Juan Diego Flórez (tenor)
Born in Lima, Peru, Juan Diego Flórez undertook music studies both in his native Lima and at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. In 1996 he made his official operatic debut in Matilde di Shabran at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, where his expressive voice and astonishing agility immediately won him critical accolades.
Since then, Flórez has become the Rossini tenor of choice in major international theaters. Flórez has enjoyed great success in theatres such as La Scala of Milan (Gluck’s Armide, Falstaff, Nino Rota’s Il cappello di paglia di Firenze, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Nina, Pazza per amore, La sonnambula, L’Italiana in Algeri, La Cenerentola, La Fille du régiment ), Comunale of Florence (Le Comte Ory, Falstaff ), Carlo Felice in Genoa (La Cenerentola, Le Comte Ory, La donna del lago, La Fille du régiment ), Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro (Matilde di Shabran, Il Signor Bruschino, Petite Messe Solennelle, La Cenerentola, Il viaggio a Reims, La donna del lago, Stabat Mater, Le Comte Ory, Il barbiere di Siviglia), Regio of Turin (La sonnambula, Stabat Mater, Maria Stuarda, L’elisir d’amore), Accademy of Santa Cecilia in Rome (Stabat Mater and Cantata, both by Rossini, Recital ), Comunale of Bologna (Il viaggio a Reims, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Fille du régiment, Le Comte Ory ), Filarmonico of Verona (L’Italiana in Algeri, Il barbiere di Siviglia), Opera of Rome (Il barbiere di Siviglia, L’Italiana in Algeri ), San Carlo of Naples (Concert). Out of Italy: Metropolitan Opera House of New York (Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola, L’Italiana in Algeri, Don Pasquale), Staatsoper of Vienna (Il barbiere di Siviglia, L’Italiana in Algeri, Gianni Schicchi, La sonnambula, La Fille du régiment), Maestranza of Seville (Donizetti’s Alahor in Granata), Salzburg Festival (La donna del lago), San Francisco Symphony (Stabat Mater ), San Francisco Opera (La Cenerentola), Covent Garden in London (Donizetti’s La fille du régiment, Elisabetta, Rossini’s Otello, La Cenerentola, La sonnambula, Don Pasquale, La Fille du régiment ), Konzerthaus in Vienna (Semiramide), Festival Radio France Montpellier (La donna del lago), Musikverein of Vienna (Stabat Mater ), Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper (L’Italiana in Algeri ) Gran Teatre del Liceu of Barcelona (Stabat Mater, Maria Stuarda), Paris Opéra (L’Italiana in Algeri, La Cenerentola), Châtelet in Paris (Falstaff ), Opernhaus in Zurich (La Cenerentola, Don Pasquale), Lyric Opera of Chicago (La Cenerentola), Deutsche Oper Berlin (Concert ).
In early 2007 Juan Diego Flórez encored the aria “Ah, mes amis” during a performance of La Fille du régiment at La Scala, Milan, breaking a 70-year-old taboo and attracting worldwide press attention. He has sung under Riccardo Muti, James Levine, Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Whun Chung, John Eliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Neville Marriner, Antonio Pappano, Roberto Abbado, Carlo Rizzi, Christophe Rousset, Daniel Oren, Ivor Bolton, Ralf Weikert, Jesús López-Cobos and Alberto Zedda.
Future engagements for Flórez through 2015 are scheduled of La Scala for Milan, the Metropolitan Opera House of New York, Covent Garden in London, Staatsoper of Vienna, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Los Angeles, Teatro Real of Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu of Barcelona, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Paris Opéra, San Francisco Opera, Teatro Comunale of Bologna, Japan. Since March 2001 he has been an exclusive artist for Decca. His third album, Great Tenor Arias, with Carlo Rizzi and the OSM was released internationally in Autumn 2004. His other critically acclaimed Decca albums are Bel Canto and Rossini Arias. In 2005 Decca released on DVD Il barbiere di Siviglia in the visually stunning production from the Teatro Real in Madrid, and 2006 saw the release of the live recording from the 2004 Pesaro Rossini Festival production of Matilde di Shabran on CD, and on DVD Donizetti’s La Fille du régiment, filmed at the Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa. Juan Diego’s fourth album was Sentimiento latino, irresistible popular songs from his native South America and Spain, and a compilation album, The Tenor, was released in the United Kingdom in 2007. In 2008 Juan Diego Flórez will release his new album Bel Canto Spectacular and tour the programme throughout Europe from July onwards.
He received the Abbiati Prize conferred by Italian music critics, the Rossini d’Oro in Pesaro, the Aureliano Pertile Prize, the Francesco Tamagno Prize, L’Opera Award Prize, the Bellini Prize. His recordings have been awarded many important prizes, including the Choc du Monde de la Musique, the Echo Klassik Preis and the Cannes Classical Award.
