Falstaff and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. He is active in the concert hall as well, performing as a soloist in oratorios and vocal symphonies.

Corbelli’s voice started out as a baritone but in recent years has deepened to a rich bass-baritone. His voice is not large, but the dark coloring of his voice gives it power and heft. He possesses a tight vibrato and great flexibility in coloratura and patter. His diction is always razor-sharp and he points up the text brilliantly, particularly in recitatives. His stage presence is commanding (despite his short stature), and he excels in comic timing and subtle characterization.

On 26 November 2007, while in London rehearsing for La Cenerentola, he stepped in at the last minute for a production of L'elisir d'amore, singing the role of Belcore for the second half of the opera from the side of the stage while Ludovic Tézier, who had sung the first half with a throat infection, acted the role.