Biography
After graduating in Law in 1990, the Spanish bass Felipe Bou furthered his vocal studies with Antonio Blancas and Alfredo Kraus. Meanwhile, he became a prize winner of various international singing competitions.
He made his operatic debut at the Teatro Arriaga de Bilbao, with Marina, in 1994. Four years later, he advanced his career throughout Europe with Les Pêcheurs de Perles, at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse. In 2000, it deserves to be cited his participation in the centenary's commemorative production of Tosca at the Opera di Roma, with Pavarotti, Zeffirelli and Domingo.
The following year he made an outstanding debut as Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, at the Düsseldorf Opera. Therefore, the Bregenz Festival invited him to join, that same year, its spectacular production of La Bohème as Colline, a role he has already performed in almost a dozen European theatres. It was also in Düsseldorf that he has made his debut as Ramfis, in Aida.
In 2003, he made his first appearance as Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette, at Tokyo, and as Conte Rodolfo in La Sonnambula, on a new production of the Leipzig Opera. In the following year, he made his debut in Don Pasquale at the Teatro Real de Madrid, alternating in the title role with José van Dam.
In 2005, as Sparafucile in Rigoletto, he stood out as the only non Italian singer in a cast headed by Leo Nucci in the Teatro Regio di Parma's tour to México. His acknowledged performance took him to the prestigious Parma Verdi Festival as Ferrando in Il Trovatore, presented at 2006. This same year he began his continued collaboration with Amsterdam's Concertgebouw.
In the 2007/2008 season, he was acclaimed by the public at his first appearance as the four villains in Les Contes D'Hoffmann, directed by Lindsay Kemp, in a co-production of Peralada, San Sebastián and Santander festivals and theatres. He also made his debut as Creonte at Teatro Massimo di Palermo's Medea; as Oroveso at Palma de Mallorca's Norma, and as Massimiliano in I Masnadieri at the Zvolen Castle Festival (Slovakia).
The last seasons are particularly significant for his warmly applauded first appearance at the Vienna Staatsoper, performing Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, his debut as Balthazar, in La Favorite directed by Hugo de Ana at Santiago de Chile, his repeated collaborations with the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, as Colline, and his debuts as Marke, in Tristan und Isolde, as Filippo II, in Don Carlo, and as Fasolt, in Das Rheingold at Oviedo, as well as his comeback in the Parma Verdi Festival and his tours to Beijing and Muscat, as Sparafucile, always with Leo Nucci and Teatro Regio di Parma's Rigoletto.
Among his extensive operatic repertoire, he achieved outstanding success in titles such as Evgeni Onegin (Gremin), L'Incoronazione di Poppea (Seneca) or Die Zauberflöte (Sarastro). Continuously demanded by the Spanish main theatres, also should be mentioned his collaboration with European festivals and theatres such as Genova, Piacenza, Frankfurt, Strasbourg, Montpellier, Nice, Avignon, Liège, St. Gallen or Orange.
His discography comprises the opera recordings of Turandot and Gianni Schicchi, for Naxos, and Albéniz's Merlin, with Plácido Domingo, for Decca. On DVD he has got D.Q., with La Fura dels Baus, and Calixto Bieitos's Don Giovanni, both for Teatre del Liceu de Barcelona, as well as Giancarlo del Monaco's La Bohème, for Teatro Real de Madrid, and La Vida Breve, for Palau de les Arts de Valencia, conducted by Lorin Maazel, and still Rigoletto, once again with Leo Nucci, for ABAO.
Felipe Bou also develops a prolific concert activity, among which stand out his appearances in Rossini's Stabat Mater at the Festival de Saint-Denis Paris, with the Orchestre National de France, Messa per Rossini at the Festival Radio France-Montpellier, Beethoven's 9th Symphony at the Palau de la Música de Valencia, and La Damnation de Faust at the Festival de Música de Canarias.
