Mattei studied at the
Royal Swedish Academy of Music, and debuted in
Mozart's
La finta giardiniera as Nardo at the
Drottningholm Palace Theatre in Stockholm in 1990. In 1993 Mattei starred as Pentheus in the
Ingmar Bergman's TV-film
Backanterna. He sang the title role in
Mozart's
Don Giovanni for the first time at the
Gothenburg Opera in the 1994–95 season. In the same season, Peter Mattei performed as Figaro in Mozart's
Le Nozze di Figaro. Peter Mattei made his international debut as Don Giovanni at the
Scottish Opera in
Glasgow,
Scotland. He was then invited to the
Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie,
Brussels,
Belgium and to the
Aix-en-Provence Festival,
France. His first appearance at the
Salzburg Festival was in
Beethoven's
Fidelio, singing Don Fernando conducted by Sir
Georg Solti in 1996.
Claudio Abbado selected him as the bass soloist in
Bach's
St. Matthew Passion with the
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2002, Peter Mattei made his first appearance at the
Metropolitan Opera as Count Almaviva in
Mozart's
The Marriage of Figaro. This role has been followed by, among others the title role in
Mozart's
Don Giovanni in 2003 and Figaro in
Rossini's
The Barber of Seville in 2006. With
Don Giovanni he made a very successful debut at
La Scala in
Milan, opening the 2011–2012 season. == Personal life ==