Soloist

Stefan Cifolelli

Born in Antwerp with family roots in Italy, Stefan Cifolelli studied at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels in the class of Marcel Vanaud and Pascale Devreese. Vittorio Terranova additionally supported him as teacher and mentor. During his student days he was a member of the opera studio at Brussels's Théâtre de la Monnaie and worked there, among others, with Willy Decker, Alessandro De Marchi, Kazushi Ono, Achim Freyer and René Jacobs. At the invitation of Alberto Zedda he participated in the Accademia Rossiniana in Pesaro and was subsequently recruited for four further festival summers for opera productions. In 2011 he gave his first solo recital at Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels and could be heard in 2012 at the Palais des Beaux-Arts (BOZAR) there singing Beethoven's »Mass in C«.

His repertoire as a lyric tenor encompasses, besides parts of bel canto and in Mozart's operas, French specialisation as well (inter alia Nadir in Bizet's »Les pêcheurs des perles« and the title role in Gounod's »Faust«). Thus, in 2009 he performed as Tonio (»La Fille du Régiment«) at the National Theatre in Ruse in Bulgaria and in 2012 in a concertante performance of Rossini's »Othello« under the direction of Evelino Pidó. In 2013 there followed engagements in »Lucrezia Borgia« directed by Guy Joosten as well as in a concertante version of »Roméo et Juliette« under Pidó at Théâtre de la Monnaie as well as in Grétry's »Guillaume Tell« at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège. That same year he made his debut at Komische Oper in Berlin as Ferrando in »Così fan tutte«. He also sang the same part in 2014 at the Cologne Opera. Likewise in 2014, he was a guest at the Graz Musikverein in Suppé's operetta »Die schöne Galathée« and as Don Ottavio (»Don Giovanni«) at Komische Oper in Berlin.

Most recently, Stefan Cifolelli appeared as Junker Spärlich in »Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor« at Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège. In »Così fan tutte« he is making his debut at Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz.