Ambrogio Maestri

{{short description|Italian operatic baritone (born 1970)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Ambrogio Maestri

| image = Falstaff 3.jpg

| image_upright = 1.3

| caption = Maestri as Falstaff, Vienna State Opera, 2016

| birth_date = {{bya|1970}}

| birth_place = Italy

| occupation = operatic baritone

}}

Ambrogio Maestri (born 1970) is an Italian operatic baritone. He is especially known for his portrayal of the title character in Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff.{{cite web|url=http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_concert_review.php?id=10164|title=Concert review|publisher=Classical Source|accessdate=15 October 2012|archive-date=14 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714163331/http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_concert_review.php?id=10164|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|last1=Mackenzie|first1=Sir Compton|last2=Stone|first2=Christopher|title=The Gramophone|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k4k9AQAAIAAJ|year=2004|publisher=C. Mackenzie|page=127}} He studied piano and singing in his home town, Pavia. In Italy he has performed at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Teatro Regio in Parma, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Regio in Turin, Teatro Verdi in Trieste and the Arena di Verona. Abroad he has performed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, the Royal Opera House in London, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, San Francisco Opera House, the Konzerthaus and the Staatsoper in Vienna, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and others.

He presents as a powerful, robust man on stage. Gramophone has described him as Italy's answer to Bryn Terfel,{{cite book|title=Gramophone Classical Good CD & DVD Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gzQ5AQAAIAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Gramophone Publications|page=1330|isbn = 9780860249726}} "fresh-voiced [and] emotionally sympathetic."{{cite book|last1=Mackenzie|first1=Sir Compton|last2=Stone|first2=Christopher|title=The Gramophone|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mH89AQAAIAAJ|year=2005|publisher=C. Mackenzie|page=84}}

He has been critically praised by the likes of Riccardo Muti.{{cite book|last=Muti|first=Riccardo|title=Riccardo Muti|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=svQgqOWZiEEC&pg=PT136|year=2011|publisher=Rizzoli|isbn=978-0-8478-3745-8|page=136}} Edward Seckerson of The Independent said of his performance as Falstaff at the Royal Opera House of London that he is "wonderfully real, animating all aspects of the text and making great play of the innate contradiction between a booming, boorish, authority and those mellifluous remnants of wily old airs and graces."{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2012/06/24/3527054.htm|title=Ambrogio Maestri is Verdi's Falstaff|publisher=ABC Classic FM|accessdate=1 October 2012|date=24 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160220121709/http://www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2012/06/24/3527054.htm|archive-date=20 February 2016|url-status=dead}}

One of his earliest roles was Monterone in Rigoletto, in 1999; he was cast by then-director Placido Domingo at the Washington National Opera.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/arts/music/a-plus-size-falstaff-grows-into-his-outsize-part.html|title=A Plus-Size Falstaff Grows into His Outsize Part|newspaper=The New York Times|date=4 December 2013|last1=Cooper|first1=Michael}} In 2003 he played Rolando in La battaglia di Legnano at the Teatro di San Carlo.{{cite book|title=RM, rassegna musicale italiana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xms9AQAAIAAJ|year=2003|publisher=Rassegna musicale italiana|page=25}} In 2012 he played the role of Dr Dulcamara in Gaetano Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore in Vienna, and at the Metropolitan Opera in September and October alongside Anna Netrebko.{{cite web|url=http://www.operafocus.com/ambrogiomaestri.htm|title=Exclusive interview with Ambrogio Maestri|publisher=Opera Focus|accessdate=1 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121206060730/http://www.operafocus.com/ambrogiomaestri.htm|archive-date=6 December 2012|url-status=dead}} In December 2013 he gave his 200th performance of Falstaff in a new production by the Metropolitan Opera in New York.{{cite news|last1=Tommasini|first1=Anthony|authorlink=Anthony Tommasini|title=An Outsize Rapscallion Let Loose on Postwar England|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/arts/music/in-carsens-falstaff-at-the-met-verdi-through-a-postwar-lens.html|work=The New York Times|date=7 December 2013|accessdate=20 June 2015}}

He appears in complete opera streaming videos of Falstaff, L'elisir d'amore, and Adriana Lecouvreur at Met Opera on Demand.[https://www.metopera.org/season/on-demand/ Met Opera on Demand].

Besides his involvement in opera, he is known for his published recipes for Italian food (particularly risottos), and for his cooking videos (some of which are posted to YouTube.)