Cecilia Molinari

The Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Molinari won the International BelCanto Prize at the Rossini in Wildbad Festival in 2013; in 2014 she won the special ‘Pavarotti Giovani’ prize at the Viotti International Singing Competition in Vercelli. She made her opera debut as Zaida (Il turco in Italia) in Treviso and Ferrara, and soon established herself as one of the younger generation’s most outstanding interpreters of Rossini and bel canto.

As a member of the Accademia Rossiniana she made her debut at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro in 2015, singing the role of Marchesa Melibea (Il viaggio a Reims).

In the 2022/23 season she has appeared as Sesto (Giulio Cesare) at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, as Orfeo in a new production of Orfeo ed Euridice at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, as Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, in Haydn’s cantata Berenice, che fai? with the Filarmonica della Scala and as Béatrice (Béatrice et Bénédict) at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.

Other recent engagements include Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia) at the Vienna State Opera, Dorabella (Così fan tutte) at the Semperoper Dresden, Rossini’s Stabat Mater at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the title role of Ariodante at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, Maffio Orsini (Lucrezia Borgia) at Müpa Budapest, a Mozart concert at the cultural centre La Seine Musicale in Boulogne-Billancourt, Smeton in a new production of Anna Bolena in Amsterdam, Rosina at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome and Cherubino at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville.

She has also sung Isabella (L’italiana in Algeri) at La Scala, Milan, Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle at the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid and at the Teatro La Fenice, Stefano Landi’s La morte d’Orfeo and Angelina (La Cenerentola) in Amsterdam, Mozart’s Requiem and Annio (La clemenza di Tito) at the Teatro La Fenice, for Opera Vlaanderen in Antwerp and at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Debussy’s La Damoiselle élue and the title role in Rossini’s Tancredi at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Rosina at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna and at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Siveno in Rossini’s Demetrio e Polibio and in a gala concert at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Cherubino at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, Melibea at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and Annio at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. In 2019 she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival as Laura (Luisa Miller).

Future engagements will take Cecilia Molinari to the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Rosina, to the Semperoper as Cherubino and Rosina, and to the Opéra National de Lyon as Béatrice.