Italian soprano Barbara Frittoli was born in Milan and graduated with the highest honours at the city’s Giuseppe Verdi Conservatoire where she studied with Giovanna Canetti. She later was the winner of several international competitions.
Her most remarkable performances in a long career were La Contessa d’Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro (Ferrara); Desdemona Otello (Salzburg Festival and Teatro Regio, Turin with Claudio Abbado), Fiordiligi Così fan tutte (Wiener Staatsoper and Ravenna Festival with Riccardo Muti and Royal Opera House with Colin Davis).
At Teatro alla Scala, Milan, she has sung Mimì La bohème, Leonora Il trovatore, Alice Ford Falstaff, Desdemona Otello, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, La Contessa d’Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro, Anaï Moïse et Pharaon and most recently Suor Angelica, Il trittico.
Other significant roles and performances include Donna Elvira Don Giovanni (Salzburg Festival with Lorin Maazel); Liù Turandot (Opéra Bastille with Georges Prêtre and a tour with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Zubin Mehta); Desdemona Otello (The Metropolitan Opera with James Levine, Brussels with Antonio Pappano, Opéra National de Paris, Wiener Staatsoper, Opéra Nice and Florence with Zubin Mehta and her debut at Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich with Mehta); Donna Anna Don Giovanni (Glyndebourne Festival, Wiener Staatsoper and The Metropolitan Opera); Elettra Idomeneo (Semperoper Dresden with Sir Colin Davis), Vitellia La clemenza di Tito and the title role in Luisa Miller (Royal Opera House) and Amelia Grimaldi Simon Boccanegra (Opéra National de Paris, The Metropolitan Opera with James Levine and Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona).
Her repertoire also includes Pergolesi Il Flaminio, Mimì La bohème (Wiener Staatsoper, The Metropolitan Opera, Opernhaus Zurich and in Tokyo Yokohama on tour with the Teatro Regio di Torino), Sifare Mitridate, re di Ponto (Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris with Christophe Rousset), Medora, Il corsaro, Antonia in Les contes d’Hoffman, Alice Ford Falstaff (Opernhaus Zurich, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, Staatsopera Berlin and in Rome with Daniele Gatti, in Florence with Antonio Pappano and Royal Opera House with Bernard Haitink); Marguerite, Faust and Elisabetta Don Carlo (debuted at Teatro Comunale, Florence with Zubin Mehta), Liù Turandot (Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona); the title role in Thaïs (Teatro Regio di Torino); Fiordiligi Così fan tutte (Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia and Wiener Staatsoper), Contessa Le nozze di Figaro (Teatro Real de Madrid, Opéra National de Paris and Bayerische Staatsoper), Micaëla, Carmen (The Metropolitan Opera), Luisa Miller (Opernhaus Zurich); title role Adriana Lecouveur (Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona), title role Tosca and Giorgetta Il tabarro (Verbier Festival) and Nedda Pagliacci (The Metropolitan Opera) and Despina Così fan tutte (Staatsoper Berlin).
She has also enjoyed an extensive concert career with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including Verdi Requiem with Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev and Gianandrea Noseda and the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala and Boston Symphony Orchestra and most recently at the Royal Opera House with Sir Antonio Pappano. Her repertoire also includes Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, W.A. Mozart Mass in C minor by Mozart (London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis), Pergolesi Stabat Mater, Rossini Stabat Mater (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly) and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink).
Her discography includes Mozart arias for which she received the Echo Klassik Female Singer of the Year Award in 2001; the Grammy-nominated Idomeneo (both with Sir Charles Mackerras) and a 2010 recording of Verdi’s Requiem with Riccardo Muti that won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Album.