Walter Donati Baritone

Walter Donati was born in Potsdam but grew up in Italy. In his home town Milan he studied vocals and debuted 1983 as Carlo VII. in Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco at Teatro Comunale of Alessandria.

The great success of this debut as light dramatic tenor immediately brought him guest engagements at famous Italian Opera Houses. Already in 1984 he made his debut as Oronte|I Lombardi at Teatra alla Scala di Milan. Soon he received worldwide invitations for guest performances: e.g. at Opéra de Paris, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Teatro Comunale in Florence, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Teatro Municipal di Santiago de Chile, Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, Teatro Municipal Rio de Janeiro, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

At the beginning of the 90s Walter Donati concentrated on the baritone. His first role of this voice category was Nabucco in 1992. Highly successful this developed to be his premium role with more than 300 performances since then. With Nabucco he inaugurated the new building of the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki and was celebrated as well at the theatres of Pisa, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Ascoli Piceno, Prag, Deutsches Theater München and at various open air and indoor events (Brüssel, München, Berlin, Leipzig, Zürich, Lissabon, Madrid, Paris).

Further roles of Donati include Germont|La Traviata, Rigoletto, Conte di Luna|Trovatore, Marcello|La Bohème and Rodolfo in Bohème of Leoncavallo as well as Ford|Falstaff, which he sang together with Renato Bruson in the title role in Paris.

Besides he performed Enrico|Lucia di Lammermoor and Rigoletto in Palm Beach, whereto he returned 2001 as Jago|Otello. He sang Scarpia|Tosca, at last in Brescia, Alfio|Cavalleria rusticana in Livorno, Tonio|I Pagliacci, Amonasro|Aida in Brüssel, Zürich and Amsterdam, Gleby|Siberia at Wexford Festival 1999 in Ireland and Barnabà|La Gioconda in Tokio in 2001.

After singing Michele|Tabarro and König|Dalibor in Karlsruhe, in 2003 Donati became a member of the ensemble of Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Since then he has advanced to be the darling of the public. Amongst others he performed An old Man|The Greek Passion, Gustav|Das Feuerwerk, Marquis|Don Carlos, Don Pizarro|Fidelio, Miller|Luisa Miller, Sharpless|Madama Butterfly, Scarpia, Dutchman|The flying Dutchman, Gunther|Götterdämmerung, Jack Rance|La Fanciulla del West, Simone Boccanegra, Mazeppa, Jago, Enrico, Taddeo|L'Italiana in Algeri, andMusiklehrer|Ariadne auf Naxos.

In the 2010-11 season Donati sang in Karlsruhe: Germont, Scarpia, Taddeo, Grand Prêtre|Samson et Dalila produced by José Cura, Jago, An old Man, and Barnaba. In August he performed Nabucco at Freilichtbühne Loreley.

One of his upcoming engagements will be, from December 2011 on, as Germont in Bremerhaven.

Apart from his opera engagement, Donati regularly performs at concerts, e.g. he sang at a gala concert in the State Opera of Budapest together with Eva Marton which was live broadcasted by the Hungarian TV.

Together with Katia Ricciarelli and Fabio Armiliato he participated at the world recording of Pietro Mascagni's opera Amica. This was published in 1996 and received worldwide an extremely positive response.