Desirée Rancatore

Desirée Rancatore is an Italian soprano recognised for her performances in the lyric coloratura repertoire, her technique and her passion for music. Born in Palermo, she studied violin and piano before beginning, at the age of 16, to study singing with her mother and, in Rome, with Margaret Baker Genovesi. At the age of nineteen she made her debut as Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro at the Salzburg Festival, singing for the first time in Italy in 1997 at the opening of the season at the Teatro Regio in Parma, in Cilea’s L’arlesiana. She subsequently became a regular guest at leading theatres in Europe and Asia. Her early competition prizes included the Ibla International Competition in Ragusa (1995), the Vincenzo Bellini Competition in Caltanissetta (1995) and the Maria Caniglia Competition in Sulmona (1996).

At twenty she returned to the Salzburg Festival to sing in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with the Austrian event, performing numerous concerts in the Salzburg Mozarteum and singing in operas like Don Carlo (conducted by Lorin Maazel), Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher (Honegger) and Piramo e Tisbe (with Europa Galante Orchestra conducted by Fabio Biondi).

At the age of 21 she debuted in the Teatro Massimo in Palermo (Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier), at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Mahler’s 2nd Symphony) and sang her first Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffmann (Catania), one of her most rewarding roles, which she has performed at the Opéra National in Paris, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London, Zurich Opera House, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Rome Opera, the Teatro Regio in Turin and Parma, the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, the Teatro Real in Madrid, La Scala in Milan, the Sferisterio di Macerata and the Orange Opera Festival. She made her debut as Olympia in Vienna, returning to the Staatsoper with Rigoletto and I puritani while in Paris she also performed in the operas L’enfant et les sortilèges, Parsifal and The Magic Flute — the latter recorded on DVD by Arthaus Musik. Her Nannetta in Falstaff, first performed at Covent Garden, was also preserved on DVD by the BBC.

Gilda in Rigoletto is another of her central roles, which she has performed in Melbourne, San Francisco, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Tokyo, Venice, Mexico, Vienna, Arena di Verona, Parma, Beijing, Florence, Zurich, and in Barcelona in 2017, in a performance also transmitted live to cinemas across Europe.

She made her debut in the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor in the Donizetti Theatre in Bergamo in the 2005-06 season, later touring Japan in the same role, which included Tokyo, one of her favourite places. She sang the role again in the Oviedo Opera House, in the Zurich Opera House, the Comunale in Bologna, the Teatro Cilea in Reggio Calabria and in the Comunale in Ferrara.

Another of her best-loved roles is Adina in L’elisir d’amore, which she first performed in Laurent Pelly’s production at the Bastille Opera House in Paris and subsequently sang at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari and La Fenice in Venice. At La Fenice, sustained applause prompted an encore of her aria, rather than the customary encore for Nemorino.

After making her debut as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute in Paris, she also sang the role in Rome and Cagliari, and also received warm reviews for Il viaggio a Reims in the Bologna Comunale, in the Carlo Felice in Genoa and in the Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels. Another of her great roles is the lead in Delibes’ Lakmé, which she has sung in Palermo, the Campoamor in Oviedo and in the Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo.

The role of Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which she sang for the first time in the Petruzzelli Theatre in Bari, was also a notable success at the Teatro Real in Madrid (2006), and in Palermo and Cagliari.

In December 2004, at the reopening of La Scala in Milan, she sang the role of Semele in Salieri’s L’Europa riconosciuta, conducted by Riccardo Muti, with whom she travelled to Paris to sing Carmina Burana with the Orchestre National de France. She was invited to open the 2005–06 season at the Bologna Comunale in a new production of Ascanio in Alba and in October 2008 she made her debut as Elvira in Bellini’s I puritani in Palermo with which she also travelled to the Palacio de la Opera in La Coruña and the Wiener Staatsoper. In 2010 she sang the role of Amina from La sonnambula for the first time in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

She has performed in festivals in Wiesbaden (Lucia di Lammermoor), and Valle d’Itria de Martina Franca (Les Huguenots), in the Umbria Music Festival (Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater), and in the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro (where she debuted in 2006 as Fanny in La cambiale di matrimonio and where she returned in 2010 to perform in the opening concert of a cycle of bel canto), in Cincinnati Festival (Beethoven’s Christ on the Mount of Olives, conducted by James Conlon), the Savonlinna Opera Festival (I puritani), at the Festival Radio France et Montpellier (Piramo e Tisbe and Stabat Mater).

In 2012 she returned to Donizetti, singing Marie in La fille du régiment at La Scala in Milan and also in Madrid and Paris. In Paris she also made her debut as Norina in Don Pasquale at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées under Enrique Mazzola. She performed in Liverpool with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Ottavio Dantone. She also made her debut in Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles under Daniel Oren.

In 2013 she sang Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata in Palermo, Vienna, Madrid, Genoa and Japan, and made her first appearance at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo under Marco Armiliato. She was the first soprano to sing Violetta at the Royal Opera House Muscat in Oman.

In 2014 she returned to a Laurent Pelly production as the Comtesse Adèle in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory at the Opéra de Lyon, conducted by Stefano Montanari.

Among the numerous prizes she has received for her work, outstanding awards include the Ester Mazzoleni Special Prize, 2008, and the International “Mimosa d’Oro” Prize, 2008, which was bestowed by the City of Agrigento. In 2010 she was awarded the first Opera Oscar for the most popular soprano by the Verona Arena and it was in this same city that she won the Zenatello Prize for the best soprano in 2008.

Her recordings include Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra; the film Mozart in Turkey shot in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul; Die Zauberflöte in the Paris Opera House; and CDs for Dynamic (Les Huguenots, Lucia di Lammermoor, La cambiale di matrimonio, Les contes d’Hoffmann), Bongiovanni (Ascanio in Alba), Arthaus Musik (Die Vögel, Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Hangar-7), TDK (Die Zauberflöte, Les contes d’Hoffmann), Naxos (Lucia di Lammermoor, La cambiale di matrimonio), and Brilliant Classics (Les pêcheurs de perles).