Virgilio Marino

Tenor

Australian tenor Virgilio Marino has established himself as a regular presence in the national operatic landscape. He has a long-standing relationship with Opera Australia, where his recent performances have included Remendado in Carmen, Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, Gastone in La traviata, and the Dean of Faculty in Cinderella, with earlier appearances as Pang and Pong in Turandot, The Abbé in Adriana Lecouvreur, Goro in Madama Butterfly, Andres in Wozzeck, Borsa in Rigoletto, Cassio in Otello, Uldino in Attila, and Camille in The Merry Widow. In 2026, he returns to the company as Borsa, Pang, Goro, and Camille.

Beyond Opera Australia, Virgilio was a principal artist with Opera Queensland, where he sang Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Ramiro in La Cenerentola, Rodolfo in La bohème, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, The Duke in Rigoletto, Alfredo in Die Fledermaus, and Malcolm in Macbeth, alongside character roles such as Pong, Jaquino in Fidelio, Roderigo in Otello, Spoletta in Tosca, Gastone in La traviata, Njegus in The Merry Widow, and Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte. Additional Australian engagements have brought him to West Australian Opera as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, to Sydney as Howard Boucher in Dead Man Walking and to State Opera South Australia as Jaquino, Don Ottavio, and Harry in La fanciulla del West. He has sung Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro and Gastone for the Brisbane Festival.

Internationally, Virgilio made his professional debut at Theater Regensburg in Germany, performing The Duke in Rigoletto and the title role in Oberon. He has also appeared in Japan as Ferrando in a new production of Così fan tutte, presented by the International Foundation for Arts and Culture in collaboration with Opera Australia, and with Southern Opera New Zealand as Rinuccio. In Italy, he performed Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle in Milan.

On the concert platform, Virgilio has been heard in major choral and symphonic works across Australia, New Zealand and Asia. His repertoire includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonia and Orchestra of the Music Makers in Singapore; Verdi’s Requiem with the Melbourne Symphony and Sydney Philharmonia; Mozart’s Requiem with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra; Enescu’s Vox Maris with the Melbourne Symphony; Handel’s Messiah with Queensland Choir; and Shepherd in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex for the New Zealand Festival.

Virgilio studied voice at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Mannes College of Music in New York, where his operatic work included Fenton in Falstaff, Prunier in La rondine and Alfredo in La traviata. He undertook further study in Italy focusing on the bel canto repertoire and was a semi-finalist in the Concorso Riccardo Zandonai in Riva, Italy.