Born in Florence, Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani studied violin as a child before turning resolutely to voice at age 19, when he entered the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in his native town.
One of the most celebrated Mozartian of his generation, Anicio has been heard in the roles of Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) at Opéra de Lausanne, Teatro La Fenice and Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) at Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège and La Fenice; Idamante (Idomeneo) at Teatro Real in Madrid with Ivor Bolton and Arbace in the same opera under Rubén Dubrovsky at Oper Köln. He starred as Ferrando (Così fan tutte) for La Fenice under Antonello Manacorda, in Drottningholm, Versailles and Bucharest alongside Mark Minkowski, at Opéra de Lille with Emmanuelle Haïm and for the Palau de les Arts in Valencia under Stefano Montanari.
He sang in Gluck’s Alceste conducted by René Jacobs for the Ruhrtriennale, and in Le Cinesi by the same composer under the baton of Fabio Biondi in Valencia.
Also recognized for his work in the baroque repertoire, Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani performed in Monteverdi’s Orfeo in a new Robert Carsen production in Lausanne and in Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Ottavio Dantone and throughout Europe (Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Bozar Bruxelles…) alongside René Jacobs. He took on the title role in Handel’s Giove in Argo at Theater an der Wien and joined forces with Emmanuelle Haïm for Handel’s Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at both the Berlin Philharmonie and Baden-Baden Festival. Ancio also appeared as Oronte in Alcina conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón in Geneva, returning to the role in Monte-Carlo, Toulouse and Versailles with the complicity of Ottavio Dantone.
He headlined Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Marc Minkowski on a European tour and Rameau’s Les Indes galantes under Leonardo García Alarcón at Grand Théâtre de Genève.
In the Bel Canto repertoire, Anicio could be heard in the roles of Conte Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at La Fenice, Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia in a new Tobias Kratzer production at Theater St. Gallen, Narciso in Il Turco in Italia in a new Giacomo Sagripanti/Laurent Pelly production at Teatro Real in Madrid, and Ernesto in Laurent Pelly’s Don Pasquale staging at both Brussels’ La Monnaie and Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville.
Recently, he took part in the gala concert celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Emmanuelle Haïm’s Concert d’Astrée at Paris Théâtre des Champs-Elysées alongside opera icons such as Natalie Dessay and Rolando Villazón (issued on Erato).
Other past operatic engagements include Mercadante’s I due Figaro (Torribio) under Riccardo Muti at Madrid Teatro Real, Buenos Aires Teatro Colón, Salzburg Festival and Ravenna Festival; Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots (De Tavannes) under Marc Minkowski at Grand Théâtre de Genève; Luigi Cherubini’s Chant sur la mort de Joseph Haydn led by Riccardo Muti for the Salzburg Festival; the world premiere of Fabio Vacchi’s Jeanne Dark (Gilles de Rais) at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Anicio has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon (Haendel’s Ezio), Naïve (Vivaldi’s Serenata a tre), Naxos (Morlacchi’s Tebaldo e Isolina), Virgin Classics (Haendel’s Berenice), Erato (Handel’s Giove in Argo and Ariodante), Hyperion (Cesti’s Disgrazie d’Amore), Glossa (Monteverdi’s Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and Caldara’s Morte e sepoltura di Cristo) and Dynamic (Hasse’s Artaserse and Monteverdi’s Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria).
In the 2024/2025 season, Anicio will star in Auber’s Manon Lescaut (Gervais) in a Guillaume Tourniaire/Arnaud Bernard production at Teatro Regio di Torino and in La Traviata (Alfredo) in a Vincenzo Milletarì/Tamara Heimbrock production at Neue Oper Freiburg.
For La Monnaie in Brussels, he will perform in I Grotteschi, a new twofold performance distilled from the Monteverdi trilogy conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón and directed by Rafael R. Villalobos, and offer a recital dedicated to Mozart arias under the baton of Alain Altinoglu.
