Paolo Fanale makes Russian debut

Paolo Fanale will star as Tamino in the première of Die Zauberflöte on 22 and 26 March. It will be the first performance in Russia for this young Italian tenor, who has rapidly achieved international acclaim.

Paolo will arrive in St. Petersburg from London, where he is currently playing the part of Rinuccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. His crowning roles include Romeo in the opera by Charles Gounod, Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff, and, of course, Tamino. He first played Tamino on the stage of the Norwegian National Opera in 2011, followed by performances at Italy’s leading opera houses, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and the Teatro Massimo in Palermo.

The Italian tenor is well known not only to lovers of opera and major theatrical events, but also on the broader stage of the Internet: last October, a clip of him rehearsing Gioachino Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Orchestre de Paris went viral. In just a few days, the video was viewed over 1.5 million times on the orchestra’s official Facebook page. Social media users called Fanale the «sexiest tenor of our time», and opera and theatre bloggers even named him the «new Pavarotti». Fanale reacted with good humour, remarking simply that he was very tired during that rehearsal and does not understand what all the fuss is about.