Italian baritone Luca Salsi will be one of the lead characters of Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, opening the new season of the Teatro alla Scala on 7 December, with Riccardo Chailly conducting and Mario Martone directing the opera. Salsi will be playing revolutionary Carlo Gérard, next to Yusif Eyvazov (Andrea Chénier) and Anna Netrebko (Maddalena di Coigny) after recently making his debut in the same role at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, next to Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros. Of that interpretation the «Abendzeitung» wrote: “Luca Salsi’s voice is perfect for the role of the rebellious servant, then head of the revolution, Gérard. A baritone with a powerful voice who is able to express strong carnality and desire”.
Luca Salsi is returning to La Scala following his personal success as lead character in I Due Foscari in 2016. “I’m happy to be playing the role of Gérard again – says the baritone – and especially to do so with Maestro Riccardo Chailly, well known as a great interpreter of musical verismo, with whom I will be working for the first time. Gérard represents the personal goal of an artistic development where I have tried to explore the most varied roles, going from Mozart to Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti’s belcanto, to then reach my present repertoire, focused primarily on Verdi.
On a vocal and interpretative point of view – continues Salsi – that of Gérard is one of the most beautiful baritone roles ever written: with broad phrases reminding of Puccini, a deep sense of the word reminiscent of Verdi, and intense phrasing, always supported by orchestral arrangements that allow the interpreter to express all the nuances of his role”.
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