Giovanna Casolla Soprano

Giovanna Casolla was born in Naples and completed her vocal and piano studies at the San Pietro Conservatory in Majella; additional studies followed with Michele Lauro and Walter Ferrari.

As winner of the Parma and Macerata competitions, she made her official debut in 1977 with the world premiere of Napoli Milionaria by Nino Rota, under the musical direction of Bruno Bartoletti and in the production of Eduardo De Filippo. After a tour with Manon Lescaut she was invited by the Teatro Verdi in Triest for La Campana sommersa by Respighi and by the Teatro Regio in Turin for Judith|Bluebeard's Castle by Bartok.

Debuts followed at the Teatro Comunale, Bologna with Fedora, at the Philharmonic Theater in Verona with Turandot by Busoni, and at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, with Tosca together with Placido Domingo. In 1982 Giovanna Casolla made her debut at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan with Giorgetta|Il Tabarro by Puccini (M° Gianandrea Gavazzeni). 1986 she debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Eboli|Don Carlos, returning there in 1991 with Tosca.

In the following year she regularly returned to Milan and New York with many roles of her repertoire under renowned conductors: e.g. Il Tabarro and two productions of La Fanciulla del West conducted by Lorin Maazel respectively Giuseppe Sinopoli.

Further milestones in her career were her performances in Rome in Cavalleria rusticana,Tosca, Fanciulla and in the world premiere of Salvatore Giuliano by Lorenzo Ferrero; at Teatro Regio in Turin in La Forza del Destino, La Gioconda, Turandot, Manon Lescaut and La Fanciulla del West; at Teatro Carlo Felice Genua in Don Carlo, Cavalleria rusticana and Il Tabarro; at Teatro Comunale of Florence, where she had debuted already 1983 in Casellas Missa pro Pace and to where she returned for Don Carlo, Manon Lescaut, Cavalleria rusticana and Andrea Chénier; and of course at Arena di Verona with Andrea Chénier, La Gioconda, Tosca, Carmen and Cavalleria rusticana.

During her career Giovanna Casolla has already celebrated worldwide success. She is a regular guest of the main operas in e.g. Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Munich, London, Brussels, Buenos Aires and Tokio. Together with Ricardo Muti she performed a very much admired serial production of Tosca in Philadelphia.

One of her main roles is certainly Turandot in which she debuted at the Grand Theatre of Geneva in 1997 and which she has sung with great success worldwide since then. Especially the spectacular production of Puccini's China-Opera directed by Zubin Mehta in front of the Forbidden City in Bejing, China, obtained a high attention. Later BMG published this on CD and DVD. Recently Casolla again sang Santuzza|Cavalleria rusticana in Florence, Monte-Carlo and Parma; Carmen at Arena di Verona; La Gioconda in Cremona, Bergamo and Brescia (Live-CD was published by Bongiovanni); and Turandot at the Festival d'Orange, in Nizza, Trieste, Dresden, Venedig, Turin, Beijing and Rome.

In 2008 she performed, amongst others, La Gioconda at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Turandot in Ravenna and in Paris, as well as for the first time Berio's version of this opera in Kiel. 2009 Casolla made her debut with Amneris|Aida at Rome Opera and sang the same role in Verona. Various further engagements took her to Operas and festivals in Rome, Turin, Catania, Torre del Lago and Trieste. 2010 Casolla returned to Verona as Turandot and Amneris and sang Amneris as well in Caracalla in Rome.

In 2011 she had engagements, amongst others, as Clitennestra|Cassandra and Santuzza in Catania, as Amneris again at Arena di Verona, and as Turandot in Palermo.