ITALIAN PRESS
(Here only a selection, for a complete press coverage in Italian read the “In Italiano” page)
“Around here, there are no wholesome gay couples, but rather claims to a ‘right to depravity’—along with a certain love for Walt Disney—by the eccentric performer with the tenor voice, Ernesto Tomasini, once an actor exclusively for his elderly mother until his return to the London stage.”
Film TV, 2 September 2025
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“Then there is Ernesto Tomasini, performer and writer, who left his work on London stages to return home and care for his ailing mother. To brighten her days, he acts as if he were still on tour — with drag performances, makeup, and virtuosic singing. (…) the conversation often circles back to certain recurring themes: (…) the feeling of being “in becoming” rather than conforming to an assumed norm — a norm cleverly questioned in cabaret style in Masculine and Feminine, one of Tomasini’s most brilliant numbers. Tomasini also has film credits, ranging from Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men to Franco Maresco’s Un film fatto per Bene.”
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“(…) A remarkable figure is singer/actor/cabaret performer Ernesto Tomasini, who also returned to his family home to care for his dying mother. In the three and a half years leading up to her passing, Tomasini staged full-blown home performances for her, complete with music and costumes—continuing to do what he was born to do: theatre. (…) Sex, once at the heart of gay rights struggles in the 1970s, seems to have lost its central role today: Tomasini explains that the right to have relations with someone of the same sex has now been transformed into a sugar-coated world of feelings and love that has forgotten its original nature.”
Cineclandestino, 16 March 2025
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“According to a well-established tradition, the role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp is also performed en travesti here. In this specific case, it is Ernesto Tomasini who takes on the role, delivering a performance that avoids slipping into caricature.”
Opera Click, 7 December 2024 (but referring to the 2023 production of ‘La Fille du Regiment’)
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“From here, the stories of the other protagonists of the film unfold: that of Vivian Bellina, (…) Charly Abbadessa (…) and finally that of Ernesto Tomasini, an internationally renowned singer and performer who appears as if he stepped out of an animated cartoon, expressing his desire for his ashes to be scattered from Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in a Disney park. (…) Tomasini claims the right to depravity against the forced homogenization of certain societal narratives. And when we hear him sing – first in his home, governed like a theatre, then in the prestigious setting of the Teatro Massimo accompanied on the piano by Omer Meir Wellber – songs like Maskulinum/Femininum by Spoliansky-Schiffer, which in 1924 celebrated the joy of cross-dressing while mocking the rigid division of sexes – we reconsider the relationship between development and progress, and what is considered normal versus what is still seen as ridiculous or pathological, prompting us to reflect on the Italy we live in.”
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“It is Ernesto Tomasini, singer and theatre artist who has spent most of his life in London, who emphasizes that sex was much more important for a gay person back then than it is today.”
Corriere Della Sera, 18 July 2024
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“The documentary Quir, directed by Nicola Bellucci, presented in the Officina Sicilia section of the seventieth Taormina Film Festival, (…) Nicola Bellucci also follows (…) the flamboyant theatre artist Ernesto Tomasini. This extraordinary human material alone would justify the film. (…) Another touching story the film tells is about the affectionate care Ernesto Tomasini provides to his elderly mother in her final days, culminating with the funeral attended by all those eccentric friends.”
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“The eccentric, the differently conformed, the erotic and the stereotype are themes of discussion, of confession in this documentary that tells the lives of artists like Ernesto Tomasini.”
La Repubblica, 16 July 2024
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“A Colourful day at the TAO Fest, with the all Palermitan cast of “Quir” and the LGBT+ community that takes its space and applause with Ernesto Tomasini and Massimo Milani at the forefront.”
La Repubblica, 15 July 2024
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“Ernesto Tomasini, hybrid performer extraordinaire, half way between actor and singer with powerhouse voice, model and English gentleman.”
Il Giornale di Sicilia, 5 April 2024
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“(…) In a world premiere, at Mosso [in Milan], Ernesto Tomasini, dressed in sumptuous, sexy, picturesque costumes, (…) accompanied at the piano by a wonderfully dark Ornella Cerniglia, tells of the decadent years of the first half of the 20th Century. (…) The piano’s full-bodied and ironic notes indulge the flair of an histrionic performer able to mould language, lash playfully at the audience, range over registers, timbres, styles, tones. A whimsical show that projects us in an ambiguous and estranging time. An alternative show, sang within four octaves, that represents the climax of a festival characterised by eclecticism.”
Krapp’s Last Post, 14 November 2023
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“Excellent is Ernesto Tomasini’s performance as the Duchesse Krakenthorp en-travesti”
L’Ape Musicale, 8 November 2023
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“Ernesto Tomasini, in a very skilled performance en travesti of the duchess of KraKenthorp.”
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“A bold and intriguing “Fille du régiment” that is loved and thrills. (…) The cast is made of very well chosen players, (…) the two aristocratic characters possess singular stage presence : (…) In Duchess of Krakenthorp-Ernesto Tomasini, Michael Aspinall couldn’t have a more intelligent and creative heir.”
