JOSÉ CARBÓ

Australian baritone José Carbó was born in Argentina of Spanish and Italian descent, and moved with his family to Australia at an early age.  He has studied under the tutelage of Thais Taras, Arax Mansourian and Margaret Baker Genovesi in Rome.  He was the winner of the prestigious Australian Singing Competition Opera Award in 2005.

José made his début with Opera Australia, in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos (in 2002), and was soon engaged for their production of Il barbiere di Siviglia in the title role.

His European début was in Italy in 2005 at the Teatro dell’ Opera di Roma where he sang the title role in Le nozze di Figaro.  That same year, he sang the title role in Il barbiere di Siviglia for the Teatro Real in Madrid; he was re-engaged by this theatre to sing Belcore in L’elisir d’amore in 2006; these performances led to an engagement as Dandini in La Cenerentola for the 2007 Mozart Festival in La Coruña - in Spain’s northern region of Galicia.  He made his La Scala debut in 2009 in Il viaggio a Reims and his American debut in 2011 as Rossini’s Figaro in Seattle.

Most recently, he has sung Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Rossini’s Il barbiere, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Marcello in La bohème, Silvio in Pagliacci, Lescaut in Manon, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte and First Officer in Madeline Lee for Opera Australia; for Opera Queensland – the title roles in Don Giovanni and Il barbiere, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore and Sonora in La fanciulla del West; for State Opera of South Australia – Rossini’s Figaro.

José Carbó has extensive experience on the concert platform: his performed repertoire includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Mass in C and Choral Symphony, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Rachmaninoff’s The Bells, Fauré’s Requiem, Brahms’ Eines Deutsches Requiem, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Mass in C minor and Mendelssohn’s Paulus with the major orchestras of Australia and New Zealand.  In October 2006, José undertook a tour as the baritone soloist with the Sydney Symphony to Japan where he sang three Don Quixote songs by Ravel in Tokyo and Osaka. 

2012 engagements included Il barbiere and Fritz in Die tote Stadt for Opera Australia, Escamillo in Carmen for Opera Queensland, Tomsky in Pique Dame for the Sydney Symphony and appearances with the Melbourne, Queensland and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras.  José’s debut album, My Latin Heart (recorded with Slava & Leonard Grigoryan and released by ABC Classics) debuted at No. 1 on the Limelight Magazine Classical Music charts.

In 2013, José Carbó sings Anckarström in a new production of Un ballo in maschera for Opera Australia in Sydney and Melbourne; he also debuts as Germont in OA’s production of La traviata.

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