Maltese tenor Nico Darmanin studied law in Malta before winning a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music in London, perfecting his skills at the prestigious National Opera Studio. Upon graduating, he was engaged as Danieli in the Olivier award-winning production of Verdi’s Vêpres siciliennes at the Royal Opera House under Antonio Pappano, and was immediately reinvited in the same season as Die Stimme des Jünglings in R. Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten conducted by Semyon Bychkov and staged by Claus Guth. Shortly after, Nico made his Opera Vlaanderen debut as the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier and appeared as Belfiore in Il Viaggio a Reims at the renowned Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, where he also participated in a masterclass with Juan Diego Flórez.
He debuted at the Scottish Opera singing Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola and made his Wexford Festival Opera debut as Baron de Mergy in Louis Ferdinand Hérold’s Le Pré aux clercs. He was a finalist at the 2015 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.
Nico Darmanin has subsequently established himself as a leading exponent of bel canto repertoire and is particularly admired for his thrilling interpretations of Rossini with appearances including Lindoro in L’Italiana in Algeri (Tiroler Landestheater), Uberto in La Donna del lago (Buxton International Festival), Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola (The Grange Festival), Rodrigo in Otello and Rinaldo in Armida (Valletta Teatru Manoel), Le Comte Ory (Dorset Opera Festival) and Alberto in La Gazzetta (Salzburger Landestheater).
Add to this Ernesto in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale (Opéra de Dijon, Welsh National Opera), Tonio in La Fille du Régiment by the same composer (Grange Park Opera) and Elvino in Bellini’s Sonnambula (Buxton International Festival).
He performed as Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, one of his warhorses, for the Teatro Regio Torino under Diego Fasolis, for La Fenice in a Renato Palumbo/Bepi Morassi production, for the Welsh National Opera and Opéra National de Lorraine.
More recently, Nico made his Théâtre des Champs-Elysées house debut with Louise Bertin’s Fausto alongside Christophe Rousset (issued on CD).
He took the stage as Don Ottavio in Marc Minkowski’s Da Ponte Trilogy at the Opéra de Bordeaux, a role he had embraced for the Tel Aviv Israeli Opera, Nederlandse Reisopera, Welsh National Opera, Opera Vlaanderen and in a new Mariame Clément production of Don Giovanni in Glyndebourne. He starred as Ferrando in Così fan tutte for the Teatru Manoel in Malta.
In other repertoire, the Maltese tenor has had notable successes with engagements as Alfredo in La Traviata (Opéra de Limoges, Opera North) and Nadir in Bizet’s Pêcheurs de perles (Opera North).
He is a regular guest at the Estonian National Opera where his roles have included Ernesto (Don Pasquale), Roméo (Roméo et Juliette), Uberto (La Donna del lago) and Carlo (Giovanna d’Arco).
On the concert platform Nico has given recitals in the US and Canada as well as in Europe, and has appeared in concert performances as Nicias (Massenet, Thaïs), as Osiride (Rossini, Mosè in Egitto) with the Chelsea Opera Group and as Raimbaut (Meyerbeer, Robert le Diable) under Marc Minkowski in Bordeaux, which resulted in a multi award-winning recording. His discography also includes recordings of Arthur Sullivan and Massenet, both with Richard Bonynge.
In the 2024/2025 season, Nico returns to Rossini with Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia for the Ópera de Oviedo and with Guillaume Tell (Ruodi) in a Stefano Montanari/Jean-Louis Grinda production at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège. He will star as Alessandro in Mozart’s Il Re Pastore in a new production conducted by Giulio Prandi in Malta and will reprise the title role in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette for the Estonian National Opera.
