Silvano Carroli was born in Venice, where he began his earliest musical studies as a pupil of Marcello del Monaco, brother of the distinguished tenor Mario del Monaco. Del Monaco was a strong influence on Carroli, and by following del Monaco’s example Carroli was successful in the Venice La Fenice Opera Competition, a victory that allowed him a further period of two years study with Mario Labroca, Francesco Siciliani and Luigi Floris Ammanati.

Silvano Carroli made his début at La Fenice as Marcello in La Boheme, followed by appearances in La forza del destino, Il corsario, Otello and Aida. His career continued with Telramund in Wagner’s Lohengrin under Suitner at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste. In spite of his youth he went on to sing leading rôles in Macbeth, Nabucco, La fanciulla del West, Rigoletto, Lohengrin and various other operas under conductors of the distinction of Francesco Molinari Pradelli, Antonio Votto, Franco Capuana, Nino Sanzogno, Herbert Albert and Kurt Masur.

Appearances at the Umbrian Music Festival in Rossini’s Mose in Egitto and Cherubini’s Demophon were followed by Carroli’s début at La Scala in Tosca, under the direction of Molinari Pradelli, with Domingo and Santunione. He sang the rôles of Macbeth and Simon Boccanegra under Claudio Abbado, and took principal rôles in Aida under Schippers, Otello under Kleiber and various other prestigious engagements.

Silvano Carroli made his Convent Garden début in 1977 with Domingo and Neblett in La fanciulla del West under Zubin Mehta, a performance later issued on video-cassette. Subsequent performances included leading rôles in L’africaine under Maag, Otello under Kleiber and various appearances in Tosca. He made numerous guest appearances in the most important opera-houses in the world, with greats such as Pavarotti, Caballe, Bergonzi and Dimitrova. Since 1984 he has appeared regularly at the Arena of Verona Festival.