Decca Classics has just announced the signing of British-Italian tenor Freddie De Tommaso. His debut album, ‘Passione’, will be released on April 9 – just one day after the centenary of the birth of the great singer Franco Corelli, to whom the album pays homage.

In signing to Decca, the 27-year-old follows in a prestigious line-up of tenors, including Mario Del Monaco, Carlo Bergonzi, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Luciano Pavarotti and Joseph Calleja, all of whom recorded for the label. De Tommaso’s album will feature arrangements made for some of these star tenors, including by Henry Mancini, Mantovani and Giancarlo Chiaramello, plus arrangements of songs made for Di Stefano by Roberto Negri.

It also includes three new arrangements: Respighi’s Nebbie in a new orchestration by Salvatore Di Vittorio based on Respighi’s original manuscript, and two Puccini songs specially orchestrated for this recording: Mentia l’avviso and Sole e amore. Renato Balsadonna, former chorus director at the Royal Opera House, will conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra on the album.

A graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music, De Tommaso was a member of the Young Singer Academy at the Salzburg Festival in 2018, and of the studio of the Bayerische Staatsoper during the 18/19 season. He’s also received both the Plácido Domingo Tenor Prize, and the Verdi Prize at the 2018 Francisco Viñas International Singing Competition in Barcelona.

High profile live performances include as Cassio in Verdi’s Otello at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (December 2019), and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at the Wiener Staatsoper (September 2020).

‘It’s a great honour to join the ranks of illustrious tenors on the Decca Classics roster,’ said De Tommaso. ‘Decca’s belief in me is both humbling and inspiring and I look forward to some exciting collaborations ahead. The songs on my debut album are all close to my heart and pay tribute to my heritage and my heroes so I hope to share their passion with as many people as possible.’

‘Nothing beats the thrill of signing a new tenor and in Freddie De Tommaso we have a voice which has already set pulses racing across Europe,’ said Decca Classics label director Dominic Fyfe. ‘It’s rare to find a true spinto tenor today and, at only 27, Freddie has the world at his feet.’

You can hear Freddie De Tommaso in the album trailer below: