Maria Dragoni
Encyclopedia
Maria Dragoni is an Italian opera
tic soprano
who has had an active international career in major opera house
s since the mid 1980s. She appears on several complete opera recordings.
, Dragoni was trained at the "Licinio Refice
" Music Conservatory in Frosinone
. She studied singing there with Maria Alòs, wife of pianist Arnaldo Graziosi. In 1977 she joined the RAI
Chorus in Rome. In that city she studied singing with Duchess Melina Pignatelli della Leonessa. She later pursued further studies in Naples with Rodolfo Celletti
and Gina Cigna
. In 1981 she won the Maria Callas Award at the International Vincenzo Bellini Competition in Caltanissetta and in 1983 she won the International Maria Callas Competition at the Foro Italico
to Rome.
Dragoni made her professional opera debut in 1984 as Imogene in Vincenzo Bellini
's Il pirata
at the Teatro Pergolesi
in Jesi. Later that year she made her debut at the Teatro di San Carlo
in Naples in the title role of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
's rarely performed opera, Il Flaminio. She repeated that role the following year at the Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden. In 1986 she sang Imogene for her debut at the Teatro Massimo
in Palermo, and portrayed the role again in 1987 for a return engagement in Naples. She was also celebrated in Naples that year as Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma
and made her debut that year at the Opéra national de Montpellier
.
In 1988 Dragoni made her debut at La Scala
as Fenena in Giuseppe Verdi
's Nabucco
. She also made her debuts that year at the Opéra national de Lorraine
and the Ravenna Festival
in the title role of Giacomo Puccini
's Turandot
. In 1989 she made her debut at the Macerata Opera Festival
in the title role of Verdi's Aida
. She also had a triumphant debut that year at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
as Mathilde in Gioachino Rossini's William Tell
.
In 1990 Dragoni was committed to the Teatro Regio Torino. In 1991 she gave her first performance at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
as Donna Anna in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
's Don Giovanni
and made her debut at the Opéra national du Rhin
in the title role of Rossini's Semiramide
. In 1992 she sang Elisabetta in Verdi's Don Carlos
at the Arena di Verona Festival
and returned to Naples to sing her first Mimì in Puccini's La bohème
. The following year she sang the title role in Norma at the Teatro di San Carlo and La Fenice
; repeating that role in 1994 at the Arena di Verona and the Teatro Carlo Felice
and in 1995 at the Zurich Opera
. She returned to the Opéra national du Rhin in 1996 to sing Elvira in Verdi's Ernani
. She was also heard in Napeles that year as Gulnara in Verdi's Il Corsaro
. In 1999 she performed the title role in the first modern performance of Giuseppe Persiani
's Ines de Castro at the Teatro Pergolesi.
SInce then, Dragoni has maintained an active presence in major opera houses internationally. Some of the other roles she has performed on stage include Abigail in Nabucco, Amelia in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera
, Elvira in Bellini's I puritani
, Hélène in Verdi's Jérusalem
, Julia in Gaspare Spontini
's La vestale
, Lady Macbeth in Verdi's Macbeth
, Leonora in Verdi's Il trovatore
, Leonora in Verdi's La forza del destino
, Madame Herz in Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor
, Minnie in Puccini's La fanciulla del West
, Odabella in Verdi's Attila, Paolina in Gaetano Donizetti
's Poliuto
, Santuzza in Pietro Mascagni
's Cavalleria Rusticana
, Viclinda in Verdi's I Lombardi alla prima crociata
, and the title roles in Donizetti's Anna Bolena
, Amilcare Ponchielli
's La Gioconda
, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
, Luigi Cherubini
's Médée
, Puccini's Suor Angelica
, and Puccini's Tosca
.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
who has had an active international career in major opera house
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...
s since the mid 1980s. She appears on several complete opera recordings.
Life and career
Born in ProcidaProcida
Procida is one of the Flegrean Islands off the coast of Naples in southern Italy. The island is between Cape Miseno and the island of Ischia. With its tiny satellite island of Vivara, it is a comune of the province of Naples, in the region of Campania. The population is about ten...
, Dragoni was trained at the "Licinio Refice
Licinio Refice
Licinio Refice was an Italian composer and priest. With Monsignor Lorenzo Perosi, he represented the new direction taken by Italian church music in the twentieth century....
" Music Conservatory in Frosinone
Frosinone
Frosinone is a town and comune in Lazio, central Italy, the administrative seat of the Province of Frosinone. It is located about 75 km south-east of Rome close to the Rome-Naples Autostrada A1...
