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The Italian bass, Antonio Abete, has begun his career by winning in 1992 the William Walton Foundation competition, which enabled him to sing Don Geronimo in Il Matrimonio Segreto by Cimarosa. In 1993 he won the first prize at the As.Li.Co Singing Competition in Milan and made his débuts in the role of Lunardo in Wolf-Ferrari's I Quattro Rusteghi and Don Tritemio in Il Filosofo di campagna by Galuppi.
Antonio Abete has then interpreted Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte conducted by Corrado Rovaris and staged by Daniele Abbado in Bergamo, Brescia, Cremona and Como. At the Teatro Regio of Turin he performed Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro conducted by Evelino Pidò, Masetto in Don Giovanni with Yoram David and Don Pasquale in Donizetti's Don Pasquale with Fabrizio Maria Carminati. At the Barcelona Mozart Festival he sung Publio in La Clemenza di Tito with Christopher Hogwood; for the Nederland Nationale Reisopera he sung Leporello in Don Giovanni and Basilio in Rossini's Barbiere di Siviglia conducted by Alessandro de Marchi.
Antonio Abete intensively performs 17th-and 18th century repertoire, appearing with conductors such as Giovanni Antonini, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Fabio Biondi, Ivor Bolton, William Christie, Christophe Coin, Attilio Cremonesi, Alan Curtis, Christopher Hogwood, René Jacobs, Konrad Junghänel, Sigiswald Kuijken, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Alessandro de Marchi, Trevor Pinnock, Jordi Savall, with pianist Maurizio Pollini, and with the Baroque ensembles Il Giardino Armonico, Hespèrion XX, Les Arts Florissants, Concerto Italiano (Director: Rinaldo Alessandrini), Concerto Barocco, Academia Montis Regalis, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, La Petite Bande, Al Ayre Espanol. Among the theaters and festival he performed in: Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Bayerische Staatsoper München, Musikfestwochen Luzern, Salzburgs Osterfestspiele, Festival Styriarte Graz, Händel Festspiele in Halle (Saale), Innsbrucker Festwochen, Radio VARA, Sadler's Wells Theatre London, Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Teatro Ponchielli in Cremona, Teatro Regio in Parma, Teatro Bellini in Catania, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Théâtre du Châtelet and Opéra Bastille in Paris, Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie in Brussels, De Vlaamse Oper in Antwerpen. He has performed in many concerts with RTSI Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orquestra Simfonica of Barcelona, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Zürich Opernhaus Orchester.
Antonio Abete has sung in many stage productions such as Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria at Bayerische Staatsoper and L'Incoronazione di Poppea at Opéra Bastille with Ivor Bolton; Haydn's Orfeo ed Euridice with Cecilia Bartoli at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris under Christopher Hogwood; George Frideric Handel's Tamerlano conducted by Trevor Pinnock in Halle (Saale), Paris and London (production released on CD and DVD); Il Sansone by Benedetto Ferrari at the Berkeley Early Music Festival in San Francisco with Alan Curtis, G.F. Handel's Serse conducted by William Christie at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris. He has performed regularly with René Jacobs: L'Euridice by Jacopo Peri at the Staatsoper Berlin, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze, Cavalli's La Calisto at the Salzburg Osterfestspiele, L'Incoronazione di Poppea (Seneca) at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, at the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin and at the Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels, Agrippina by G.F. Handel at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Bruxelles, Le Nozze di Figaro at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. He has also taken part as a soloist in many productions with Jordi Savall, in J.S. Bach's B minor Mass (BWV 232) at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, and at the Salzburg Osterfestspiele in Biber's Requiem and Missa Bruxellensis, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (production released on DVD).
He has sung Chalcas in Iphigénie en Aulide by Gluck at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with Radio VARA where he performed also Uberto in Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona on a european tour with Il Giardino Armonico conducted by Giovanni Antonini. He has cooperated with the pianist Maurizio Pollini at the Pollini Project performing Monteverdi's solo madrigals at the Salzburg Festival, Carnegie Hall in New York and at the Kioi Hall in Tokio. He has also taken part in the Werner Herzog's film Death for five voices about the life of Gesualdo da Venosa.
Antonio Abete has recorded Orlando in Orlando finto pazzo by Antonio Vivaldi for the label Naïve with the Academia Montis Regalis conducted by Alessandro de Marchi, after a tour in Poissy, Paris and Turin. He has performed with the Freiburger Barockorchester La Senna Festeggiante by A. Vivaldi with Ivor Bolton, and Blansac in Rossini's La Scala di Seta with Attilio Cremonesi. On tour with Concerto Italiano/Rinaldo Alessandrini he has sung Monteverdi's Il Vespro della Beata Vergine and L'Orfeo, both recordings for the label Naïve has won the Diapason d'Or.
He has received the prestigious Grammy Music Award in 1998 for the Best Vocal Baroque recording with Lucifero in Il Primo Omicidio by Alessandro Scarlatti - Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin conducted by René Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi), and in 2004 for the Best W.A. Mozart's Opera recording with Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro - Concerto Köln conducted by René Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi).
His oratorio repertoire includes J.S. Bach's Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244), and Magnificat in D m (BWV 243), G.F. Handel's Messiah, Haydn's Nelson Mass, W.A. Mozart's Requiem, Igor Stravinsky's Les Noces and Pulcinella, and Arthur Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher.
Among his recent appearances: Arianna in Creta (Minos) by G.F. Handel with Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music at the Barbican Centre in London, Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (Polifemo) by G.F. Handel with Antonio Florio at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Così fan tutte (Don Alfonso) with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra at the Cleveland Severance Hall, L'incoronazione di Poppea (Seneca) conducted by William Christie at the Teatro Real in Madrid and at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. |
