Biography

Ali Leone began his training at the St Petersburg State Conservatoire and continued at the Young Singers Academy of the Mariinsky Theatre — a school that shaped both his Russian repertoire and the discipline of ensemble work on a large opera stage.

He was then engaged by the Helikon Opera in Moscow, where over two seasons he sang leading tenor roles: the Pretender in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Don José in Bizet’s Carmen, Sergei in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and Claudio in Wagner’s Das Liebesverbot — the Russian premiere of the Wagner, staged by Dmitry Bertman under Vladimir Ponkin in October 2011.

He was then engaged as a soloist at the Oper Bonn, where his roles included the Fourth Jew in the new production of Richard Strauss’s Salome, conducted by Stefan Blunier, which opened in February 2015.

Alongside the opera stage he works extensively in concert. In Makhachkala he gave a recital at the Kumyk Theatre with a programme built deliberately around the less-travelled repertoire rather than the familiar hits: arias by Puccini, Cilea, Verdi and Giordano in the first half, Neapolitan songs by Tosti, De Crescenzo, De Curtis and Di Capua in the second, accompanied by the pianist Zarifa Abdullaeva.

Since the Bonn years his work has centred on the concert platform — recitals and concert programmes rather than the repertory stage.

He now lives in Vienna and continues his studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Critics have singled out the rare beauty and carrying power of the voice, the finish of his register transitions and a stage presence they describe as off the charts.