Patrizia Ciofi

Patrizia Ciofi, born in Casole d'Elsa, Siena in 1967, is an Italian operatic soprano.

She studied at the Istituto Musicale Pietro Mascagni in Livorno, and subsequently took part in master classes at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena, with Carlo Bergonzi and Shirley Verrett. She made her debut in Gino Negri’s "Giovanni Sebastiano" at the Teatro Comunale, Florence, and her La Scala debut in 1997 with "La traviata", conducted by Riccardo Muti, and she returned to La Scala in "L'elisir d'amore" in 1997 and 2001. She has sung in most of the major Italian opera houses as well as the Rossini Festival in Pesaro and at the Martina Franca Festival.

She has also sung in Paris, at the Châtelet, the Opéra de Paris and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, in Lyon and Marseille. She made her Covent Garden debut in 2002 with Rigoletto, her Chicago debut in 2003 with La Traviata and Wiener Staatsoper debut in 2008 with La Sonnambula.

Her major roles on stage include Amina in Vincenzo Bellini's "La sonnambula", Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi's "La traviata", Gilda in "Rigoletto", Susanna in Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro", and Lucia in Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" (in both the standard Italian version and the French version "Lucie de Lammermoor" of 1839).

Ciofi has also made a number of recordings, perhaps most notable of which was the "Le nozze di Figaro" conducted by René Jacobs, which won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.

Partial discography

* "La sonnambula" by Vincenzo Bellini (1995) Nuova Era
* "Lucie de Lammermoor" by Gaetano Donizetti (1998) Dynamic
* "Il Rè" & "Mese Mariano" by Umberto Giordano (1999) Dynamic
* "Ippolito ed Aricia" by Tommaso Traetta (2000) Dynamic
* "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (2003) TDK DVD
* "Benvenuto Cellini" by Hector Berlioz (2004) Virgin Classics
* "Amor e gelosia" (with Joyce DiDonato) compilation of operatic duets by George Frederic Handel (2004) CD Veritas
* "Lucie de Lammermoor" by Gaetano Donizetti (2002) TDK DVD
* "Le nozze di Figaro" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (2004) Harmonia Mundi
* "Bajazet" by Antonio Vivaldi (2005) Virgin Classics
* "Radamisto" by Handel (2005) Virgin Classics

External links

* [http://ciofi.blogspot.com Patrizia Ciofi Information: Complete discography, performance history and reviews]
* [http://www.virginclassics.com/vclass-cgi-bin/frame_artists.cgi?key=826 Virgin Classics]
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* IMdb - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1357551/