. She studied singing there with Maria Alòs, wife of pianist Arnaldo Graziosi. In 1977 she joined the RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
Chorus in Rome. In that city she studied singing with Duchess Melina Pignatelli della Leonessa. She later pursued further studies in Naples with Rodolfo Celletti
Rodolfo Celletti
Rodolfo Celletti was an Italian musicologist, critic, voice teacher, and novelist. Considered one of the leading scholars of the operatic voice and the history of operatic performance, he published many books and articles on the subject as well as several novels.-Biography:Rodolfo Celletti was...
and Gina Cigna
Gina Cigna
Gina Cigna was a French-Italian opera singer, one of the leading dramatic soprano of the inter-war period.- Biography :...
. In 1981 she won the Maria Callas Award at the International Vincenzo Bellini Competition in Caltanissetta and in 1983 she won the International Maria Callas Competition at the Foro Italico
Foro Italico
Foro Italico is a sports complex in Rome, Italy. It was built between 1928 and 1938 as the Foro Mussolini under the design of Enrico Del Debbio and, later, Luigi Moretti...
to Rome.
Dragoni made her professional opera debut in 1984 as Imogene in Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
's Il pirata
Il pirata
Il pirata is an opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani from a French translation of the tragic play Bertram, or The Castle of St Aldobrando by Charles Maturin...
at the Teatro Pergolesi
Teatro Pergolesi
The Teatro Comunale Pergolesi is an opera house in Jesi, Italy. It was originally named the Teatro della Concordia when it was the rival to the original 1732 opera house in the city, the Teatro del Leone...
in Jesi. Later that year she made her debut at the Teatro di San Carlo
Teatro di San Carlo
The Real Teatro di San Carlo is an opera house in Naples, Italy. It is the oldest continuously active such venue in Europe.Founded by the Bourbon Charles VII of Naples of the Spanish branch of the dynasty, the theatre was inaugurated on 4 November 1737 — the king's name day — with a performance...
in Naples in the title role of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian composer, violinist and organist.-Biography:Born at Iesi, Pergolesi studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725, where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others...
's rarely performed opera, Il Flaminio. She repeated that role the following year at the Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden. In 1986 she sang Imogene for her debut at the Teatro Massimo
Teatro Massimo
The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele is an opera house and opera company located on the Piazza Verdi in Palermo, Sicily. It was dedicated to King Victor Emanuel II....
in Palermo, and portrayed the role again in 1987 for a return engagement in Naples. She was also celebrated in Naples that year as Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
and made her debut that year at the Opéra national de Montpellier
Opéra national de Montpellier
The Opéra national de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon is an opera company located in the Place de la Comédie in Montpellier, France. The company was established in 1755 and was granted the status of "National Opera" in 2002 by the French Ministry of Culture....
.
In 1988 Dragoni made her debut at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
as Fenena in Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Nabucco
Nabucco
Nabucco is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the Biblical story and the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornue...
. She also made her debuts that year at the Opéra national de Lorraine
Opéra national de Lorraine
Opéra national de Lorraine is an opera company and opera house located in the city of Nancy in the French province of Lorraine. Formerly named the Opéra de Nancy et de Lorraine, it was given the status of "national opera" in 2006....
and the Ravenna Festival
Ravenna Festival
The Ravenna Festival is a summer festival of opera and classical music held in the city of Ravenna, Italy and the surrounding area each July and August....
in the title role of Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Turandot
Turandot
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
. In 1989 she made her debut at the Macerata Opera Festival
Macerata Opera
The Macerata Opera is the name given to the coordinating bodies of the provincial and local government in Macerata, the provincial capital of the Marche region of Italy, which puts on performances of three or four operas each July and August under the name Sferisterio Opera Festival...
in the title role of Verdi's Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
. She also had a triumphant debut that year at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées is a theatre at 15 avenue Montaigne. Despite its name, the theatre is not on the Champs-Élysées but nearby in another part of the 8th arrondissement of Paris....
as Mathilde in Gioachino Rossini's William Tell
William Tell (opera)
Guillaume Tell is an opera in four acts by Gioachino Rossini to a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell. Based on the legend of William Tell, this opera was Rossini's last, even though the composer lived for nearly forty more years...
.
In 1990 Dragoni was committed to the Teatro Regio Torino. In 1991 she gave her first performance at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat Costanzi Theatre, it has undergone several changes of name as well modifications and improvements...
as Donna Anna in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
and made her debut at the Opéra national du Rhin
Opéra national du Rhin
LOpéra national du Rhin is an opera company which performs in Alsace, eastern France, and which includes the Opéra in Strasbourg, the company's ballet in Mulhouse , and the "Opéra Studio" , a training centre for young singers, in Colmar...
in the title role of Rossini's Semiramide
Semiramide
Semiramide is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini.The libretto by Gaetano Rossi is based on Voltaire's tragedy Semiramis, which in turn was based on the legend of Semiramis of Babylon...
