Giulia Semenzato

The Italian soprano Giulia Semenzato studied initially at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice and later at the Schola Cantorum in Basel. She also holds a degree in law from the University of Udine. In 2012 she won the Toti dal Monte International Singing Competition in Treviso and in 2013 she was awarded the Premio Farinelli at the Concorso Lirico Internazionale Città di Bologna.

Among her many operatic roles are Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Nannetta (Falstaff), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Despina (Così fan tutte), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Almirena (Rinaldo), Cinzia / Venere / Bellezza in Cavalli’s Ercole amante, Cleonilla (Ottone in villa), Serpetta (La finta giardiniera), Venere /Prosperina in Rossi’s Orfeo, the title roles in Cavalli’s Elena and Eritrea and Maria in Nino Rota’s I due timidi.

She has performed these roles in leading international opera houses and concert halls that include La Scala, Milan, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Teatro del Maggio Musicale in Florence, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Zurich Opera House, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, the Opéra de Bordeaux and the Opéra Royal de Versailles. Among the festivals where she has been heard are the George Enescu Festival and the Glyndebourne Festival.

Her concert repertory includes Poulenc’s Gloria, Handel’s Messiah, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Mozart’s Requiem and Stradella’s San Giovanni Battista. Among the eminent conductors with whom she has worked are Zubin Mehta, John Eliot Gardiner, Daniel Harding, Maxim Emelyanychev, Giovanni Antonini, Paavo Järvi, Marc Minkowski, Raphaël Pichon, Václav Luks, Diego Fasolis, Laurence Cummings and Leonardo García Alarcón. Directors with whom she has collaborated include David McVicar, Robert Carsen, Frederic Wake-Walker, Claus Guth and Damiano Michieletto.

Giulia Semenzato made her recording debut with a CD of Cavalli arias that was released under the title Sospiri d’amore in 2016. She can also be heard in recordings of Handel’s Messiah under Václav Luks and settings of the Stabat Mater by Nicola Logroscino and Pergolesi. Her latest recording, Angelica Diabolica, with the Basel Chamber Orchestra, was released in May 2022.

In the 2021/22 season she made an acclaimed debut as Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, under Antonio Pappano, followed by a tour of Europe with Caldara’s Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra under René Jacobs. In addition, she appeared as Michal in Handel’s Saul at the Theater an der Wien and as Nannetta at the Opéra de Lyon and at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

Recent engagements have included Poppea (L’incoronazione di Poppea) at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg, a staged production of Mozart’s Requiem at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and Amore (Orfeo ed Euridice) in Freiburg.

Future projects include Belinda (Dido and Aeneas) at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Dorinda in Handel’s Orlando at the Teatro Real in Madrid and Ilia (Idomeneo) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.