In a career spanning more than 20 years Carlo Colombara has made a name primarily as a Verdi bass but also in roles of the Belcanto and French repertoire and has worked with the most important conductors and directors
He started his training as a singer in his hometown Bologna with Paride Venturi and won the price for best Italian singer at the International Violetti Competition in 1986. The following year he debuted at Teatro dell’Opera in Rome as Silva in Verdi’s Ernani. In 1989 he gave his highly acclaimed debut at La Scala in Milan as Procida (I vespri siciliani) under the baton of Riccardo Muti. He returned to La Scala many times as for example for Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Lucia di Lammermoor, Nabucco and Macbeth.
In recent years he successfully debuted as Boitos Mefistofele, Escamillo (Carmen) and Don Pasquale – his first venture into opera buffa-, in the roles of the 4 villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann and as Don Giovanni. He appeared amongst others at the Scala, as well as Metropolitan Opera in New York, Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Opernhaus Zürich and Arena di Verona.
In 2012 he gave his debut as Colline (La bohème) at Salzburger Festspiele.
In 2013 Carlo Colombara sang, for example, Zaccaria (Nabucco) at Staatsoper Stuttgart, at Arena di Verona and in Beijing, Mefistofele in Parma und Banco (Macbeth) at Savonlinna Opera Festival.
Since 2015 he sang, amongst others, the following parts:
at Teatro Real de Madrid (Sparafucile), at Teatro alla Scala di Milano (Il re, Sparafucile, Enrico VIII und Colline), at La Monnaie Bruxelles (Banco), Staatsoper Hamburg ( Il conte di Walther), Teatro di San Carlo Napoli (Oroveso), Gran Teatre del Liceu (Il conte di Walther, Ferrando) and Opera de Monte Carlo (Jacopo Fiesco).
In 2020 he sang Großinquistor (Don Carlo) at Salzburger Osterfestspiele under the baton of Christian Thielemann. After this the same role at Semperoper Dresden.
In 2023 he sang the bass role in Stabat Mater with MUSICA AI SERVI.
Apart from his opera engagements, Mr Colombara is also a concert singer who is in high demand: he has sung Verdi’s Requiem over a hundred times, as for example under the baton of Antonio Pappano.
Repertoire
Bellini
La sonnambula – Graf Rodolfo
Norma – Oroveso
I puritani – Herr Georg
Bizet
Carmen – Escamillo
Boito
Mefistofele – Mefistofele
Montemezzi, Carulli
L’amore dei tre re – Archibaldo
Cilea
Adriana Lecouvreur – Der Fürst von Bouillon
Donizetti
Anna Bolena – Heinrich VIII.
Lucia di Lammermoor – Raimondo Bidebent
La favorite – Balthazar
Maria Stuarda – Georg Talbot
Don Pasquale – Don Pasquale
L’elisir d’amore – Doktor Dulcamara
Gounod
Faust – Mefisto
Roméo et Juliette – Frère Laurent
Halévy, F.
La juive – Kardinal Brogni
Kolonovits
El Juez – Morales
Monteverdi
L’incoronazione di Poppea – Seneca
Mozart
Don Giovanni – Don Giovanni
Le nozze di Figaro – Jury
Requiem in D minor, K. 626 – Bass
Musorgski
Boris Godunov – Boris Godunow
Offenbach
Les contes d’Hoffmann – Lindorf – Coppélius – Dr. Miracle – Dapertutto
Ponchielli
La Gioconda – Alvise Badoero
Puccini
La Bohème – Colline
Turandot – Timur
Tosca – Baron Scarpia
Rossini
Il barbiere di Siviglia – Don Basilio
Petite messe solennelle – Bass
Semiramide – Assur
Stabat Mater – Bass
Il barbiere di Siviglia (reduction) – Don Basilio
Verdi
Jérusalem – Roger
Nabucco – Zaccaria
Don Carlo (Italian version) – Philipp II.
I masnadieri – Graf Maximilian von Moor
Aida – Ramfis – Der König von Ägypten – Soloists
La forza del destino – Der schützende Vater
Macbeth – Banquo
I lombardi alla prima crociata – Pagano
Attila – Attila
Luisa Miller – Graf Walter
Ernani – Don Ruy Gomez von Silva
Rigoletto – Sparafucile
Simon Boccanegra – Jacopo Fiesco
Il trovatore – Ferrando
Messa da Requiem – Vocal Soloists – Bass
Wagner, Richard
L’HOLANDÈS ERRANT – Daland