Franco Farina has won international acclaim in most of the leading opera houses of the world including the Metropolitan Opera, Opera National de Paris, Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg State Opera, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Teatro La Fenice, Teatro Comunale in Florence, the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Theatre Royale de la Monnaie, Frankfurt Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Australian Opera, Teatro Sao Carlos in Lisbon as well as in Toulouse, Lyon, Genoa, Nice, Trieste, Toronto, Montreal, Dallas, Houston, and most other operatic centers. Key roles in his repertoire include Calaf in Turandot, Radames in Aida, Manrico in Il trovatore and Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera.

Franco Farina inaugurated the 2003/2004 season at the Teatro Comunale in Florence in Il trovatore. He then returned to both the Metropolitan Opera and the Liceu in Barcelona in Tosca and to the Vienna State Opera for Simon Boccanegra and La bohème. In Mannheim, Franco Farina performed the role of Manrico in Il trovatore. In the United States, Farina performed at the Washington National Opera in a new production of Manon Lescaut before appearing at the Los Angeles Opera in Il trovatore. Future projects also include his first Don Alvaro in La forza del destino for the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Aida for the Staatsoper Berlin, Vienna State Opera and Los Angeles Opera. He returns to Barcelona for Turandot and several productions at the Metropolitan Opera.

Franco Farina was born in Connecticut and is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He made his professional debut in 1982 at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston and was soon heard in leading opera companies throughout North America including the Dallas Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Houston Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Seattle Opera and many others. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in the autumn of 1990 as Rodolfo in La bohème opposite Mirella Freni and has since returned to the Metropolitan each subsequent season for further performances of La bohème as well as in La traviata, Madama Butterfly, Eugene Onegin, Carmen, Un ballo in maschera, Turandot and Il trovatore.

Farina has performed with most of the leading theaters in Europe such as the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg State Opera, Grand Theatre de Geneve, Frankfurt Opera, Nice Opera, Netherlands Opera, Lyon Opera, Toulouse Opera, Glyndebourne Festival and many others. The artist has forged a particularly close relationship with the Opéra National de Paris where he first appeared in the autumn of 1995 when he opened the season at the Bastille as Adorno in the new production of Simon Boccanegra. He has returned there in new productions of Eugene Onegin, Norma, Macbeth and Attila as well as for revivals of La bohème, Butterfly and Turandot. He sang his first Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera in what was also his debut at the Monnaie in Brussels under Antonio Pappano. He has often appeared at the Vienna State Opera where he has been heard in a new production of Mefistofele under Riccardo Muti and in Un ballo in maschera, La bohème, Tosca and La traviata. Farina debuted at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in La bohème and has returned to the house for Tosca and Traviata. Farina returned to Covent Garden in 2002 for the new production of Verdi's I masnadieri. He had previously been heard in London as the Duke in Rigoletto.

Farina, made his Italian stage debut as Rodolfo in La bohème at the Puccini Festival in Torre Del Lago and has since appeared in Rome in Aida and Tosca, in Bologna for Aida under Daniele Gatti, at the Arena de Verona in Carmen, and at the Macerata Festival in Norma and Aida. Farina has sung almost all of the Verdi canon for tenor; aside from the roles already mentioned, he has appeared as Ernani in Marseilles, as Corrado in Il corsaro in Athens, as Manrico in Il trovatore in Geneva. A frequent visitor to Japan, Farina has been heard there as Don José with the Opera de Lyon under Nagano, as Calaf with the forces of the Teatro Comunale di Firenze under Mehta as well as with the National Theatre in Un ballo in maschera and Don Carlos.