. In 1992 she sang Elisabetta in Verdi's Don Carlos
Don Carlos
Don Carlos is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French language libretto by Camille du Locle and Joseph Méry, based on the dramatic play Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien by Friedrich Schiller...
at the Arena di Verona Festival
Arena di Verona Festival
The Arena di Verona Festival is a summer festival of opera, located in the city of Verona Italy. Since 1936, it has been organized under the auspices of an official body, first the Ente Autonomo Spettacoli Lirici Arena di Verona, , and then, following legislation in 1996 and...
and returned to Naples to sing her first Mimì in Puccini's La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
. The following year she sang the title role in Norma at the Teatro di San Carlo and La Fenice
La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres...
; repeating that role in 1994 at the Arena di Verona and the Teatro Carlo Felice
Teatro Carlo Felice
The Teatro Carlo Felice is the principal opera house of Genoa, Italy, used for performances of opera, ballet, orchestral music, and recitals. It is located on the Piazza De Ferrari....
and in 1995 at the Zurich Opera
Zurich Opera
Oper Zürich is an opera company based in Zurich, Switzerland. The company gives performances in the Opernhaus Zürich which has been the company’s home for fifty years.-History:...
. She returned to the Opéra national du Rhin in 1996 to sing Elvira in Verdi's Ernani
Ernani
Ernani is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo. The first production took place at La Fenice Theatre, Venice on 9 March 1844...
. She was also heard in Napeles that year as Gulnara in Verdi's Il Corsaro
Il corsaro
Il corsaro is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, from a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on Lord Byron's poem The Corsair...
. In 1999 she performed the title role in the first modern performance of Giuseppe Persiani
Giuseppe Persiani
Giuseppe Persiani was an Italian opera composer. He wrote his first opera - one of 11 - in 1826 but, after his marriage the soprano Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani, who was to become a significant singer in her time, he devoted much of his efforts to supporting her career...
's Ines de Castro at the Teatro Pergolesi.
SInce then, Dragoni has maintained an active presence in major opera houses internationally. Some of the other roles she has performed on stage include Abigail in Nabucco, Amelia in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
, Elvira in Bellini's I puritani
I puritani
I puritani is an opera in three acts by Vincenzo Bellini. It was his last opera. Its libretto is by Count Carlo Pepoli, based on Têtes rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which is in turn based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality. It was first produced at...
, Hélène in Verdi's Jérusalem
Jérusalem
Jérusalem is a grand opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, set to a French libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz which was partly translated and adapted from Verdi's original 1843 Italian opera, I Lombardi alla prima crociata...
, Julia in Gaspare Spontini
Gaspare Spontini
Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini was an Italian opera composer and conductor, extremely celebrated in his time, though largely forgotten after his death.-Biography:...
's La vestale
La vestale
La vestale is an opera composed by Gaspare Spontini to a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy. It was first performed at the Paris Opéra in Paris on December 15, 1807 and is regarded as Spontini's masterpiece...
, Lady Macbeth in Verdi's Macbeth
Macbeth (opera)
Macbeth is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name...
, Leonora in Verdi's Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, Leonora in Verdi's La forza del destino
La forza del destino
La forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
, Madame Herz in Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor
Der Schauspieldirektor
Der Schauspieldirektor , K. 486, is a comic Singspiel written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Gottlieb Stephanie, an Austrian Schauspieldirektor....
, Minnie in Puccini's La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco. Its highly-publicised premiere occurred in New York City in 1910...
, Odabella in Verdi's Attila, Paolina in Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's Poliuto
Poliuto
Poliuto is a tragedia lirica, or tragic opera, by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian libretto after Pierre Corneille's play Polyeucte . It was composed in 1838 and first performed on 30 November 1848 at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples...
, Santuzza in Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
's Cavalleria Rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
, Viclinda in Verdi's I Lombardi alla prima crociata
I Lombardi alla prima crociata
I Lombardi alla prima crociata is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on an epic poem by Tommaso Grossi. Its first performance was given at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 11 February 1843...
, and the title roles in Donizetti's Anna Bolena
Anna Bolena
Anna Bolena is a tragedia lirica, or opera, in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after Ippolito Pindemonte's Enrico VIII ossia Anna Bolena and Alessandro Pepoli's Anna Bolena, both telling of the life of Anne Boleyn...
, Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...
's La Gioconda
La Gioconda (opera)
La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli set to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835...
, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
, Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries....
's Médée
Médée (Cherubini)
Médée is a French language opéra-comique by Luigi Cherubini.The libretto by François-Benoît Hoffmann was based on Euripides' tragedy of Medea and Pierre Corneille's play Médée....
, Puccini's Suor Angelica
Suor Angelica
Suor Angelica is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an original Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is the second opera of the trio of operas known as Il trittico...
, and Puccini's Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
.