Piero Visconti

He was first trained in his parents' goldsmith business.

He studied singing at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia with maestra Corti Coppetti. After that, he perfected his technique with Gianna Pederzini.

He made debut his in Hindemith's Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen at the conservatory.

His career developed as follows

1975 Napoli (San Carlo, Lucia di Lammermoor) Other source states La bohème

1976 Dublin

1977 Spoleto (Festival dei Due Mondi, premiere of Nino Rota's Napoli milionaria)

1978 Roma (Ernani)

1979 Baltimore (or 1978, Don Carlo), Miami (Don Carlo)

1980 Roma (Lucrezia Borgia), Wien: Madama Butterfly on 8 February, Attila on 21 December (total 14, last on 17 June 1982), Ghent, Las Palmas, Buenos Aires (Colón)

1981 Toulouse, Verona (Rigoletto), Wien: Lucia di Lammermoor on 30 January (total 4, last 21 November 1981), La traviata on 3 February (total 3, last on 17 June 1981), Rigoletto on 7/11 February, Tosca on 21 September

1982 Toulouse, Avignon, Barcelona (Liceo), Mannheim, Macerata, Liège, Wien: Don Carlo on 22/25 February

1983 Macerata, Bern, Liège

1984 Macerata, Liège, Munich, Houston: Simon Boccanegra, Jones Hall on 28 March, 1/3/6 April with Mariana Niculescu, Leo Nucci, Cesare Siepi, Rodney Stenborg, Herbert Perry, Mark Thomsen, Eileen Koyl and Miguel Gómez-Martinez; Cape Town, Frankfurt

1985 Macerata, Munich, Bruxelles, Bari (Petruzzelli), Philadelphia: Manon Lescaut, Academy of Music on 26 April (total 2) with Nelly Miricioiu, Robert McFarland, Renato Capecchi, Richard Burke, John Murray, Marian Stieber, Nico Castel, Gregory Cantwell, John Eisenhardt and Alessandro Siciliani; Palermo (Massimo), London (Verdi's Requiem), Martina Franca (Festival della Valle D'Itria, Roberto Devereux); Amsterdam

1986 Sydney, Bonn

1987 Frankfurt, Palermo (Massimo), Montpellier

1988 Palermo (Massimo)

1989 Santiago de Chile... not quite:

Visconti signed a contract to open the 1989 season at the Teatro Municipal (Santiago, Chile) as Arrigo in Verdi's Vespri siciliani, with the soprano Silvia Mosca, the baritone Luigi De Corato and the bass Alessandro Verducci. He arrived and started his rehearsals, but he was in such a poor vocal condition that the conductor, Massimo De Bernart forced him to leave the rehearsal. In his place, the tenor Carlo Bini was called (he had already sung in Santiago in 1979, in Un ballo in maschera and Simon Boccanegra). Bini was almost a complete disaster and we all wondered if Visconti would have done better. The performances took place on 31 May and 3 & 5 June 1989. As you see, Visconti "almost" sang in Chile!

His repertory included: Almaviva (Barbiere di Siviglia by Paisiello), Arturo (La straniera), Pollione, Roberto Devereux, Cavaradossi, Enrico VII (Napoli milionaria by Rota), Radames, Ernani, Don Carlo, Riccardo, Nemorino, Manrico, Foresto, Alfredo, Gabriele Adorno, Pinkerton, des Grieux (Manon Lescaut), Calaf, Andrea Chénier, Enzo, Merodach (Semirama by Respighi), Ippolito (Fedra by Pizzetti), Faust, Walter (Loreley), Viscardo, Gennaro, Edgardo, Turiddu, Radames, ...

Cities where he sang include: Amsterdam, Avignon, Baltimore, Barcelona, Bari, Berlin, Bern, Bonn, Bruxelles, Buenos Aires, Dublin, Frankfurt am Main, Gent, Hamburg, Harford, Houston, Kaapstad, Las Palmas, Liège, Lucca, Lugo di Romagna, Macerata, Mannheim, Marseille, Martina Franca, Miami, Montpellier, München, Napoli, Palermo, Philadelphia, Roma, Salzburg, Spoleto, Sydney, Toulouse, Verona, Wien, ...
Reference: Kutsch & Riemens
Felmain liner notes by Giorgio Feliccioti, 1987
I wish to than Juan Dzazópulos for the Santiago anecdote.