Rosario La Spina

Tenor

Australian tenor Rosario La Spina is widely recognised for his powerful voice and affinity with the great Italian spinto and verismo repertoire. A regular artist with Opera Australia, he has taken on many of the company’s most demanding roles, while also appearing at leading houses across Europe, North America, and Asia.

With Opera Australia, Rosario made his debut as Cavaradossi in Tosca and has since performed numerous leading Italian tenor roles for the company, including Radames (Aida), Alfredo (La traviata), Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), The Duke (Rigoletto), Rodolfo (La bohème), Turiddu (Cavalleria rusticana), Calaf (Turandot), and Macduff (Macbeth). He has also sung Don José in Carmen, the title role in The Tales of Hoffmann and The Prince in both Prokofiev’s Love for Three Oranges and Dvořák’s Rusalka. Most recently, he made his role debut as Siegmund in a new production of Die Walküre.

Beyond Opera Australia, Rosario has frequently appeared with major companies across the country. For State Opera South Australia, he has sung Cavaradossi, Don Alvaro (La forza del destino), Turiddu, Canio (Pagliacci) and Rodolfo; for West Australian Opera his roles have included Manrico (Il trovatore), Maurizio (Adriana Lecouvreur), Alfredo and The Duke. He has performed The Duke and Macduff for Opera Queensland, Pollione (Norma) and Canio for Victorian Opera, and starred as Erik (Der fliegende Holländer) and Samson (Samson et Dalila) with Melbourne Opera.

In North America, Rosario has appeared as Rodolfo and Radames for Seattle Opera, with further performances as Radames in Detroit and in Canada. Across Asia and New Zealand he has performed The Duke and Verdi’s Requiem in Taiwan, Samson in Tokyo and Don José throughout Japan, and both Turiddu and Canio for Festival Opera, New Zealand.

He won first prize in the Mario Del Monaco International Opera Competition and made his La Scala debut as Riccardo in Verdi’s Oberto, later reprising the role in Genoa. His European credits also include Gaston in Jérusalem (Fidenza), Turiddu and Canio at the Luglio Musicale Trapanese Festival, Pinkerton in Belgium, and Calaf and Manrico in Serbia.

Rosario has performed with all of Australia’s major state orchestras and appears on several recordings. His discography includes Classical Spectacular with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (ABC Classics), Puccini Romance with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (ABC Classics), and The Prince in Rusalka under Richard Hickox (Chandos). In 2009 he released a major solo album with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo (Universal Music), followed by the 2010 album Always You with his sister Anna-Maria La Spina, which topped the classical charts in Australia.

In 2026, Rosario returns to Opera Australia to reprise his celebrated portrayal of Calaf in a new production of Turandot.