Franco Federici studied at Parma Academy of music from which he temporarily retired to start his career as a professional singer.

Nevertheless, in September 1971 he resumed his studies and finally graduated as a private student. In 1961 he won his first opera contest which was followed by a series of other successes in Catania, Trieste, Florence (Teatro Comunale), Venice (Teatro La Fenice) , Spoleto (Teatro Sperimentale), Reggio Emilia (Teatro Municipale) and Milan where he played the Mozartian role of Leporello (from Don Giovanni) at Teatro Nuovo. In December 1963 he made his debut in Firenze playing in La forza del destino and, from that moment on, he started singing in the major opera houses in Italy and abroad. In Italy he has sung almost every season until 1989 in Parma (Teatro Regio) but he has also been active in Milan (La Scala), Rome (Teatro dell’Opera), Venice (Teatro la Fenice), Verona (Arena), Naples (Teatro San Carlo), Bologna (Teatro Comunale), Torino (Teatro Regio), Trieste (Teatro Verdi) as well as in other minor opera houses.

In Europe he has performed almost everywhere: Austria, Bulgaria, Czecho-Slovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Ex-Yugoslavia, Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland and Hungary. In 1979 he started singing in Colombia where he scored a big personal success by singing in no less than 7 operas out of 8 in program. In Colombia he played the role of Leporello (Don Giovanni), Don Bartolo (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore), Ramfis (Aida), Sparafucile (Rigoletto) and Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor). He has also sung in the United States in the cities of New York, Washington, S. Francisco and Dallas.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: G.N. Vetro. Le voci del Ducato, in G.Pr, 25 lug. 1982;