Anna Caterina Antonacci

Introduction

Anna Caterina Antonacci is now acknowledged as a major artist, and her extraordinary vocal timbre and great acting skills have enabled her to perform a vast and varied repertoire in the world’s most important theatres. 

She has scored notable personal success as Cassandre in Les Troyens with Sir John Eliot Gardiner at the Théâtre du Châtelet Paris, Incoronazione di Poppea at the Théâtre des Champs - Elysées, as well as the title role in Medea in Toulouse, at the Epidaurus Amphitheatre Greece, Teatro Regio Turin and at the Châtelet.

Her debut in a new production of Carmen at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden conducted by Antonio Pappano was a huge triumph, performed also at the Opera Comique conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, and was a precursor to her return to London as Cassandre in Les Troyens at Covent Garden and the BBC Proms which were both hugely successful.

Also revered for her interpretations of Berlioz' vocal works, performances have included La Mort de Cléopâtre with the Rotterdam Philharmonic conducted by Yannick Nézét-Seguin, with the Hong Kong Philharmonic conducted by John Nelson and with the LPO again with Nézét-Seguin.

Anna Caterina has been honoured with the 'Chevalier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'honneur' by the French Republic, which is the highest national distinction one can receive.

Her first recording Era La Notte with the Naive label received great acclaim, which is now followed by her new album L'Alba separa dalla luce l'ombra on the Wigmore Live label, with the pianist Donald Sulzen featuring songs by Tosti, Cilea, Hahn and others. 

Please contact Camilla Walt for an up-to-date biography. 

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News & Features

Repertoire

OPERA:

BELLINI I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Romeo)

BERLIOZ La Damnation de Faust
BERLIOZ Les Troyens (Cassandre)

BIZET Carmen

CHERUBINI Medea

GLUCK Armide
GLUCK Alceste
GLUCK Iphigenie en Tauride

HANDEL Agrippina

MASSENET Don Quichotte

MONTEVERDI Incoronazione di Poppea (Poppea and Nerone)

MONTEVERDI Orfeo

MOZART Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira)

PAISIELLO Nina pazza per amore

POULENC  La voix humane

ROSSINI Ermione
ROSSINI Armida

VERDI Falstaff (Alice)

CONCERT:

BERLIOZ Les Nuits d'ete
BERLIOZ La Mort de Cleopatra
BERLIOZ La Mort d'Ophelia

CANTALOUBE Chants D'Auvergne

CHAUSSON Poeme de l'amour et de la mer

CHERUBINI Stabat Mater

FALLA Canciones Populares

MARTUCCI Canzone dei Ricordi

MENDELSSOHN Lobgesang

PERGOLESI Stabat Mater

POULENC La Voix Humaine

RAVEL Sheherazade

RESPIGHI Il Tramonto

ROSSINI Sabat Mater
ROSSINI Petit Messe Solemnelle

STRAVINSKY Pulcinella

WAGNER Wesendonck Lieder

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Schedule

Theatre des Champs Elysees, Paris

Programme

Faure: Penelope

Fayçal Karoui  direction 
Anna Caterina Antonacci  Pénélope
Roberto Alagna  Ulysse
Vincent Le Texier  Eumée
Edwin Crossley-Mercer  Eurymaque
Julien Behr  Antinoüs
Sophie Pondjiclis  Cléone
Jérémy Duffau  Léodès
Khatouna Gadelia  Mélantho
Distribution à compléter
Orchestre Lamoureux
Chœur Lamoureux  direction Patrick Marco

Teatro Goldoni, Florence

Programme

Debussy: Mandoline, C'est l'extase, Il pleure dans mon coeur, Green
Chausson: Invitation au voyage, le temps des lilas?
Debussy: Le Promenoir des deux amants
Fauré: Clair de lune, Au bord de l'eau, Après un rêve
Tosti/ D'Annunzio:  Quattro canzoni di Amaranta

********

Berlioz: La Mort d'Ophélie
Debussy: Chansons de Bilitis
Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder

Anna Caterina Antonacci, soprano
Donald Sulzen, piano

Philharmonie , Berlin


Programme

Britten: Four Sea Interludes
Berlioz: La Mort de Cleopatre
Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Edward Gardner, Conductor
Anna Caterina Antonnacci, Soprano

