One of the most valued tenors in the international opera scene, Stefano La Colla was born in Turin in a Sicilian family. He studied and graduated from the Conservatory “Pietro Mascagni” in Livorno, and continued his studies with Luciana Serra and Carlo Meliciani. He has won the First Prize at Voci Pucciniane competition in Torre del Lago.

After the first successes in Italian theatres, he started his international career in 2011, but the turning point was in 2015 with his glamorous debut at Teatro alla Scala as Calaf in Turandot under the baton of Riccardo Chailly. Thanks to this great success, he was immediately invited back to La Scala to perform Turiddu’s role in Cavalleria Rusticana (2015).

He has sung in some of the most prestigious opera houses in Italy, such as the Teatro alla Scala, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, and abroad in the Wiener Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Liceu de Barcelona, De Nationale Opera Amsterdam, Semperoper Dresden, Staatsoper Hamburg and more.

In December 2017 he made his US debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, performing with great acclaim as Calaf in Turandot.

Other leading roles include Radamès in Aida, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Ismaele in Nabucco, Pollione in Norma, Don Alvaro in La forza del destino, Manrico in Il Trovatore and many more.

This is his first appearance with the Israel Philharmonic.