Italian baritone Lucio Gallo sings Scarpia (Tosca) for The Royal Opera in the 2013/14 Season. He made his Royal Opera debut in 1991 as Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) and has since sung many roles with the Company, including Iago (Otello), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Michele (Il tabarro), Gianni Schicchi and Simon Boccanegra.
Gallo was born in Taranto and worked as a bass guitarist before studying singing at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin with Elio Battaglia. He has won many competitions and appeared at the world’s leading concert halls and opera houses, including La Scala, Milan, Metropolitan Opera, New York, San Francisco Opera, Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian State Opera, La Monnaie, Brussels, and festivals such as the Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro and the Salzburg Festival. His wide repertory ranges from Mozart to Wagner, signature roles including Iago, Klingsor (Parisfal), Alfio (Cavalleria rusticana), Tonio (Pagliacci), Jack Rance (La fanciulla del West), Scarpia, Dulcamara (L'elisir d'amore), Don Pizarro (Fidelio), the title role of Der fliegende Holländer, Macbeth, Rigoletto and Giorgio Germont (La Traviata).
He has worked for conductors including Abbado, Barenboim, Chailly, Davis, Haitink, Harnoncourt, Mehta, Muti, Ozawa, Pappano, Rizzi, Sawallisch and Tate, and recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, Decca and Warner Fonit Cetra.
