Stefano Algieri

Since his operatic debut in Charleston, South Carolina (1st Spoleto USA Festival) in 1977, STEFANO ALGIERI has gone on to sing leading tenor roles with many of the world's leading opera companies, symphonies, conductors and directors in North America and Europe. Mr. Algieri's European debut was in Bielefeld, West Germany in 1984. From there he went on to sing with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Wien, L'Opéra Bastille (Paris), De Nederlandse Opersichting, Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona), National Theatre (Prague), Oper der Stadt Bonn, Oper Leipzig, Theater & Philharmonie Essen, Staatstheater Hanover, Scottish Opera, Dublin Grand Opera, New Israeli Opera, Opera du Rhein (Strasbourg), Opéra de Lyon and Opéra de Nantes. In North America Mr. Algieri joined the Metropolitan Opera in 1999, has sung with the Canadian Opera Company (Toronto), New York City Opera Company, Greater Miami Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Pacific, Austin Lyric Opera, Sacramento Opera, Manitoba Opera and Edmonton Opera.

In a tenor repertoire extending from the lyric to the dramatic, Mr. Algieri sings in Italian, German, French, English, Russian, Czech, Swedish and Bulgarian. After learning the lyric tenor roles of Bellini, Donizetti, Mozart, Verdi and Puccini he began his career singing all of the major spinto/dramatic roles such as Radames, Gustav, Manrico, Don Carlo, Andrea Chénier, Don José, Pollione, Des Grieux, Calaf, Canio and Turridu. From there Mr. Algieri went on to the dramatic/helden repertoire of Tristan, Otello, Siegmund, Bacchus, Johann von Leyden, Lohengrin and Samson thus capping to this day, a career as of one of the leading tenors of his generation.

In his operatic career Stefano Algieri has sung with some of the great conductors (Raphael Frübeck de Bougos, Sergiu Comissiona, Anton Guadagno, Michelangelo Veltri, Dennis Russell Davis, Jìrí Kout, Johannes Wildner, Ulf Schirmer and Rico Saccani), stage directors (Götz Friedrich, Yuri Lubimov, Joachim Herz, Lofti Mansouri, Elijah Moshinsky, John Dew, Ian Judge, Günther Krämer, Tito Capobianco and Gian-Carlo del Monaco) and singers (Magda Olivero, Dame Gwyneth Jones, Leonie Rysanek, Fiorenza Cossotto, Jane Eaglen, Leona Mitchell, Dolora Zajick, Norman Bailey and Ezio Flagello).

Mr. Algieri has performed extensively upon the concert stage (New York debut in 1977 with Renata Scotto in Refice's CECILIA in Avery Hall, Lincoln Center) as well the works of Beethoven, Mahler, Schönberg, Verdi and Elgar with the orchestras of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Nationale Chorale, Neue Westfällische Orchester, and the Zagreb Philharmonic.

Stefano Algieri has recorded AIDA, NORMA and LA FORZA DEL DESTINO with the BBC and DON CARLO with the CBC.

Mr. Algieri received his formal education from the Manhattan School of Music (B.Mus. & M.Mus.) in New York where he was a student of Maestro Carmine Gagliardi (student of Pasquale Amato). Further vocal studies continued with Richard Torigi and E. Randolph Mickelson. In 1977 Mr. Algieri began his vocal studies with Maestra Dina Maria Narici (student of Fernando De Lucia), the teacher of his late wife, the great Canadian contralto, Mariana Paunova, in Montreal. It was thru his 3 years of study with Maestra Narici and the 25 years with Maestra Paunova, until her death in 2002, that Stefano Algieri refined his art of bel canto as a performer, collaborator and as a teacher. Both he and Maestra Paunova taught the art of bel canto while continuing their singing careers and raising their 2 children.

Stefano Algieri has been a guest lecturer at the University of Missouri, Royal College of Music in Glascow, Scotland, McGill University, Summer Music Academy, Siena, Italy, Orpheus International Music Festival in Turnovo, Bulgaria. In 2002 Mr. Algieri was invited to join the Faculty of Manhattan School of Music's Preparatory Division.

Mr. Algieri continues his international career as a singer and as a teacher. It is with this life-long passion dedicated to the art singing that Stefano Algieri devotes to his students. Careful attention to the detail, it is in this way that Mr. Algieri works with his students; helping them discover their own unique voice and helping enable them to eventually teach themselves. And so, the tradition continues as Mr. Algieri joins the Faculty of Music at McGill University in September 2003.