Robert Barbaro
Tenor/Solicitor
Producer / Director
Italo-Australian tenor Robert Barbaro’s recent projects include a French Tour in Eric Levi’s Era – The Live Experience; a West End double-bill production playing the roles of Cavaradossi and Rodolfo in Tosca and La Bohème respectively for King’s Head Theatre at Trafalgar Studios in London; and an opera gala concert in Kaliningrad, Russia.
One of Robert's new projects in the UK includes 'The Italian Songbook - a Cultural Landscape'. This concert series devised and directed by Antonio Pappano Riccio will explore Italian and Neapolitan songs from the 20th Century. Updated dates will be available once the COVID-19 situation has subsided.
He also now hosts 9 Year Gap: a podcast about career change and featuring interviews with interesting people with success stories from all around the world.
In 2019, he completed his time as a young artist at The National Opera Studio (“NOS”) in London where performances included scenes as Peter Grimes (Peter Grimes) and Ferrando (Così fan tutte) with Scottish Opera and the
English National Opera Orchestra; Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor) with Welsh National Opera; Albert (Albert Herring), Harry King (Anthropocene) at NOS and in the original show Last days with Opera North. He worked with Directors Michael McCarthy, Keith Warner, Tim Albery. Orpha Phelan, Emma Jenkins, Jonathan Haswell and conductors, Charles Peebles, Mark Shanahan, David Cowen and Laurent Pillot.
As well as holding degrees in Law and Arts from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, he studied opera at the Lisa Gasteen Opera School in Australia and with soprano Mirella Freni at the Teatro Comunale Luciano Pavarotti in Modena, Italy. With sponsorships from international trusts such as ‘The Acclaim Awards’, ‘The Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust’ and the ‘Europe Fund’, he continues to pursue his career on the European operatic stage. Roles include Gherardo and Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi) for the Teatro Comunale Luciano Pavarotti, Alfredo (La traviata), Rodolfo (La Bohème), Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Nadir (Les pêcheurs de perles), Raoul (Die lustige Witwe), Uldino (Attila), Doctor Kirk in Marshall-Hall’s Stella and Fenton (Falstaff) for the Teatro Regio di Parma.
He made his UK debut in 2018 as Ferrando in Così fan tutte for Dulwich Opera and performed the roles of Frantz, Andrès and Cochenille in a re-working of The Tales of Hoffmann titled A Fantastic Bohemian for the 2018 Grimeborn Festival in London. In 2019 he performed the role of Kunz Vogelgesang in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Fulham Opera in London.
Equally at home on the concert and cross-over platforms, he has performed Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart's Requiem, Haydn's Missa in tempore belli, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and Orff’s Carmina Burana, as well as in recital for the 2017 international award winning 'Festival Verdi'. Other theatrical pursuits include Piangi (The Phantom of the Opera), Tony (Masterclass), Marco (The Gondoliers), Mario Lanza in the Australian tour of The loveliest night of the year and a world tour with international singing group ‘The Ten Tenors’