Franco Pomponi

Baritone
Franco Pomponi, Baritone

Baritone Franco Pomponi is critically acclaimed for the rich, expressive beauty and powerful virility of his voice, with a cultivated musical style, and unmatched dramatic intensity which has brought him to many of the world’s most prestigious opera houses and concert halls. His European debut came as Hamlet at the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona and success followed worldwide. He created a sensation as Pentheus in The Bassarids by Henze at the Chatelet in Paris and has returned to sing the title roles of Nixon in China (broadcast on Mezzo) and Sweeney Todd. He debuted in Geneva as Paolo in Simon Boccanegra and at Opernhaus Zürich in a new production of Les pecheurs de perles as Zurga. In Moscow, Mr. Pomponi performed title role of Don Giovanni for his debut at The Bolshoi Opera and in Budapest in a new production of The Tempest as Prospero for the Hungarian State Opera. He made his Carnegie Hall debut as the baritone soloist in the Eighth Symphony of Mahler with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Mr. Pomponi was member of the elite Lyric Opera of Chicago young artist program and made his Chicago debut as Germont in Verdi’s La traviata. He made his New York debut as Escamillo in Carmen at New York City Opera and the next season he joined the Metropolitan Opera. He sang Ford in Falstaff for the Canadian Opera in Toronto and The Santa Fe Opera. Mr. Pomponi received a full fellowship to the Opera Center at The Juilliard School and was the first recipient of the DeRosa Prize, Juilliard’s distinguished award for achievement.
Recently he won the International Art Song contest with his first solo recording Death is the Cool Night, lieder of Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms to the poetry of Heine.