Riccardo Zanellato studied voice with Arrigo Pola and specialised with Bonaldo Giaiotti. He also obtained a diploma in guitar at the Music Conservatory in Adria (Italy). He won the Iris Adami Corradetti and the A. Belli competitions, followed by his debut in Gounod's Faust. In 1996 he was awarded the first prize at the Operalia competition in Tokyo.
He has since appeared on numerous prestigious international stages: Macbeth (Banquo) at the Berlin Staatsoper; Otello (Ludovico) at the Opéra Bastille in Paris; and Rigoletto (Sparafucile) at the Teatro alla Scala; a Verdi Gala with Domingo, Carreras, Raimondi and Nucci under the baton of Zubin Mehta in Parma in 2001; Donizetti's Don Sébastien at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna; Maria Stuarda and Anna Bolena (Enrico VIII) at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo; Anna Bolena at the Helsinki Opera; Attila, La Battaglia di Legnano and Pizzetti's Assassinio nella Cattedrale conducted by Bruno Bartoletti at the Teatro Regio in Parma; Simon Boccanegra (Fiesco) and Norma at the Teatro Bellini in Catania; Rigoletto and Norma at the Teatro Regio in Turin and at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo; Aida at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa; Il Trovatore and Aida (Ramphis) at the Arena in Verona and the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari; Tancredi at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste; Lucia di Lammermoor (Raimondo) in Wiesbaden and Macerata; Massenet's Le Roi de Lahore, La Juive and Wolf-Ferrari's The Cunning Widow at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice; Nabucco (Zaccaria) in Wiesbaden, Copenaghen, Bologna, Parma and Modena; Verdi's Requiem in Washington; Guglielmo Tell (Walter Furst) conducted by Alberto Zedda in La Coruña; Ifigenia in Tauride (Thoas) and Le Nozze di Figaro at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia; Luisa Miller at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona; La Sonnambula (Il Conte Rodolfo) at the Opéra de Montréal and in Cagliari; Iphigénie en Aulide at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome; I Puritani (Sir Giorgio) at the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam and in Cagliari; Il Trovatore (Ferrando) at the Théâtre Municipal de Lausanne; and Rigoletto at the Opéra Royale de Wallonie in Liège, on tour in France and at the Terme di Caracalla in Rome.
He recently performed in Moise et Pharaon (Osiride), Nabucco, Macbeth and Simon Boccanegra under the baton of Riccardo Muti in Rome; La Forza del Destino (Padre Guardiano) in Vilnius and under Gianluigi Gelmetti in Parma; Luisa Miller in Lyon and in Bilbao; and Mosè in Egitto (Mosé) at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro; Lucia di Lammermoor at the Settimane Musicali in Stresa; Rossini's Stabat Mater in San Remo; Verdi's Requiem in Naples conducted by Riccardo Muti; Verdi's Requiem at the Verdi Festival in Parma under Yuri Temirkanov and in Vilnius with Violeta Urmana, Poliuto and La Bohème at the Opernhaus Zurich; Norma at the Terme in Caracalla; Anna Bolena in Munich.
Mr Zanellato has just made his debut at the Teatro alla Scala singing Aida, and he has just performed at the Accademia Nazionale Santa Cecilia in Rome, Antonio Pappano conducting. Riccardo Zanellato recently returns to Rome singing Nabucco at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. Mr Zanellato sang Banco in Macbeth at the opening night season at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Roberto Abbado conducting and Bob Wilson directing; Nabucco in Rovigo and Verdi's Requiem in Portorico, in Bologna then on tour in Moscow at the Rostropovich Festival and in Barcelona. His future plans include: Nabucco in Stuttgart; Verdi's Requiem in Cincinnati, in St. Louis and in Vilnius; Simon Boccanegra in Lyon; Norma at the Opéra in Paris, Il trovatore at the Salzburg Festival.