Stars' recitals with piano: Ferruccio Furlanetto

Fifty years in the industry, and at the top of his career, is the internationally renowned Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto. Although he made his first appearance on stage in Lonigo in 1974, his real debut came in 1979 in a production of Macbeth conducted by Claudio Abbado at La Scala in Milan, and a year later he was on stage at the Metropolitan in New York. He has worked with some of the greatest conductors and directors including Herbert von Karajan, Sir George Solti, Leonard Bernstein, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Giorgio Strehler. The bass soloist has made a name for himself mainly because of his brilliant voice, his perfected technique and his three-dimensional characterisation.

In addition to his operatic roles, Furlanetto is an accomplished singer and oratorio soloist, with repertoire that includes Schubert's Winterreise and Verdi's Requiem, and is a renowned interpreter of works by Rachmaninoff and Mussorgsky.

Hungarian audiences were first introduced to him in 2010 when he appeared as Philip II in Verdi's Don Carlo, followed by successes at the 2014 Freedom Opera Gala and an aria recital at Erkel Theatre in 2019. He returns to the Opera House in the series Stars’ recitals with piano, where all the nuances of his bass are brought to life in a space with wonderful acoustics.