Tenor
Acclaimed as one of the most interesting among his generation, Argentinian Juan Francisco Gatell’s voice has been called luminous, seductive, elegant, and agile, his acting dramatic and sensitive. He has appeared on opera and concert stages throughout Europe, and in North and South America and performed with the most important Orchestra Conductors and Stage Directors.
Among his most recent appearances the opening of 2022 Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival with his debut as Orphée in Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, followed up with two further role debuts by the same composer: Admète in Alceste at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Pylade in Iphigénie en Tauride at the Olympia Maria Callas Theatre in Athens and Opernhaus Zürich; last season he performed Nemorino in Rome and Stuttgart as well as Prunier in Puccini’s La Rondine in Opernhaus Zürich and Marquis in Prokofiev’s Igrok at Salzburg Festival.
Francisco’s highlights include his highly celebrated debuts as Alessandro Magno in Mozart’s Il Re Pastore and Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at La Fenice in Venice, as Demetrio in Rossini’s Demetrio e Polibio at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro where he was invited for three editions as Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, performed too at the Royal Opera House Muscat in Oman, in Buenos Aires and in Vienna among others. His Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni was acclaimed in La Scala, Washington, Tokyo or Beijing, his Zauberflöte in Venice, Rome, Buenos Aires or Berlin and his Falstaff in Los Angeles, Parma, Valencia, Aix en Provence and Lyon.
Francisco’s Repertoire of choice includes: Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Ernesto (Don Pasquale), Conte d’Almaviva (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Nemorino (Elisir d’Amore), Cavaliere Belfiore (Viaggio a Reims), Idreno (Semiramide), Fenton (Falstaff).
His recordings include: on DVD, Tybalt in Romeo et Juliette at the Salzburg Festival, in Il burbero di buon cuore (Dynamic), Don Pasquale (Arthaus-Musik) conducted by Muti, Il viaggio a Reims at La Scala (Vox Imago) and Il Barbiere di Siviglia in concert with the Rossini Opera Festival; on CD, Otello with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Muti which won the 2014 International Opera Award, Mozart’s Requiem with the Orchestra della Toscana in Siena (Accademia Musicale Chigiana), Donizetti’s Messa di Requiem (Dynamic) and I Pagliacci conducted by Bartoletti recorded live at the Teatro Carlo Felice.
Born in La Plata, Argentina, Juan Francisco Gatell began his musical studies at the age of nine at the Conservatorio de Música Gilardi in his hometown before continuing his training at the Conservatorio Arturo Soria in Madrid. His career took off in 2004 after he won the Caruso Award Le voci nuove dalla lirica, promoted by the Italian Associazione Museo Enrico Caruso with the final concert at Sala Grande del Teatro Dal Verme in Milan. Performances followed with his debut in Boris Godunov, L’Innocente in Florence under Byckov. In 2005, he took first prize at the 7th Concorso Città di Pistoia, and in 2006, he won First Prize in the ASLICO competition as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. In 2015 Francisco won the Aureliano Pertile Prize awarded by the Amici della Musica “Beppe Valpreda.” Juan Francisco Gatell makes his home in Barcelona, Spain with his wife Paula and two children, Francisco and Júlia.