Originally, Palacio studied for priesthood, but then joined the diplomatic service and became Peruvian vice-consul in Milano. Already back home,
he had been taking voice lessons with Alessandro Granda; he continued in Milano, with other teachers of course.
After winning two competitions in Italy, he focused on singing, and made his debut in 1972 as Lindoro on the Italian radio RAI. A first-rate
international career followed: La Scala, La Fenice, Treviso, Naples (Teatro San Carlo), Rome, Palermo, Genova, Trieste, Torino, Spoleto Festival,
Covent Garden, Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, Nice, Toulouse, Barcelona (Liceu), Madrid, Lisbon, Munich, Zürich, Brussels (Monnaie),
Metropolitan Opera, Dallas, Houston, Buenos Aires (Colón), Lima, Santiago de Chile, Caracas...
He was almost exclusively a belcanto specialist and sang Elvino, Ernesto, Nemorino, and above all Rossini: Almaviva and Lindoro of course, Don
Ramiro (La Cenerentola), Argirio (Tancredi), Giannetto (La gazza ladra), Dorvil (La scala di seta), Edward Milford
(La cambiale di matrimonio), Don Narciso (Il turco in Italia), Torvaldo (Torvaldo e Dorliska), Bertrando (L'inganno
felice), Adelberto (Adelaide di Borgogna), Baldassare (Ciro in Babilonia), Paolo Erisso (Maometto secondo), Pirro
(Ermione), Osiride (Mosè in Egitto). His few roles beyond belcanto included Ferrando, Fenton and Gonzalve (L'heure
espagnole).
In 1998, Palacio essentially retired from the stage (with only occasionally later appearances), but by no means from the music business: he
became one of the internationally most successful artist managers, representing, among others, Juan Diego Flórez, Elīna Garanča and Daniela Barcellona. In 2017, he was appointed director of the Rossini
Festival in Pesaro.
Reference 1, reference 2, reference 3: Kutsch & Riemens
Picture source
