Giacomo Aragall was born in Barcelona. He became a member of the Choir of the Basilica 
of Santa Maria del Mar at the age of nine and at the age of 19 he began his singing studies 
under the direction of Jaime Francisco Puig. He made his debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu 
in the 1961-1962 season in the roles of Arlecchino (I Pagliacci by Leoncavallo) and Arturo 
(Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti).
Thanks to the economic support of the Board of Proprietors of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, 
he went to Milan to complete his studies with Vladimiro Badiali. 
Within a few months he had won the first prize and the Gold Medal in the International 
Competition of Verdian Voices of Busetto. 
Giacomo Aragall’s debut in a leading role was at the Teatro de la Fenice of Venice on 
24 September 1963, in Verdi’s opera Jerusalemme. That same year he debuted in Palermo 
and at the Teatro Alla Scala in Milan, in the works L’amico Fritz by Mascagni and La Bohème 
by Puccini. In the 1963-1964 season he returned to the Gran Teatre del Liceu, as first tenor. 
During that same season he performed in Venice, Genoa, Palermo, Parma, Modena, Naples, 
Rome, Turin and again at the Teatro Alla Scala in Milan, in a production of Bellini’s I Capuletti 
e i Montecchi, in which he played the role of Romeo. This was the first time Romeo had ever 
been sung by tenor, since the role was originally written for and performed by a mezzo-soprano. 
During his career Giacomo Aragall sang in the leading opera theatres in the world. He has 
worked with great conductors like Claudio Abbado, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Giuseppe Patanè, 
Sir Georg Solti, Sir Charles Mackerras, Carlos Kleiber, Lorin Maazel, Georges Prêtre, 
Richard Bonynge, Zubin Mehta, and Plácido Domingo, as well as with famous stage directors, 
such as Luchino Visconti, Jean Villar, Edoardo de Filippo, Franco Zeffirelli, Renato Castellani, 
Roman Polanski, and Jean Pierre Ponnelle.
He has performed in the following operas: Le Pescatrici by Haydn; Lucia di Lammermoor, 
Lucrezia Borgia, La Favorita and Caterina Cornaro by Donizetti; I Capuletti e i Montecchi by 
Bellini; Jerusalemme, La Traviata, Un Ballo in Maschera, Don Carlo, Rigoletto and 
Simon Boccanegra by Verdi; La Bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly by Puccini; 
and Adriana Lecouvreur by Cilea; Faust by Gounod; Manon, Esclarmonde and Werther 
by Massenet. 
Jaime Aragall performed recitals and concerts, in leading concert halls such as the Amsterdam 
Concertgebouw, Salle Pleyel of Paris, Vienna Staatsoper and Musikverein, 
Gran Teatre del Liceu and Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Teatro Real of Madrid, 
Teatro de la Maestranza of Seville, Herculessaal in Munich, Deutsche Oper in Berlin and 
Zürich Opernhaus.
The First Jaume Aragall International Singing Competition took place in 1994 in Torroella de 
Montgrí. Now it is held in the city of Girona.




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