The Italian tenor, Pietro Bottazzo, completed his studies at the conservatory of Venice. His main teachers were Cecilia Sacchetti and
Maria Carbone.
Pietro Bottazzo made his stage debut in 1959 in Milan in Mignon. This was followed by a successful career at the important Italian opera
houses. He appeared at Milan's La Scala, and at the opera houses of Rome, Venice, Naples, Palermo and Parma.
His international reputation brought him appearances all over the world. He sang at the Salzburg Festival in 1971 and 1972 as Ernesto,
at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1965 as Paolino in Cimarosa's Matrimonio segreto, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival
in 1963 as Ferrando, at the Wexford Festival in 1964 as Comte Ory and in 1967 as Rodrigo in
Rossini's Otello, at the Spoleto Festival of 1962 also as Comte Ory. He appeared in 1976–79 at the Vienna State Opera,
among other things as Count Almaviva, in 1966 at the Opera of Monte Carlo as Paolino,
in 1970 at the Holland Festival in La fedeltà premiata by J. Haydn.
He appeared as a guest several times at the Rossini Festival in
Pesaro, e.g. in 1980 in L'inganno felice. In 1985, he still appeared at the Teatro Fenice in Venice as Tiberge in Le portrait de
Manon by Massenet. He appeared as a guest also at the opera houses of Copenhagen, Bordeaux and Cologne, at the Deutsche Oper
am Rhein Düsseldorf-Duisburg, in Frankfurt a. M. and Munich, in Amsterdam, Basel, Zürich, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia and
San Francisco (Il barbiere di Siviglia, 1968).
Pietro Bottazzo's beautifully formed voice, rich with nuances, became effective particularly in the lyric repertoire.
He was a great interpreter of Mozart roles, as well as of works by the Italian belcanto masters Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini.
He mastered 26 tenor roles in Rossini operas alone, including Rodrigo in La donna del lago and Norfolk in Elisabetta
regina d'Inghilterra. He sang in premiere of Sentenza by Manzoni. He had an important career also in the area of the concert singing.
Recordings: Nonsuch (i.e. Mozart Requiem), Accord (Coronation Mass by Mozart), MRF (Mathilde di Shabran and Armida by Rossini, as
well as a recital of arias), ANNA-Records (Italiana in Algeri by Rossini), BRF (Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra by Rossini), UORC
(La lettera anonima by Donizetti), Fonit-Cetra (La gazza ladra by Rossini).
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