Luigi De Donato was born in Cosenza, where he completed his studies at the Music Conservatory ”S. Giacomantonio”. Later he studied with Margaret Baker, Gianni Raimondi, Regina Resnik and Bonaldo Giaiotti.
He has won several International Competitions of Singing and received the Award for Best Voice Basso within the International Competition “Francesco Paolo Tosti”.

Multi-talented musician and singer, has gone through different repertoires from Mozart (Colas from Bastien und Bastienne, Der Schauspieldirektor (Herr Buff) and Figaro from Le Nozze) to Cimarosa (Geronimo from Il Matrimonio Segreto) to the Belcanto Italiano (Norton from La Cambiale di Matrimonio, Don Profondo from Il Viaggio a Reims, Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola, Stabat Mater of Rossini, Donaldo from Elena e Malvina by Soliva, Rodolfo from La Sonnambula, Dulcamara from L’Elisir d’Amore, Prefetto from Linda di Chamonix and Don Pasquale) making several raids in Verdi, Bizet, Smetana, Puccini and especially in the repertoire of the twentieth century (Strawinskij, Weill, Rota and Dallapiccola).

He recently sang at La Scala in Milan Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Caronte) and Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria (Tempo and Nettuno) under the direction of Rinaldo Alessandrini driving his Concerto Italiano and directed by Bob Wilson. He has distinguished himself as one of the foremost interpreters of the repertoire of the seventeenth and eighteenth century and he has worked with leading conductors and baroque ensemble: with Giovanni Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico, Handel’s Aci Galatea e Polifemo, under the direction of Christophe Rousset he sang the role of Nettuno from Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patri.With William Christie and Les Arts Florissants he sang the role of Demonio in Sant’Alessio by Landi, L’Orfeo and Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria at the Madrid’s Teatro Real in the production of Pier Luigi Pizzi, Handel’s Tamerlano (Leone) at the Teatro Real of Madrid under the direction of Paul McCreesh, directed by Graham Vick; The Monteverdi’s Vespers at the Théatre du Châtelet in Paris under the direction of JC Spinosi and the “mise en espace” of Oleg Kulik; Campra’s Le Carnaval de Venise (the Ordonnateur, Pluton and Carnaval) with Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel etc.

His recents and forthcoming engagements include: La Cenerentola (Alidoro) at Opéra de Lausanne with S.Ranzani/A. Sinivia; Handel’s Serse (Ariodate) at Madrid, Moscou and Barcelona under the direction of J.C.Spinosi; Rossi’s Orfeo at the Nancy Opéra with Raphaël Pichon and Jetske Mijnssen; Lucifero in Handel’s Resurrezione under the baton of Diego Fasolis, Rossini’s Italiana in Algeri (Mustafa) in Rennes …