Italian baritone Vito Priante was born in Naples, where he studied German and French literature before making his professional stage debut as Uberto in Pergolesi’s La serva padrone in Florence in 2002. Since then he has appeared in leading opera houses and concert halls throughout Europe and North America as well as performing at international festivals.
Engagements have taken him to La Scala, Milan, the Bavarian and Vienna State Operas, the Dresden Semperoper, the Rome Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Los Angeles Opera, the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the BBC Proms. Vito Priante made his Salzburg Festival debut in 2007 as Idreno in Haydn’s Armida. Among his other roles are Count Almaviva and Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Don Giovanni and Leporello (Don Giovanni), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Dandini (La Cenerentola), the Duke of Nottingham (Roberto Devereux), Prosdocimo (Il turco in Italia), Belcore (L’elisir d’amore), Alphonse XI (La Favorite), Cavaliere di Belfiore (Un giorno di regno), Seid (Il corsaro), the Four Villains (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) and Escamillo (Carmen).
As a concert artist Vito Priante is likewise in great demand. Highlights of his career to date have been Jommelli’s Betulia liberata under Riccardo Muti and Haydn’s Stabat Mater under Ivor Bolton at the Salzburg Festival, Handel’s Messiah under Fabio Biondi, the Requiems of Mozart and Fauré with the Orchestra Nazionale dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia under Antonio Pappano, Bach’s St Matthew Passion in the Vienna Musikverein and Bach’s St John Passion at the Theater an der Wien.
Vito Priante’s CD recordings include Vivaldi’s Motezuma, Donizetti’s Pietro il Grande and a series of Handel operas under Alan Curtis that includes Alcina, Berenice, Ezio, Floridante, Giove in Argo, Lotario and Rodelinda. On DVD he may be seen in Le nozze di Figaro from the 2012 Glyndebourne Festival, Pergolesi’s Il Flaminio, Vivaldi’s Motezuma and Jommelli’s Betulia liberata.
In 2008 Vito Priante received the Italian music critics’ prestigious Premio Franco Abbiati for his performance of the title role in Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero at La Scala conducted by Daniel Harding and directed by Peter Stein. Vito Priante currently lives in Paris.