La Sicilia, 22 October 2023
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“Tomasini is a rare singer, born in Palermo, his voice has a range of four octaves, he can sing male and female roles and we have already heard him in a New Year’s concert dressed up and singing the role of Violetta.”
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“Ernesto Tomasini, LGBT icon, with an amazing 4 octave range.”
Il Giornale della Musica, June 2022
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“Ernesto Tomasini singer, performer and Lgbt icon, whose exceptional voice covers a 4 octave range.”
Il Resto del Carlino, 26 May 2022
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“Ernesto Tomasini singer from Palermo, performer and LGBTQ+ icon.”
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“Man and artiste, in daily life as onstage, a multiple threat (actor, singer, mover, cabaret star, conceptual and visual artist) who dances on transgression”
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BRITISH PRESS
“maverick Italian opera singer and actor Ernesto Tomasini, whose roles include a one-man act called True or Falsetto? A Secret History of the Castrati.”
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“Devotional Songs [is] an effort made in tandem with Italian opera singer Ernesto Tomasini—who’d previously worked with Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson (of Coil, Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV) and Andrew Liles (of Nurse with Wound)—the LP has a notably dramatic bent, and seems to exist in a universe where nightclubs are either irrelevant or were never created in the first place. Tomasini’s lyrics may not be focused on wizards and elves, but the record is more D&D than DMZ, its sonic grandeur tapping into the same sort of Tolkien-esque magic that powered a lot of ’70s prog rock.”
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“(…) a collection of eccentric prog-dub poetry with opera firebrand Ernesto Tomasini.”
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INTERNATIONAL PRESS
“Was wiederum wunderbar zu Ernesto Tomasini passt, Drag Queen, Sänger und Performer, ein selbstgelabelter «fluider» Schwuler, der die Verwandlung über alles stellt und sich nicht festlegen will. Ausser im Hinblick auf die liebevolle Betreuung seiner dementen Mutter. Für sie hat er seine Karriere in London abgebrochen und den mütterlichen Haushalt in Palermo in eine Art Performance-Care-Home verwandelt, mit Freundinnen und Freunden, die mithelfen, mittanzen oder sich auch einfach gemeinsam für die Gay Parade aufbrezeln.”
Sennhausers Film Blog (Switzerland), 5 May 2025
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“Ernesto Tomasini (…) is an internationally respected singer and actor who puts his career on hold to care for his ailing mother. In between doing the more mundane tasks he also performs for her often befuddled amusement. It speaks to a theme Bellucci sees as fundamental to the film: “The point of the film is to take care of each other. Everyone in the film has to take care of someone.”
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“Ronduit komisch was de bariton Ernesto Tomasini als drag queen annex La duchesse de Krakenthorp.”
Opera Gazet (Holland), 2 November 2023
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“C’est à l’honneur de Marco Gandini, qui fut assistant de Franco Zeffirelli, d’avoir su indiquer aux chanteurs la voie étroite entre comique et pathétique et à l’honneur des interprètes que de l’avoir suivie sans déraper. Même le personnage de la duchesse, confié désormais à un homme, échappe aux outrances auxquelles on le soumet parfois. (…) En duchesse de Crakentorp, Ernesto Tomasini vise à l’élégance et s’abstient de tout effet comique grotesque, se bornant par des mimiques à exprimer l’hypocrisie du personnage. Son interprétation d’une chanson populaire napolitaine écarte aussi tout excès, hormis un grave inattendu dont la projection vigoureuse fait sursauter l’auditoire alors que l’émission est restée homogène et plutôt ferme.
Forum Opera (France) – 24 October 2023
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“Tomasini est un chanteur rare, né à Palerme, sa voix a une gamme de quatre octaves, il peut chanter des rôles masculins et féminins et nous l’avons déjà entendu dans un concert du Nouvel An s’habiller et chanter le rôle de Violetta.”
Ansa (France), 1 December 2022
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Tomasini es un cantante raro, nacido en Palermo, su voz tiene un rango de cuatro octavas, puede interpretar papeles masculinos y femeninos y ya lo hemos escuchado en un concierto de año nuevo vistiendo y cantando el papel de Violetta.
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“Tomasini is a rare singer, born in Palermo, his voice has a range of four octaves, he can sing male and female roles and we have already heard him in a New Year’s concert dressing and singing the role of Violetta.”
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“(…) el excéntrico vocalista italiano Ernesto Tomasini (…)
Rockdelux (Spain) – 5 November 2021
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“(…) et il n’y a rien de plus susceptible de diviser que la croche chargée de gravitas de Tomasini.”
News.Fr 24 (France) – 22 September 2021
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RADIO
“An eclectic artist, a term abused in showbusiness but in his case it couldn’t be more fitting, is there anything he cannot do? Acting, singing, entertaining, drawing… an artist with capital A. Farinelli for the millennium.”