Barbara Frittoli


The President of Jury of the Opera Singing Competition Tullio Serafin:

Barbara Frittoli, soprano and President of the Jury

Born in Milan, she graduated with the highest honour at  “Giuseppe Verdi”  Conservatory in Milan where she studied  with Giovanna Canetti. She later was the winner of several international competitions.


Among her career’s most remarkable  performances were LE NOZZE DI FIGARO (contessa d’Almaviva) in Ferrara,  OTELLO (Desdemona) at the Salzburg Festival and at Teatro Regio in Turin with Claudio Abbado, COSÌ FAN TUTTE (Fiordiligi) at the Wiener Staatsoper and at Ravenna Festival with Riccardo Muti, also with Colin Davis at Covent Garden.


She sang DON GIOVANNI at Salzburg Festival with Lorin Maazel, TURANDOT (Liù) at Opéra Bastille with Georges Prêtre and a tour with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Zubin Mehta. At the Metropolitan she was Desdemona in OTELLO with James Levine, a role which she has performed in Brussels (Pappano), Wien, Nice, Florence (Mehta), and in which he made his debut in Munich under the baton of Mehta.  She sang DON GIOVANNI (Donna Anna) to Glyndebourne, at Wiener Staatsoper and the Metropolitan, the role of Elettra in IDOMENEO in Dresden under the baton of Colin Davis, Vitellia in LA CLEMENZA DI TITO  and the title role in LUISA MILLER at the Royal Opera House. We also remember her return to Opéra National de Paris in  SIMON BOCCANEGRA and OTELLO.

At Teatro alla Scala, she sang Leonora in IL TROVATORE, Alice in FALSTAFF, Desdemona in OTELLO, La Contessa d’Almaviva in LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Anaide in MOSÈ IN EGITTO and most recently  Suor Angelica in IL TRITTICO.


Her repertoire also includes IL FLAMINIO of Pergolesi, LA BOHÈME at Wiener Staatsoper and at  Metropolitan Opera, Donna Elvira in DON GIOVANNI, Sifare in MITRIDATE , RE DI PONTO in Turin and Paris with Christophe Rousset, Medora in IL CORSARO, Antonia in LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN, Alice in FALSTAFF in Rome with Daniele Gatti, in Florence with Pappano, and at Covent Garden with Haitink. She was Amelia in SIMON BOCCANEGRA, Margherite in FAUST, LUISA MILLER and Elisabetta in DON CARLO debuted at Teatro Comunale in Florence under the baton of Zubin Mehta, Liù  in TURANDOT at Gran Teatre Liceu di Barcellona.


Brilliant and intense is also her activities pertaining concerts:  she has worked with leading orchestras and famous conductors in the world.  Her vast concert repertoire includes  Verdi’s Requiem performed under the baton of Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Gianandrea Noseda along with bands like the Berlin Philharmonic, the Wiener Philharmonic, the Chicago Sinphony, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His repertoire also includes Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, K.427 Mass in C minor by Mozart (London Symphony Orchestra / Colin Davis), Stabat Mater by Pergolesi, Stabat Mater by Rossini (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Riccardo Chailly) Mahler’s Fourth Symphony (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Bernard Haitink).


She has recently sung THAÏS in Turin, the Verdi Requiem conducted by Maestro Pappano at Covent Garden, COSÌ FAN TUTTE in Valencia and Vienna, LE NOZZE DI FIGARO in Madrid, at the Opéra National in Paris and at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, SIMON BOCCANEGRA  conducted by James Levine in Boston, New York but also in Barcelona, CARMEN at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, LUISA MILLER at the Zurich Opera, LA BOHÈME in Tokyo Yokohama on tour with the Teatro Regio in Turin. And moreover SIMON BOCCANEGRA at the Metropolitan Opera, FALSTAFF and LA BOHÈME in Zurich and finally DON GIOVANNI at the Metropolitan Opera, in Washington and at Teatro alla Scala in Milan as well as ADRIANA LECOUVREUR in Barcelona, DON CARLO in New York and at Teatro Regio in Turin, IL TABARRO in Verbier, FALSTAFF at Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, LA BOHÈME and PAGLIACCI at Metropolitan Opera, FALSTAFF at the  Berlin Staatsoper.