Joan Pons

About

Joan Pons, widely known on international stages as Juan Pons, is a Spanish operatic baritone from Ciutadella whose voice became synonymous with the great Verdi baritone roles. His international career took off at La Scala in 1980, when he stepped into Falstaff for a production directed by Giorgio Strehler and conducted by Lorin Maazel, and he never really looked back. By 2011 he had logged 337 performances at the Metropolitan Opera alone, which tells you something about his standing in the operatic world. His repertoire stretches across the core Italian canon, from Rigoletto and Nabucco to Tosca and Madama Butterfly, plus lesser heard works like Respighi's La fiamma and Wolf Ferrari's Sly. He shared the stage with Plácido Domingo at the Ravenna Festival in 1998 and again in 2005 for a Deutsche Grammophon recording of Puccini's Edgar. Riccardo Muti conducted him on multiple occasions, including a celebrated Falstaff at La Scala marking the centennial of the opera's premiere.