Choregies d'Orange, Orange

Anna Caterina makes her debut at Choregies d'Orange 

Programme

Anna Caterina Antonacci, Soprano
Roberto Alagna, Tenor

VERDI
La Forza del Destino
Ouverture

BELLINI
Norma
Air d’Adalgisa : « Sgombra è la sacra selva »
Duo Adalgisa-Pollione : « Va, crudele »
Air de Pollione : «Meco all’alatar di Venere »

VERDI
Don Carlo
Air d’Eboli : « Nei giardin del bello »

MASCAGNI
Cavalleria rusticana
Intermezzo

CILEA
Adriana Lecouvreur
Duo Adriana-Maurizio : « La dolcissima effigie »

 
Deuxième partie

BERLIOZ
La Damnation de Faust
Marche Hongroise

Les Troyens
Duo Didon-Enée : « Nuit d’ivresse et d’extase infinie »

BIZET
Carmen
Air de Carmen : « Près des remparts de Séville »
Air de Don José : « La fleur que tu m’avais jetée »
A dos cuartos : Prélude du IVe acte
Duo Carmen-Don José : « C’est toi ? C’est moi »

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Press

Recital 09 May 2013

Wigmore Hall

Perhaps because of its unusual scoring for mezzo-soprano and string quartet, Ottorino Respighi's setting of Shelley's poem The Sunset, translated into Italian as Il Tramonto, doesn't get many outings. With the Heath Quartet in attendance, it formed the end point of this Wigmore Hall programme by Anna Caterina Antonacci, whose repertory includes soprano and mezzo roles, which she sings with equal success.

Antonacci is an exceptional artist in other respects. Simply but suavely dressed, she took command of the platform through natural presence rather than the exploitation of approval-winning effects. In her performances themselves, she drew the audience into a space where all that mattered was the unadulterated revelation of the words and music as one fused entity. She acted each song with facial expressions and minimal yet telling physical gestures, but above all with the extraordinary resources of an instrument she could fine down to a thread or soar on to magnificent heights.

Il Tramonto proved a good vehicle for her deeply considered yet apparently spontaneous artistry, its concentration on love and mourning allowing her to shade in the darker hues of her multicoloured tone. The Heath Quartet players supported her with refinement, drawing out all the subtlety of Respighi's expert writing; earlier, they contributed a witty account of Hugo Wolf's Italian Serenade and a delicate one of another elegiac study, Puccini's Crisantemi.

The bulk of the programme was accompanied with a blend of concentration and flair by pianist Donald Sulzen, who proved as adept in conveying the lucid textures of Debussy as in the quasi-orchestral flamboyance of Wagner's Wesendonck Songs. Meanwhile, in her presentation of the ambiguity of Debussy's intimacies, as well as in Wagner's grander, operatic manner, Antonacci was more than equal to every demand.
George Hall, The Guardian, Friday 10 May

Recital 23 April 2013

Teatro de la Zarzuela de Madrid

Pocas veces se da una conjunción máxima entre la voz y la palabra, el acento y el gesto. La mezzo Anna Caterina Antonacci- anunciada ahora como soprano- es la prueba de que se puede cantar e interpretar dentro de unos lógicos parámetros, sin caer en manierismos ni efectismos exacerbados, que lo único que logran es alejar al espectador de lo esencial: el canto.

La cantante italiana puede estar satisfecha de su debut junto al pianista Donald Sulzen en el ciclo de Lied del Teatro de la Zarzuela. Se presentó con un enjundioso programa de canción francesa e italiana, con melodías muy acordes a sus características: elegancia y vía libre para su habitual sensualidad, en todos los aspectos imaginables. Bastaron apenas unos acordes para sumergirnos en las tres primeras canciones correspondientes a los "Estudios Latinos" del compositor Reynaldo Hahn. Enseguida nos enamoró profiriendo unas frases repletas de sensualidad y morbidez en un timbre riquísimo y variado en toda la gama central, como si las notas fluyeran de manera instantánea y volaran hasta difuminarse en la última butaca del teatro. Le acompañó un impoluto fraseo y acentuación franceses, que casi podían cazarse al vuelo. Quizá sea en esa zona central donde resida ese encanto suyo tan particular y que le prepara para unos repertorios más agudos. Esta contiene un sonido pleno y luminoso, de matices sedosos, aterciopelados y a todas luces cálidos, merced de una emisión volátil y relajada.

