The bass Riccardo Zanellato took his diploma in singing and guitar at the Adria Liceo Musicale in 1995, has won the Iris Adami Corradetti amd Spoleto Adriano Belli Competitions, and made his début in Gounod’s Faust.

In 1996 he was victorious in Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition in Tokyo, thereafter embarking on an international career that has brought appearances in major rôles, especially in Verdi repertoire, in major theatres in Italy and abroad. These include the Bologna Comunale, the Parma Teatro Regio, the Piacenza Municipale, the Politeama of Lecce, the Catania Bellini, the Teatro di Busseto, the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo, the Trieste Teatro Verdi, the Teatro Regio of Turin, the Genoa Carlo Felice, the Lirico of Cagliari, the Berlin Staatsoper, the Rome Opera, the Sferisterio of Macerata, Verona, the Puccini Festival of Torre del Lago, and La Fenice in Venice.

He made his début at La Scala with Rigoletto, sang Nabucco in Bologna and at the Savonlinna Festival and in Norma at the Palermo Teatro Massimo. He was seen in Japan in Anna Bolena.