Born in Carpi, Riccardo Ferrari started his vocal studies at the Conservatorio di Parma, continuing with Gina Cigna, Aldo Protti, and Samuel Ramey. He has sung numerous leading bass rôles during a very successful career that has taken him to major opera houses throughout Italy and the rest of Europe, to Japan and to the United States. Operas in his repertoire include Rigoletto, Don Carlo, Turandot, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La forza del destino, Semiramide, Carmen, Nabucco, Norma, Aida, Roméo et Juliette, Guillaume Tell, Moïse et Pharaon, Faust and Macbeth.