Biography

Mario Zeffiri is one of the leading exponents of the bel canto repertoire and makes guest appearances at the most important European opera houses. La Scala in Milan as well as the opera houses in Rome, Turin, Bologna, Florence, Trieste, Verona, Venice and Naples are just some of the Italian stages where he has performed. In Germany, Mario Zeffiri has appeared at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Komische Oper Berlin, the opera houses in Frankfurt, Cologne, Essen, Düsseldorf and Leipzig, as well as the Hamburg State Opera and the Dresden Semperoper. In France, he has appeared at the Opéra de Paris, the Opéra Comique and the opera houses of Bordeaux, Nice, Montpellier, Toulon and Avignon, as well as in Belgium at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels and the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège. He has also performed in New York, Helsinki, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Barcelona, Santiago de Chile, Glasgow, Stockholm, Malta and Athens.

His operatic repertoire includes the central roles of his profession, including Don Ottavio in Mozart's "Don Giovanni", Belmonte in "Die Entführung aus dem Serail", Ferrando in "Così fan tutte", Tamino in "Die Zauberflöte", Tito in "La clemenza di Tito", furthermore Argirio in Rossini's "Tancredi", Arnold in "Guillaume Tell", Ernesto in "Don Pasquale", Fernando in Donizetti's "La favorita", Edgardo in "Lucia di Lammermoor", Tonio in "La Fille du régiment", Arturo in "I puritani", Elvino in Bellini's "La sonnambula", Il Duca di Mantova in Verdi's "Rigoletto", Alfredo in "La traviata", Nadir in Bizet's "Les pêcheurs de perles", Gérald in "Lakmé", Léopold in Halévy's "La Juive," the title role of Gounod's "Faust" and of Berlioz's "La damnation de Faust," and an Italian singer and Narraboth in Richard Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier" and "Salome."

Mario Zeffiri can boast a similarly wide-ranging repertoire in the lied and concert field: This includes both German and French art song as well as Italian, English, Spanish, Greek and Czech songs, in addition to a large number of concert roles such as Verdi's and Mozart's "Requiem", Beethoven's "Missa solemnis" and his Symphony No. 9, Rossini's "Stabat mater", Berlioz' "Lélio" and Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde".

Mario Zeffiri has performed at prestigious festivals and major concert halls such as the Vienna Musikverein, the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, the Chicago Symphony Center, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the Ravenna Festival, the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium in Las Palmas, the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias, the Palau de les Arts in Valencia and the Athens Megaron.

Mario Zeffiri collaborates with important conductors such as Nello Santi, Roberto Abbado, Bertrand de Billy, Daniele Gatti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Jesús López Cobos, René Jacobs, Helmuth Rilling, Stefan Soltész, Daniel Oren, Eve Queler, Alberto Zedda and directors such as Hugo de Ana, Dario Fo, Pier'Alli, Pier Luigi Pizzi and Luca Ronconi.

He has had a particularly fruitful collaboration with Riccardo Muti. Under him he sang the tenor solo part in Verdi's "Requiem" in Ravenna, Parma, Las Palmas, Montpellier, Rome and Chicago. A special highlight under his direction were the concerts and the recording of the "Requiem" with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which won two "Grammy Awards" ("Best Classical Album" and "Best Choral Performance 2010"). With the same orchestra and conductor, he also recorded Hector Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique" and "Lélio" with Gérard Depardieu as narrator.

His solo album "Liebesgeschenke" with songs by Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss was released in 2013 on the Prestige Classics Vienna label. In April 2015, the artist was awarded the honorary title of "European Chamber Singer" and in March 2016 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in the title role of Donizetti's "Roberto Devereux". Since October 2016, he has been professor of voice at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold.

Highlights of the past seasons were Hector Berlioz's "Lélio" in Valencia under the baton of Roberto Abbado, Verdi's "Requiem" at Munich's Gasteig, Gioacchino Rossini's "Tancredi" in Bremen, his "Stabat Mater" at Vienna's Musikverein, in Madrid and in Cuenca, and Gustav Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde" at Athens' Megaron. In Antwerp and Ghent he also appeared as soloist in Verdi's "Requiem" under the baton of Philippe Herreweghe, and in Helsinki's Musiikkitalo he performed the title part of Leopold Koželuch's rarely performed opera "Gustav Wasa" under the baton of Aapo Häkkinen. Mario Zeffiri also appeared in Helsinki in the 2019/2020 season, this time in Berlioz's "Lélio" with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Klaus Mäkelä.

Mario Zeffiri was born in Athens and initially studied jurisprudence at the university of his hometown. As a scholarship holder of the Maria Callas Foundation he completed his studies in Italy at the Accademia Teatro alla Scala as well as in Spain with Juan Oncina and in Berlin with KS Peter Gougaloff.