Nuccia Focile was born in Militello, Sicily and studied with Elio Battaglia at the Turin Conservatory. In 1983 she won the ‘A. Belli’ competition of Spoleto followed by the Teatro Regio di Torino competition in 1984, which resulted in her debut playing Mimi in La Bohème. Her roles have included Nannetta in Falstaff, Violetta in La Traviata, Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera, Giulietta in I Capuleti E I Montecchi, Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito, Nedda in Pagliacci, Drusilla in l’Incoronazione di Poppea, Norina in Don Pasquale, Ascanio in Lo Frate ‘Nnamorato, Ilia in Idomeneo, Despina in Così fan tutte, Musetta and Mimi in La Bohème, Giulia in La Scala di Seta, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, Juliette in Romeo et Julietta, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Micaela in Carmen, Liu in Turandot, Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, the title role in Katya Kabanova, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Elisabetta in Don Carlo.
Nuccia has appeared at many of the world’s leading opera houses including the Welsh National Opera, Royal Opera House; Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, La Scala, Paris Opera, Teatro Colon, Philadelphia Opera, Hamburg Staatsoper, Teatro Massimo Palermo, Houston Grand Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Comique, Opéra de Nancy, New Israeli Opera, Dallas Opera, La Fenice, Seattle Opera, Opera de Monte Carlo, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Saito Kinen Orchestra, Teatro Comunale di Bologna and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Her operatic recordings include Eugene Onegin (with Bychkov), Così fan tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni all with Sir Charles Mackerras and l’Assedio di Calais with David Parry. Other recordings include Petite Messe Solennelle (Rossini) with Sir Neville Marriner, Frauenliebe und Leben (Schumann), Tosti songs and a solo album of Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini songs. She has also performed with such illustrious maestri as Sir Colin Davis, Seiji Ozawa, Michel Plasson, James Levine, Riccardo Muti and Antonio Pappano.