"La muerte de Ofelia" de Berlioz, llevada con tacto y finura por el pianista, que acarició cada una de las teclas con la delicadeza que se merece la propia cantante, le supuso algún problema a Antonacci. Pudimos apreciar, junto a unos sonidos perfectamente hilados sobre la línea de canto, notas extremadamente graves que ocasionaron pérdida de consistencia y reclamaban una mayor cobertura.
       Muy interesantes nos parecieron las dos canciones que parten del mismo texto ("Green" y "Mandoline"), orquestadas de manera diversa por Gabriel Fauré y Claude Debussy. La soprano resolvió con fortuna la agilidad imperante en las primeras frases de ambas canciones, con proverbial juego de dinámicas.  La segunda parte, iniciada con las bellísimas canciones en dialecto veneciano del mismo Hahn, sirvieron para mostrarse más cómoda y natural en el recitado. Le favoreció la tesitura intermedia, por la que enseguida asomaba su color grave sin necesidad de forzar el instrumento, idílico para estos poemas, en especial "L'avertimento", el cual le dio pie a desarrollar su faceta actoral antes de volver al repertorio francés con un sentido "Au bord de l'eau" de Fauré, o una cuidadísima versión de "Diane, Séléné", rematada en una estupenda sfumatura sobre la última palabra. La cantante ofreció dos propinas a modo de conclusión. La primera, "Marechiare", le devolvió a sus orígenes y la desgranó con impoluta musicalidad y buen legato. La segunda, que avisó que sería "canción española", "La Tarántula", para regocijo de los que la aclamaban en la sala. Bonito gesto de la cantante que además cantó con un notable castellano. ¿Qué tendrá nuestro repertorio que a tantos cantantes extranjeros les fascina?.
       El pianista estadounidense que hacía también su presentación oficial en Madrid, ofreció un recital paralelo, siempre al servicio de los requerimientos de la solista principal, cuidando al extremo el tempo y el fraseo, fundiéndose ambos en un solo intérprete. Fruto de ello surge la habitual colaboración entre ambos integrantes, que parecen conocerse a la perfección.
       Para terminar conviene recordar dos cosas. La primera, que la información (o la falta de ella) sigue brillando por su ausencia unas calles más allá de Jovellanos, junto a la Plaza de Oriente. La propia cantante asegura que no hará Alceste de Glück la próxima temporada, conocedora de su anuncio. Sí estará en cambio en los cada vez más apetecibles Troyanos milaneses en abril de 2014, con Gregory Kunde en el papel de Aeneas.
Arian Ortega, Codalario.com, 26 April 2013

Poulenc

La Voix Humaine

Grand Theatre de la Ville, Luxembourg

Read a full interview with Anna Caterina on her role in La Voix Humaine Philippe Banel, Tutti Magazine

Queens, Heroines and Ladykillers

Royal Festival Hall

'A great artist, Antonacci has the ability to immerse herself completely in whatever she sings, so that even in extracts we are acutely conscious of an absolute totality of characterisation.' Tim Ashley, The Guardian, 03 October 2012
'[Anna Caterina] gave an engrossing and impassioned rendition of Dido's farewell from Berlioz 'Les Troyens' and as an encore, Carmen's Act II 'Les tringles des sistres tintaient' that was undoubtedly the highlight of the concert.' Jim Pritchard, Seen and Heard, 02 October 2012

North American Recital Tour

Fayetteville, Montreal, New York and Washington D.C.

"...This was no diva showcase but a thoughtful program of French and Italian songs mostly from the Belle Epoque [...] Her voice has a distinctive timbre: rich and warm yet focused and clear. She is comfortable at both ends of her range, whether cresting to soft, lingering high notes or dipping to dark, velvety lows. But it is what she does with her voice that makes her such a riveting artist. In 'En Sourdine', her singing found an uncanny balance between intense expressivity and magisterial elegance..." Anthony Thompson, New York Times, 09 April 2012
"Inhabiting each song like the sole character in a minature drama and molding the vocal lines with considerable freedom, her voice took on added richness and vibrancy, and she proved mesmerizing in evoking the heartbreak and erotic frankness of the texts [...] Her vivid engagement with the words and complete immersion in the psychological life of Ottorino Respighi's songs 'Sopra un' aria antica' and 'Nebbie' revealed an incomparable artist at work. Even her encore of 'Moon River' was so artfully done, it made one yearn to experience Antonaccci in fully staged opera..." Joe Banno, The Washington Post, 12 April 2012
...Antonacci's greatest strength: a rare ability to unite words and music with poetic insight and visceral drama. The music making was potent. Demonstrating a keen musical intelligence and a sensitivity and commitment to the material, Antonacci sang with crisp diction, impeccable taste, dramatic urgency, and a resonant middle register [...] her voice was a singularly and freely expressive instrument, particularly when coupled with her graceful yet naturally commanding stage presence, and the songs often took on an intimate yet powerfully personal quality. [...] From the all-Italian second half of the program, most memorable were the five songs from Respighi and Refice's 'Ombra di nube', all sung with exquisite phrasing, greater control of her upper register, and an expert sense of vocal drama... DC Metro Theater Arts, 13 April 2012
...In regards to her formidable singer-actor expertise, she appeared to "like" herself on stage as opposed to "loving" herself onstage. The 'message and the music' always remained more significant than the 'messenger'. There were no comedic rolling eyes, no over rehearsed grand gestures, no startling caesuras. Instead, there was perfection: a beautiful woman, a gorgeous voice, a sensitive piano accompaniment and a performance that, from start to finish, was honest, admirable, intelligent and endearing. A performance in which she, after more than two and a half hours, keft her audience screaming for more. Perfection, after all, has its rewards. The City Wire, Arkansas, 05 April 2012

