Biography
Luca Casagrande
Baritone completed his singing- and piano-studies with Conductor Alberto Soresina (1911 – 2007) at the Scuola Musicale in Milan.
In 1989 he made his debut as an interpreter of sacred music in “Messiah”, by G. F. Handel, in “Johannis Passion” and in the cantata “Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam” (BWV n° 7), by J. S. Bach, in Milan. He has continued since the middle of the 1990s as an interpreter of sacred cantatas by J. S. Bach, oratorio by G. F. Handel and Masses by W. A. Mozart in many German and Austrian towns, from Freiburg to Leipzig, from Berlin to Salzburg. He has approached again to the sacred music in 2005 with the oratorio “Theodora” (Strasbourg) and in 2008 with the “Belshazzar”, by G. F. Handel, with the “Stabat Mater”, by A. Caldara, and the “Stabat Mater”, by Rossini (Paris).
He made his debut in theatre in 1992, in the Italian première of “Mass”, by L. Bernstein with the Orchestra dei Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, directed by Conductor Giuseppe Grazioli, at Teatro Smeraldo in the Lombard chief town. Performances in stagings of Italian baroque operas have followed in Germany, Belgium, Low Countries, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, France and USA. The most important experiences in this repertoire: Riccardo in “Il trionfo dell’onore”, by A. Scarlatti (Bruxelles,1995); Marco Aurelio in “Marco Aurelio”, and Pisone in “Alarico”, by A. Steffani (Antwerpen, 1996); Varo in “Ezio”, Pallante in “Agrippina”, by G. F. Handel (Halle, 2000); Eupatore in “Mitridate Eupatore”, Armindo in “Gli equivoci nel sembiante” and Corrado, Principe di Puglia in “Griselda”, by A. Scarlatti (Washington, Boston, Baltimore, San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles, 2001); Armindo in “Parthenope” (Chicago, 2003), Bajazete in “Tamerlano” (Drottningholm, 2004/ 2005), Melisso in “Alcyna” (Paris, Berlin, 2004/05), Garibaldo in “Rodelinda” (New York, 2004/ 2005), Thoas in “Orest” (Berlin, 2006/07), Il Sacerdote della Dea Minerva in “Theseus” (Berlin, 2008/09), by G. F. Handel; Hydraot in “Armide” of Ch. W. Gluck (Berlin 2009/100).
Since the middle of the 90s he has been also W. A. Mozart performer in a lot of German, Belgian, Spanish and French theatres: “Le nozze di Figaro” (Conte d’Almaviva), “La finta giardiniera” (Ramiro), “Don Giovanni” (eponymous role), “Così fan tutte” (Guglielmo), “Die Zauberflöte” (Papageno).
At the same time as the baroque and classic repertoire he made his debut in Berlin as his first Verdi role, in December 2001: eponymous role in the 1847 version of “Macbeth” followed by the role of Francesco, Conte di Moor, in “I masnadieri” (Paris, Liège 2004/ 2005), and followed by “Simon Boccanegra” in the role of the title, in 2008.
In the last years he has devoted himself to the German theatre: Orest in “Elektra”, Der Herr von Faninal in “Der Rosenkavalier” and Mandryka in “Arabella”, by R. Strauss; Wolfram von Eschenbach in “Tannhäuser”, Kurvenal in “Tristan und Isolde”, Wotan “Das Rheingold” and “Die Walküre”, by R. Wagner; Ottokar in “Der Freischütz”, by C. M. Von Weber; Hans in “Der Traumgörge”, by A. Von Zemlinsky (Dresden, Berlin and Köln, 2006- 2008); Moruccio in “Tiefland”, by E. D’Albert (Berlin, 2007/08); Der Herzog von Albany in “Lear”, by A. Reimann, Don Ferrando in “Fidelio”, by L. v. Beethoven, Der Geistbote in “Die Frau ohne Schatten”, by R. Strauss, Paolo Orsini in “Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen”, by R. Wagner, “Oberst Chabert”, von W. von Waltershausen, eponymous role (Berlin, 2009/10).
He has performed the Prince Afron in “Il gallo d’oro”, by Rimsky – Korsakov, and he has been Pelléas in “Pélleas et Mélisande”, by C. Debussy (Berlin, 2005/ 2006).
He is also interpreter of V. Bellini and G. Donizetti opera: among his best performances of the two composers’ opera we mention “Torquato Tasso” (Düsseldorf, 1999), “Don Pasquale” (Berlin, 2010), and “I Puritani” (Praha, 2001).
He has been dealing with G. Rossini theatre these years, performing Geronio in “Il Turco in Italia” (München, 2007) and Dandini in “La cenerentola (London – Barcelona, 2007/08 and 2009).
In the season 2006/ 2007 he had his first South American tour, and he made his debut in Miami (USA) in a Mahler programme.
The season 2010/11 was completely dedicated to W. A. Mozart’s operas. In the season 2011/12 the baritone makes his debut in ”Tancredi” by G. Rossini as Orbazzano, in “Lohengrin” by R. Wagner as Telramund and in “Le cheval de bronze” by D. Auber in the role of Tsing-Tsing.
He supports the theatrical and concert activity with an intensive work of theatrical and record producer (since 1994 he has published twentytwo record works for Centaurus Music, among which the world première recording of the opera by A. Steffani, “Alarico”), directed above all to the re-discovery and re-proposal of the cantata, sonata, operatic repertoire of the Italian sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, dedicating careful monographies to baroque compositors as A. Scarlatti, A. Steffani, G. Legrenzi, A. Cesti, B. Marcello, G. B. Bassani, A. Stradella, G. M. Bononcini, N. Porpora, G. Ph. Telemann or later baroque/classic componists as G. B. Martini, J. Haydn, G. B. Cirri.
He busies himself in record an in concert with mélodies and lieder by H. Berlioz, C. Debussy, A. Roussel, F. Schubert, G. Mahler, C. Saint-Saëns, J. Massenet, M. Ravel, R. Schumann, R. Wagner and others.
