Andrea Silvestrelli is one of the most sought-after ‘bassi profondi’ on the international opera scene. Garnering critical acclaim for his debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in Rigoletto, the Chicago Sun-Times reported, “There were wild cheers for Andrea Silvestrelli …who brought a terrifying, sepulchral tone to the assassin Sparafucile.” The Chicago Sun concurred, “Andrea Silvestrelli wielded a big, black, menacing bass in his debut as the assassin Sparafucile.”

Next season, Silvestrelli returns to Houston Grand Opera as Klingsor in Parsifal, and joins Opera Australia as Fafner, Hunding, and Hagen in three full cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen in Brisbane. He also will perform as Attila and in Assassinio nella cattedrale with Opera Festival of Chicago. Recent performances include Hagen in Götterdämmerung and Fafner in Siegfried in a return to the Taichung National Theater in Taiwan, where in previous seasons he performed Hunding in Die Walküre and Fafner in Das Rheingold.  He also recently appeared with Boston Lyric Opera as Sparafucile in Rigoletto and with Maryland Lyric Opera as Filippo II in Don Carlos, Banqo in Macbeth, and Pistola in Falstaff.

Andrea Silvestrelli has enjoyed long and successful relationships with many of the most prestigious opera companies in the world. In the USA alone, he was heard with the San Francisco Opera in the Ring Cycle as Fasolt in Das Rheingold and Hagen in Götterdämmerung (premiere and revival), Sparafucile in Rigoletto, the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo, Oroveso in Norma, Talpa in Il tabarro and Simone in Gianni Schicchi in Il trittico, as the bass soloist in Verdi’s Requiem, Wurm in Luisa Miller, the Night Watchman in Die Meistersinger von Nürnburg, Pistola in Falstaff, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and the Commendatore in Don Giovanni.

Engagements at Lyric Opera of Chicago include Ferrando in Il trovatore, Oroveso in Norma, Nourabad in Les pêcheurs de perles, Commendatore in Don Giovanni (multiple seasons), Sparafucile in Rigoletto (multiple seasons), Colline in La bohème, The Nightwatchman in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Pimen in Boris Godunov, Colline in La bohème, and Fasolt in Das Rheingold, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, and Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

With Houston Grand Opera he has been heard as Fafner in Das Rheingold and Hagen in Götterdämmerung,  Philippe II in Don Carlos, Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Sparafucile in Rigoletto; and with the Dallas Opera he’s performed Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo, Geronte in Manon Lescaut and Pistola in Falstaff. His Metropolitan Opera debut was Sparafucile in the Otto Schenk production of Rigoletto, and he also joined the company for performances of Ernani.

He was Sparafucile in Rigoletto and Hunding and Fasolt in the Ring Cycle with Seattle Opera; Sparafucile and the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo with Washington National Opera; at Santa Fe Opera he was Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte; joined Canadian Opera Company Commendatore in Don Giovanni; and performed Sparafucile, Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Simone in Woody Allen’s production of Gianni Schicchi with the Los Angeles Opera and Maestro James Conlon for

Equally on the international stage, Silvestrelli’s towering career spans continents and  decades. In his native Italy, he has sung Assassinio nella cattedrale and Il gatto con gli stivali with Rome Opera; Pistola in Falstaff and the Commendatore in Don Giovanni at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna; Titurel in Parsifal under Semyon Bychkov and Il Re in Aida under Riccardo Chailly with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Penderecki’s The Devils of Loudoun and Pizzetti’s Murder in the Cathedral, the French King in Reimann’s Lear and Oroveso in Norma at Teatro Regio di Torino; Hermann in Tannhäuser at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples; Zaccaria in Nabucco in Macerata; Horatio in Hamlet for Trieste; and Pistola in Falstaff at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome under Daniele Gatti.

Silvestrelli was Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail for the Bavarian State Opera, Fafner in Das Rheingold with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Pistola in Falstaff at the Berlin Staatsoper, under the late, great Claudio Abbado. He was Il Re in Aida under Riccardo Chailly as well as Banco in Macbeth and Seneca in L’incoronazione di Poppea, all with Dutch National Opera, as well as the bass soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with the Netherlands Radio Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev. He performed as Caronte in Orfeo and Gofreddo in Il pirata at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris; Oroveso in Norma for Finnish National Opera; Filippo II in Don Carlo in Graz; and Oroveso in Norma at Teatro São Carlos in Lisbon. UK engagements include his debut at Covent Garden as Lodovico in Otello followed by the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, as well as the title role of Bluebeard’s Castle and Filippo II in Don Carlos for the Welsh National Opera.

Additionally, he performed as Timur in the Zhang Zimou production of Turandot led by Zubin Mehta and performed by the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in the Forbidden City in Beijing, has sung Hunding in Die Walküre and Hagen in Götterdämmerung in Mexico City, and was heard as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte and the High Priest in Samson et Dalila in Tel Aviv.

Early in his career, Mr. Silvestrelli performed Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Trieste; La bohème at the Teatro San Carlo of Naples and in Philadelphia; La sonnambula in Macerata; and Rigoletto in Bologna, with Riccardo Chailly. He opened the 1992-93 season at La Scala in Don Carlo under Riccardo Muti, and sang La favorita and Die Zauberflöte in Philadelphia, as well as Don Giovanni in Parma, Amsterdam and London with John Eliot Gardiner. He has also sung with Scottish Opera, in Florence with Myung-Whun Chung, Nabucco in Ravenna with Riccardo Muti, and the King in Aida with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta, as well as Ramfis with the same maestro in Florence.  Additional highlights include Die Frau ohne Schatten at the RAI of Torino with Giuseppe Sinopoli, Il prigioniero at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Zubin Mehta, and I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Opéra de Paris Bastille.

Mr. Silvestrelli is a regular guest of symphony orchestras worldwide and has been heard as the bass soloist with Sir Andrew Davis and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in Verdi’s Requiem; in Puccini’s Messa di gloria in Hamburg; Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Act I of Die Walküre and Pistola in Falstaff with the Minnesota Orchestra under Jeffrey Tate; the title role of Bluebeard’s Castle and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Milwaukee Symphony and Edo de Waart; Rossini’s Stabat Mater in Berlin; and Verdi’s Requiem in Siena, with the ABC Symphony in Sydney, and at the Gasteig in Munich. Mr. Silvestrelli has recorded Don Giovanni (Commendatore) conducted by John Eliot Gardiner for DGG, a production which was awarded with a Grammy in 1995, and Haydn’s L’anima del filosofo for Decca (1996).