Recital: 05 December 2011

Wigmore Hall

'...The voice, a dark lustrous instrument that can be soprano or mezzo with equal ardour, is clearly in magnificent shape. The histrionics are undimmed but never unhinged: this is a thinking artist, not a sulky diva. And the appetite for adventure is still sharp. This recital delved into the rarer realms of French and Italian romantic art-songs with enchanting results. [...] Antonacci never made the mistake of larding sentimentality on already overripe material. Just as Respighi, in his Sopra un'aria antica, contains the explosive passions of Gabriele d'Annunzio's poetry within a limpid, quasi-Baroque world, so Antonacci emotes from within a pristine technique. Her legato line is a liquid wonder, but when the poem requires a conversation to be animated, she characterises each voice in a marvellously deft parlando. Nowhere was her control and imagination better demonstrated than in the last bars of Cilea's Nel ridestarmi: a stunning leap to a top note; a Callas-style glissando to the depths, and still enough power to ping the last note like an arrow in the heart. [...] The five songs of Reynaldo Hahn's Venezia are wry love-serenades written to be sung on a gondola, by a man. Antonacci is clearly not a man. Yet she simply ignored these circumstantial barriers and infused them with wit and warmth. Finally she mustered her lushest sound for a gloriously sustained unfurling of Licionio Refice's Ombra di nube...' Richard Morrison, The Times, 07 December 2011

Recordings

L’ALBA SEPARA DALLA LUCE L’OMBRA


REYNALDO HAHN: from Venezia – Chansons en dialecte vénitien (1901)
FRANCESCO PAOLO TOSTI: Quattro canzoni d'Amaranta (1907)
FRANCESCO CILEA: Serenata ('Mormorante di tenero desio'), Nel ridestarmi, Non ti voglio amar
REFICE: Ombra di nube
ANTONIO CESTI: Intorno all'idol mio
OTTORINO RESPIGHI: Sopra un'aria antica
Encore - TOSTI: Marechiare (Canto Napoletano)

Anna Caterina Antonacci, Soprano
Donald Sulzen, Piano
Wigmore Hall Live

BIZET

Carmen [DVD]

Royal Opera House, London
Pappano, 
Antonacci,
Kaufmann,
Zambello

Decca

Era La Notte


CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI Lamento d'Ariana, Lasciatemi morire
BARBARA  STROZZI Lamento: Lagrime mie, a che vi trattenete
PIETRO ANTONIO GIRAMO Lamento della pazza, Chi non conosce
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda

Modo Antiquo
Anna Caterina Antonacci
Federico Maria Sardelli
Naïve

ROSSINI

Ermione [DVD]

Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 
Montague, 
Ford, 
Lopez-Yanez, 
Kelly


Kultur

HANDEL

Rodelinda [DVD]

Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 
William Christie, 
Sreit, 
Chiummo, 
Winter, 
Scholl

Kultur

MOZART

Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira) [DVD]

Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna
Muti, 
Antonacci,
Pieczonka, 
Kirchschlager, 
Schade, 
Alvarez, 
d'Arcangelo


Tdk

BERLIOZ

Les Troyens [DVD]

Châtalet Theatre, Paris
Sir John Eliot Gardiner,
Antonacci,
Graham,
Tézier,
Kunde,
Naouri

Opus Arte