About
Jean-Luc Ballestra (born 1976 in Nice) is a French contemporary baritone.
Ballestra was formed at the trumpet and singing at the music conservatory of his hometown. He quickly made contact with the stage and the public, and at the age of 20, he embodied Mars in Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers and Mercutio in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette at the Opéra de Nice.
In the following years, in several lyrical festivals, he approached a very broad repertoire: Moralès in Bizet's Carmen, Schaunard in Puccini's La Bohème, Johann in Massenet's Werther.
Invited at the Opéra Bastille, he played Pantalon in Prokoviev's The Love for Three Oranges and the Pilot in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. In 2006, he was invited along with Roberto Alagna, at the Opéra national de Montpellier in a production of Cyrano de Bergerac by Franco Alfano.
Born in Nice, Jean-Luc Ballestra was a boarder for two years at the CNIPAL (National Center for the Professional Integration of Lyric Artists). He was designated "Adami's Lyrical Revelation" then "Lyric Revelation of the Year" at the Victoires de la Musique Classique 2007. He made his debut on the stage of the Nice Opera (March of Orpheus in the Underworld, Mercutio of Romeo and Juliet, Ariane's Music Master in Naxos, Ping de Turandot), then interprets the role of Schaunard in La Bohème in Nancy and Marseille. In 2004, he made his debut at the Opéra national de Paris in Dialogues des carmélites. He sings Johann de Werther and Gubetta of Lucrezia Borgia in Monte-Carlo, Morales de Carmen in Montpellier, Lescaut (Manon of Massenet and Manon Lescaut of Puccini) in Nice, Haly (Italian in Algiers) in Lille, Escamillo (Carmen) with the Glyndebourne Touring Opera and at the Lille Opera, Gregorio (Romeo and Juliet) at the Salzburg Festival, Silvio (Pagliacci) at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Pantalon (The Love of the Three oranges), the Pilot (Tristan and Isolde), Silvano (A masked ball), Cyprien in the creation of Yvonne Princesse de Bourgogne at the Opéra national de Paris (a production he also performs at Wiener Festwochen and La Monnaie de Bruxelles).
During the 2012-2013 season, he made his debut at the Rome Opera in Rienzi and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in Rigoletto (Marullo). The following seasons, he sings Marullo, Leuthold (William Tell) and Masetto (Don Giovanni) at The Brussels Mint, The Spanish Hour and The Child and Spells at the Rome Opera under the direction of Charles Dutoit and La Scala in Milan under the direction of Marc Minkowski, Frédéric (Lakmé) and Olivier (Capriccio) in Metz, Albert (Werther) in Rome, Ruggiero (La Juive) and Almaviva (Les Noces de Figaro) in Nice, Ashton (Lucia di Lammermoor) and Conrad von Wenckheim (The Fairies of the Rhine) in Tours, Giacomo (Fra Diavolo) at the Rome Opera House, Morales (Carmen), Ramiro (Spanish Time) and Marco (Gianni Schicchi) at the National Opera from Paris. He made his American debut in L'Heure espagnole with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.