Carlo Cigni Bass

Biography

Carlo Cigni was born in Livorno and studied at the Arrigo Boito Conservatory in Parma before perfecting his skills under the guidance of Fernanda Piccini. In 1999, he made his professional debut performing in La Serva padrona at the Teatro Comunale in Florence after which he sang Colline (La Bohème) at Milan’s La Scala and then in Parma, Marseille and Rome. He has also appeared as Papageno (Die Zauberflöte) in Livorno, Timur (Turandot) at the Rhine Opera, Ferrando (Il Trovatore) in Marseille, Rome and Florence; Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor) in a Robert Carsen production in Genoa and Zurich, Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) in Turin, Creonte (Medea) in Sassari and Lisbon, Count Rodolfo (La Sonnambula) in Florence and at the Maestranza in Seville, Banco (Macbeth) in São Paulo, Amsterdam, Bologna and Palermo; Angelotti (Tosca) at the Royal Opera House in London with Antonio Pappano conducting; the King (Aida) at Milan’s La Scala with Riccardo Chailly conducting; Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra) in Bologna, Publio (La Clemenza di Tito) in Turin, Talbot (Maria Stuarda) at Milan’s La Scala, Gessler (Guillaume Tell) at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Antonio Pappano conducting (recorded on the EMI label); Lorenzo (I Capuleti e I Montecchi) at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, and Monterone (Rigoletto), Angelotti (Tosca), and Lodovico (Otello) at the Paris Opera. More recently, he played Alvise (La Gioconda) at the Rome Opera and then sang the roles of Basilio (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), the King (Aida) and Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor) at the Paris Opera; Méphistophélès (La Damnation de Faust) in Palermo, the four demonic characters in the Contes d’Hoffmann in Tel Aviv, Monterone (Rigoletto) at the Monnaie in Brussels, and Ferrando, first at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples with Nicola Luisotti conducting and then at the Teatro Regio in Parma. He has also appeared as the King and Timur at the Verona Arena, and Raimondo at the Rome Opera. In 2017, he sang the role of Hieros in Le Siège de Corinthe at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro and Simone (Gianni Schicchi) at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam. In 2018, he made his debut in the role of Scarpia (Tosca) in Lima. This season, he sang the role of Zio Bonzo (Madame Butterfly) at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam.