Giovanni Sala

The Italian tenor Giovanni Sala was born in Lecco, studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Como with Fiorenza Cedolins and went on to become a member of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he worked with Luciana D’Intino and Marcelo Álvarez. His first professional stage appearances were at the Teatro Sociale in Como as Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) in a production by Graham Vick and as Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore). His numerous competition successes include second prize in the 2017 Queen Sonja Singing Competition in Oslo.

In the 2022/23 season Giovanni Sala made his debut at the Teatro Regio in Turin in a new production of Don Giovanni under Riccardo Muti and returned to the Teatro Regio as Tamino (Die Zauberflöte). He also appeared as Alfredo (La traviata) and Don Ottavio at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as Alfredo at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome and as Cassio in a concert performance of Otello under Michele Mariotti at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. His concert appearances have included Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Muti, Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli under Pablo Heras-Casado at La Scala, Milan, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Human Rights Orchestra at the KKL in Lucerne, a concert with Sonya Yoncheva at the Baden-Baden-Festspielhaus and Mozart’s Requiem at the L’Offrande Musicale Festival in Toulouse.

In 2016 Giovanni Sala made his debut at the Ravenna Festival as Fenton (Falstaff) under Riccardo Muti, under whom he went on to give recitals in Bologna and Pavia and to sing in Paisiello’s Missa defunctorum in Florence and Pavia. His collaboration with Muti continued in 2021 when he performed in Schubert’s Mass in G major in Yerevan as part of Muti’s project ‘Le vie dell’Amicizia’ (The Roads of Friendship). In February 2022 he sang Nicias in a new production of Massenet’s Thaïs at La Scala, Milan, directed by Olivier Py and conducted by Lorenzo Viotti.

Following his Salzburg Festival debut in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, during the 2023/24 season Giovanni Sala will appear as Arvino (I Lombardi alla prima crociata) at the Teatro Regio in Parma, as Don Ottavio at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, as Rodolfo (La bohème) at the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, as Rinuccio and Gonzalve in a new double-bill production of Gianni Schicchi and L’Heure espagnole under Michele Mariotti at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, and as Prunier (La rondine) under Riccardo Chailly in a production by Irina Brook at La Scala.