With his truly genuine bel-canto voice, Celso Albelo is currently one of the most courted tenors on the international opera circuit.
Born in Santa Cruz in Tenerife, he trained in the conservatoire in his home town and at the Escuela Superior de Canto Reina Sofía in Madrid before being accepted at the Busseto Academy (Italy), where he perfected his art with Carlo Bergonzi. His international career has taken him to the most prestigious opera houses in the world, from the New York Metropolitan to La Scala in Milan, as well as the Vienna Staatsoper, the Berlin Deutsche Oper, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the Royal Opera House in London, Opéra in Monte-Carlo, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, he Teatro Real in Madrid, Palau de les Arts in Valencia, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Fenice in Venice, the Massimo in Palermo, the Carlo Felice in Genoa, Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liege, the Opera in Tokyo, the Victorian Opera in Melbourne (Australia), the Paris Opéra National among many others in Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan, China, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Monte-Carlo and Chile. He has also sung a large amount of his repertoire in festivals such as the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, the Terme di Caracalla Festival in Rome, the Castell de Peralada Festival in Spain, Savonlinna Festival, Chorégies d’Orange, the London Proms and at Baden-Baden Festspielehaus. In Spain he is regularly invited to sing in cities such as Bilbao, Santa Cruz in Tenerife, Las Palmas de Gran Canary, A Coruña, Seville, Oviedo and Mahón. Currently he has more than 25 roles in his repertoire, especially from operas by Donizetti, Bellini and Verdi. In Japan he was awarded the Ongakunotomo magazine prize and also the Guangzhou Opera in Canton (China) has named him Honorary Artistic Consultant alongside artists such as Anne-Sophie Mutter and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
He has been awarded the 2008 Ópera Actual Prize, the Oscar della Lirica at the International Opera Awards at the Arena di Verona (in 2010 and 2012), the Teatro Campoamor Opera Prize for Best Newcomer (2010), the Best Singer of the Season (2012), the Giuseppe Lugo Prize in Italy (2013), the Codalario Magazine Prize (2014) and the Taburiente Award (2017). In 2013 he was decorated with the Canary Island Golden Medal by the Island Government, in 2015 he was named Sabandeño de Oro and in 2016 Favourite Son by the La Laguna Council (Canary Islands).
He has given recitals and concerts in the most prestigious auditoria in Spain, Japan, USA, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and England and he has collaborated with conductors such as Pappano, Mehta, Harding, Oren, Zedda, Santi, Frühbeck de Burgos, Rizzi, Pidò, Gelmetti and Frizza.
Highlights of 2018-2019 season include I Puritani at Gran Teatre del Liceu, Lucia di Lammermoor in Tenerife, Petite Messe Solennelle in Parma, his first Messa da Requiem at the Festival Internacional de Música de Canarias, his debut as Riccardo in Un ballo in Maschera at Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Hamlet at the Liceu in Barcelona, Anna Bolena at Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Rigoletto at Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Guillaume Tell at Chorégies d’Orange, and concerts in Canary Islands alongside Javier Camarena, Jorge de León and Pancho Corujo.
In the 2019-2020 season Celso Albelo gave a recital in A Coruña (Spain) and returned to the Gran Teatre del Liceu with his first Fernando in Doña Francisquita, to the Teatro Real in Madrid with his debut as Gualtiero in Il Pirata, to the Ópera de Oviedo with Lucia di Lammermoor and to La Fenice in Venice with his acclaimed Nemorino in L’Elisir d’amore.
More recently, Lucia di Lammermoor and Il Pirata at Teatro Massimo di Palermo, La Traviata at Arena di Verona, Don Gil de Alcalà at Teatro de la Zarzuela de Madrid.
Future engagements: Il Trovatore at ABAO Olbe, Les Contes d’Hoffmann at Opera de Liège.