Hailed by the critics as a singer with a noble voice and captivating musicality and renowned for his mastery of both the Italian bel canto and Mozart repertoires, Mirco Palazzi made his debut at the Wexford Opera Festival in 2001.
Since then, he has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious theaters and concert halls, including La Scala, Royal Opera House, Liceu Barcelona, Teatro Real Madrid, Teatro Regio Torino, La Fenice, Santa Cecilia and Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Köln Philharmonie, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Barbican Centre, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Dallas Opera, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow.
He has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Roberto Abbado, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Giovanni Antonini, Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Whun Chung, Ottavio Dantone, Diego Fasolis, Valery Gergiev, Christopher Hogwood, Daniel Oren, Antonio Pappano, Kent Nagano, Gianandrea Noseda and Alberto Zedda, and directors including Luca Ronconi, Pier Luigi Pizzi, David Alden, Robert Carsen, Graham Vick and Hugo de Ana.
Over the course of his extensive career, he has performed a wide range of roles and gained recognition as a Rossini specialist with parts such as Assur in Semiramide (Royal Opera House, BBC Proms, Marseille, Amsterdam, Bordeaux), the title role in Maometto II (Rome Opera, Rossini in Wildbad Opera Festival), Lord Sidney in Il Viaggio a Reims (Rome Santa Cecilia, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), Il Podestà in La Gazza ladra (Lisbon, Verona) and Le Gouverneur in Le Comte Ory (Chicago).
A distinguished interpreter of Bellini and Donizetti, Mirco Palazzi has notably appeared as Il Conte Rodolfo in La Sonnambula (Budapest, Bilbao, Beijing, Parma, Ravenna), Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor (Venice, Genoa, Barcelona, Washington, London, Seville), Il Duca Alfonso in Lucrezia Borgia (Tenerife, Liège, Bologna) and Enrico VIII in Anna Bolena (Marseille, Verona).
He has also won considerable acclaim for his portrayals of Mozart’s Figaro and Leporello (Turin, Nice, Marseille, Dallas…).
In the Baroque repertoire, Mirco Palazzi has been heard as Seneca in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Liceu Barcelona), Caronte and Plutone in L’Orfeo (Zurich, Ravenna, Ferrara), Plutone in Cavalli’s La Rosinda (Potsdam Festival), Creonte in Cesti’s L’Orontea (Teatro alla Scala), Achilla in Handel’s Giulio Cesare (Genoa, Bologna), Garibaldo in Rodelinda (Theater an der Wien, Rome Santa Cecilia) and Achisch in Rameau’s Samson (Paris Opéra Comique).
He has recorded for Decca, Naxos, Bongiovanni, Opera Rara, Arthaus, Unitel, Opus Arte, Urania Records and Warner. His recording of Semiramide (Assur) for Opera Rara won the 2019 International Opera Award, the 2019 International Classical Music Award and the 2019 Opus Klassik Award for “Opera Recording of the Year”.
Mirco graduated with the highest honors from the Conservatorio Statale di Musica Gioachino Rossini in Pesaro under the guidance of Robleto Merolla. While still a student, in 2001, he won the First Prize at the International Competition for Young Opera Singers “Riccardo Zandonai” in Riva del Garda, the First Prize at the International Singing Competition “Gianfranco Masini” in Reggio Emilia and the Second Prize at the International “Ferruccio Tagliavini” Singing Competition in Deutschlandsberg. Throughout his career, he has been perfecting his skills under the guidance of bass Bonaldo Giaiotti.
Recent and future engagements include Alfonso d’Este in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and a return to the role of Assur in Rossini’s Semiramide at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo.
