BIOGRAPHY
Puerto Rican baritone César A. Méndez Silvagnoli has been praised for his dark, velvety voice and strong stage presence. Since March 2022 he is a principal soloist of the Mariinsky Theater, Primorsky stage where he regularly performs a variety of roles such as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Giorgio Germont in la traviata, Silvio in Pagliacci, le Dancaïre in Carmen among others. Future and recent engagements include Un Almanaque in María Moliner at the Ópera de Tenerife and Belcore in L'elisir d'amore with Opera de Puerto Rico.
Other recent international engagements include, Escamillo in La tragédie de Carmen at the Teatro Goldoni di Livorno, Conte di Luna in il trovatore at the Teatro Verdi di Pisa, Moràles in Carmen at the Teatro de la Maestranza, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at Ópera de Oviedo and El padre de Florentina in Marianela at the Teatro de la Zarzuela.
In the 2017-2019 seasons Mr. Méndez was a member of the Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía. During his residency in Valencia, he performed Esteban in La Malquerida, Un Mandarino in Turandot, Buonafede in Il Mondo della Luna and Sciarrone in Tosca.
He has worked under the baton of Plácido Domingo, Victor DeRenzi, Victor Pablo Pérez, Nicola Luisotti, Maximiano Valdés, Oliver Díaz, Vladislav Karklin, Pavel Smelkov and distinguished stage directors such as Emilio Sagi, Joan Antón Rechi, Davide Livermoore, Emilio López, Paco Azorín.
Additional roles include Valentin in Faust, George Benton in Dead Man Walking, Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Marcello in La bohème, José Dolores Pimienta in the cuban zarzuela Cecilia Valdés, Felipe in La revoltosa, Joaquín in La del manojo de rosas, Vidal in Luisa Fernanda and Benjamin Franklin in the world premiere of Paul Moravec's The King's Man.
Mr. Méndez was awarded the Second Prize, Audience Prize "Oroitz Maiz Morea" and the Atelier d' Excellence Prize on the XVII Concurso Internacional de Música de les Corts; the First Prize on the XXXVIII Concurso Internacional de Canto "Ciudad de Logroño" and the Special Prize “Teatro Nacional de la Zarzuela” to the best zarzuela interpretation in the 58th Concurso Internacional de Canto “Francisco Viñas". Other accolades include the First Prize in the II Concurso Nacional de Canto Ciudad de Albacete; the First Prize, “Ciudad de Sevilla” prize, “Teatro de la Maestranza” prize, "Compañía Sevillana de Zarzuela” prize and the Audience Special prize in the “XVI Certamen Nuevas Voces Ciudad de Sevilla”; the First prize on the “VII Certamen de Zarzuela de Valleseco”; the First prize on the VI Concurso Internacional de Canto “Un Futuro DeArte” de Medinaceli; and the Second Prize and Ópera de Oviedo Prize on the XXXVII Concurso Internacional de Canto “Ciudad de Logroño”. In addition César, has been a finalist of the VII Concurso Internacional de Canto Alfredo Kraus and VI Concurso Internacional de Canto “Ópera de Tenerife”.
He has been a Resident Artist with Sarasota Opera, Kentucky Opera, and Des Moines Metro Opera. He obtained a Master's degree of Music from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor's degree in Voice Performance from the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico.