MICHELE PERTUSI

---

The bass Michele Pertusi, certainly doesn’t need an introduction: the extraordinary successes achieved in all the important opera houses all over the world speak for themselves.
A native of Parma, student of Arrigo Pola, Carlo Bergonzi and Rodolfo Celletti, he was very young when he began this extraordinary career which has brought him a consensus of critical acclaim from specialists as well as from traditionally the most demanding audiences: Paris Opera – Covent Garden, London – Metropolitan, New York – Staatsoper, Vienna –  Liceu, Barcelona – La Scala, Milan – Regio, Turin and many others.
Considered among the best interpreters of Mozart and Rossini he has collaborated with internationally renowned conductors like Sir Georg Solti (with whom he recorded Don Giovanni by Mozart), Zubin Metha, Riccardo Muti, Riccardo Chailly, James Levine, Carlo Maria Giulini, Sir Colin Davis, Daniel Baremboim.
His work can be heard on some of the most significant recordings from the major labels: Decca, Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, Ricordi, Erato etc.
In the last few years he has played some of the most important leading roles at the Rossini Opera Festival of Pesaro where he was awarded the prestigious «Rossini D’Oro» prize.
Among his lesser credits we are pleased to include his friendship with us, as one who loves his homeland and its beautiful features, not least Torrechiara Castle. Michele Pertusi has been a guest artist on several occasions (among them the fantastic production of Il Signor Bruschino by Rossini) and always, on stage and off, he showed himself to be not just an artist worthy of his reputation but also a willing and lovely person. We remember, for example, the evening in honour of Renata Tebaldi (Torrechiara Festival 1997) when the audience and singers alike had to take shelter under the arch from a sudden summer thunderstorm, he helped save the evening with an impromptu solo amid the crowd.