A pupil of composer Simone Mayr, he made his debut as early as 1808 in Novara. Not very successful during his
first few years, he had his breakthrough in 1813 in Ferrara, as Argirio in the first performance of a revised version of
Tancredi. From then on, he was considered a Rossini specialist.
In 1819, he moved to Paris, where he sang mostly at the Théâtre Italien. He sang in the Paris premieres of no less than
12 Rossini operas, plus the role of Libenskof in the world premiere of Il viaggio a Reims (Théâtre Italien, 19
June 1825). And he also took part in several Paris premieres of works by other Italian composers: Mayr, Paër,, Vaccai,
Mercadante.
Cherubini was a great admirer of Bordogni's art, and as he was the director of the Paris conservatory, he gave Bordogni a chair
there already in 1820. Bordogni became a very important voice teacher, with lots of later famous pupils.
Bordogni was praised for his virtuosity, his musicality and his vocal technique; not that much for the
quality of the voice in and of itself, although it must have had a remarkable range. He withdraw from the stage in 1833, but
continued teaching until his death.
Reference 1 and picture source,
reference 2: Kutsch & Riemens
