A competition winner at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, Stefano La Colla studied at the Conservatory Pietro Mascagni in Livorno with bass-baritone G. Polidori. He also studied under the guidance of soprano Luciana Serra and baritone Carlo Meliciani. La Colla’s engagements for the ²⁰¹⁶⁄₁₇ season include des Grieux in Manon Lescaut at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, Calaf in Turandot at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana and Canio in Pagliacci at the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, Turiddu at the Semperoper Dresden, and Radamès in Aida at the Macerata Opera Festival.

In the ²⁰¹⁵⁄₁₆ season, La Colla sang Radamès at the Arena di Verona and Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at the Berlin State Opera, Cavaradossi in Tosca with Opéra de Toulon and Theater St. Gallen, Calaf, des Grieux and Cavaradossi at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Rodrigue in Le Cid with Theater St. Gallen. Engagements from the ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅ season included Calaf at the Rome Opera, Teatro alla Scala in Milan and Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Cavaradossi at the Rome Opera and Teatro di San Carlo, Turiddu at La Scala, Ismaele in Nabucco at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera with Theater Dortmund, and des Grieux at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and Oper Leipzig.

After a successful 2008 debut in Aida at the Teatro Goldoni in Livorno, La Colla continued his operatic career in the traditional theaters of many Italian cities, including Novara, Savona, Chieti, Rimini, Reggio Emilia, Pisa, Lucca, Livorno, Busseto, and Brescia. His international career began in 2011 with performances of Turandot in Regensburg, Germany, after which he continued to perform to great acclaim in such cities as Dortmund, Leipzig, St. Petersburg, St. Gallen, Zagreb, and Bucharest. Highlights from this period also included Cavaradossi at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Macduff in Macbeth at the Wrocław Opera, des Grieux with Oper Leipzig, Enzo Grimaldi in La Gioconda with Theater St. Gallen, Carlo in I masnadieri at the Teatro Regio in Parma, Manrico in Il trovatore with Theater Dortmund, and Alfredo Germont in La traviata at the Teatro di Pisa, Teatro del Giglio in Lucca and Teatro Goldoni in Livorno.

La Colla has worked with such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Riccardo Chailly, Stefano Ranzani, Donato Renzetti, Carlo Rizzi, Julian Kovatchev, Ivan Repusic, Mikhail Tatarnikov, Jordi Bernácer, Pinchas Steinberg, and with such directors as Franco Zeffirelli, Gianfranco de Bosio, Andrea Breth, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Jürgen Flimm, Giancarlo del Monaco, Ezio Frigerio, Mario Martone, Roberto de Simone, Boleslaw Barlog, Alessandro Talevi, Gilbert Deflo.