Born in Florence, Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani studied violin as a child before turning resolutely to voice at age 19, when he entered the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in his native town.
One of the most celebrated Mozartian of his generation, Anicio has been heard in the roles of Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) at the Opéra de Lausanne, La Fenice and Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège; Idamante (Idomeneo) at the Teatro Real in Madrid with Ivor Bolton and Arbace in the same opera under Rubén Dubrovsky at Oper Köln. He starred as Ferrando (Così fan tutte) for La Fenice under Antonello Manacorda, in Drottningholm, Versailles and Bucharest alongside Mark Minkowski, in Lille with Emmanuelle Haïm and for the Palau de les Arts in Valencia under Stefano Montanari.
He sang in Gluck’s Alceste conducted by René Jacobs for the Ruhrtriennale, and in Le Cinesi by the same composer under the baton of Fabio Biondi in Valencia.
Also recognized for his work in the baroque repertoire, Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani performed in Monteverdi’s Orfeo in a new Robert Carsen production in Lausanne and in Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Ottavio Dantone and throughout Europe (Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Bozar Bruxelles…) alongside René Jacobs. He took on the title role in Handel’s Giove in Argo at the Theater an der Wien and joined forces with Emmanuelle Haïm for Handel’s Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at both the Berlin Philharmonie and the Baden-Baden Festival. Ancio also appeared as Oronte in Alcina conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón in Geneva, returning to the role in Monte-Carlo, Toulouse and Versailles with the complicity of Ottavio Dantone.
He headlined Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Marc Minkowski on a European tour and Rameau’s Les Indes galantes under Leonardo García Alarcón at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
In the Bel Canto repertoire, Anicio could be heard in the roles of Conte Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at La Fenice, Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia in a new Tobias Kratzer production at the Theater St. Gallen, Narciso in Il Turco in Italia in a new Giacomo Sagripanti/Laurent Pelly production at the Teatro Real in Madrid, and Ernesto in Laurent Pelly’s Don Pasquale staging at both La Monnaie and the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville.
Other past operatic engagements include Mercadante’s I due Figaro (Torribio) under Riccardo Muti at the Madrid Teatro Real, Buenos Aires Teatro Colón, Salzburg Festival and Ravenna Festival; Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots (De Tavannes) under Marc Minkowski at the Grand Théâtre de Genève; Luigi Cherubini’s Chant sur la mort de Joseph Haydn led by Riccardo Muti for the Salzburg Festival; the world premiere of Fabio Vacchi’s Jeanne Dark (Gilles de Rais) at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; La Traviata (Alfredo) at the Neue Oper Freiburg; Auber’s Manon Lescaut (Gervais) under Guillaume Tourniaire at the Teatro Regio di Torino.
Anicio has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon (Haendel’s Ezio), Naïve (Vivaldi’s Serenata a tre), Naxos (Morlacchi’s Tebaldo e Isolina), Virgin Classics (Haendel’s Berenice), Erato (Handel’s Giove in Argo and Ariodante), Hyperion (Cesti’s Disgrazie d’Amore), Glossa (Monteverdi’s Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and Caldara’s Morte e sepoltura di Cristo) and Dynamic (Hasse’s Artaserse and Monteverdi’s Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria).
Recent and forthcoming engagements include I Grotteschi, a new twofold performance distilled from the Monteverdi trilogy conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón and directed by Rafael R. Villalobos for La Monnaie and Clistene in a new Giulio Prandi/Fabio Ceresa production of Pergolesi’s L’Olimpiade at the Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi.
