Michela Sburlati
Michela Sburlati studied the harp under Alberta Suriani and Ofelia Guglielmi, and as a soprano she studied under Domenico Tolone and Franca Como, graduating summa cum laude on both counts. She continued her studies as a harpist under Maria Luisa Bona and Jaqueline Borot, and as a soprano first under Margaret Baker, and then under Mietta Sighele and Veriano Luchetti.
Her first public appearance, as a young soprano in 1989, was in The Medium by Giancarlo Menotti, at the Teatro della Cometa in Rome. In 1991 she won the Mattia Battistini prize for her performance as Mimì in La Bohème, and in the same year she also won the Madame Butterfly prize in the international Viareggio-based competition for the Puccini repertoire.
In 1991 she sang the lead female role in Puccini’s Suor Angelica in a widely praised production at the Todi Festival in Umbria; and in 1992 Giancarlo Menotti cast her as Amelia, the lead female role in Donizetti’s Il Duca d’Alba, conducted by Alberto Maria Giuri. This production inaugurated the Charleston Festival in Carolina and also the 35th Two Worlds Festival in Spoleto, where it was filmed and later broadcast on television; and the same production was subsequently reprised at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova.
In 1994 she embarked on a long-term collaboration with Gustav Kuhn, under whom she made her début as the leading female role in various works: Richard Strauss’ Capriccio in the Teatro Regio in Parma; Puccini’s Manon Lescaut in the Teatro del Giglio in Lucca and in the Teatro Verdi in Pisa; Mozart’s Il Re Pastore in the Teatro Verdi in Florence, broadcast live on Rai Radio 3; and Wagner’s Das Rheingold in the Teatro San Carlo in Naples (CD on BMG’s Arte Nova Classics label), and also at the Erl Festival. At this festival she appeared every year from 1998 to 2012, making her début performance in various works and roles, including Verdi’s Requiem (CD on BMG’s Arte Nova Classics label); and in the summer of 2002, as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss (CD on BMG’s Arte Nova Classics label). At the Erl Festival she also appeared in performances of various iconic works from the German symphonic repertoire.
In 2001 she embarked on a long-term association with the Arena di Verona, performing in major centres across Europe, as well as in New York and Hong Kong, and singing in an acclaimed production of Puccini’s La Rondine, conducted by Maurizio Arena at the opening of the 2002 winter season at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona. She opened the 2004 winter season of this theatre with Le Donne Curiose by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, and in the winter season of 2005 she performed in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by Gustav Kuhn.
She was one of the four soloists in a performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis which inaugurated the 2002 season at the Teatro Politeama in Palermo with the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana.
In the opening performance of the 2003 season at the Teatro Regio in Parma she sang alongside Ruggero Raimondi in Pizzetti’s Assassinio nella Cattedrale, conducted by Bruno Bartoletti, and she performed again in this same production for the 2004 season of the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome.
In 2004, which saw Genova as the capitale della cultura for that year, she opened the cultural cycle with a recital there in the Teatro Carlo Felice, where she sang alongside José Carreras, with whom she subsequently gave a recital in Rome (2007). In the same year, she performed the role of Liù in Puccini’s Turandot at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, and also sang Mimì in La Bohème at the 42nd Osaka Festival in Japan. At the Teatro Regio in Parma she sang Medora in Verdi’s Il Corsaro, conducted by Renato Palumbo in a performance that was broadcast several times on Sky TV (DVD released on the Dynamic label). She also opened the 2004-2005 season at the Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi, performing in the world premiere of Federico II by Marco Tutino.
She has sung in numerous performances of Verdi’s Requiem: in Peking’s Forbidden City, conducted by Riccardo Capasso; in the Verdi Auditorium in Milan and the Teatro Sociale in Como, conducted by Riccardo Chailly; in Innsbruck and Erl, conducted by Gustav Kuhn; and at the Ara Coeli in Rome, with the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Capasso.
In January 2005 she made her début as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda at the Teatro Regio in Turin; and in Verdi’s Don Carlos she sang Élisabeth de Valois in the opening performance of the Macerata Festival, conducted by Gustav Kuhn in the Arena Sferisterio. In April of the same year she appeared in the principal theatres of the Marche region, in performances of Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, with the Marche Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gustav Kuhn.
Throughout her career she has performed worldwide, often at major international festivals: in China, the USA, Japan, Peru, Russia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, England, France, Belgium, Holland, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Albania, Turkey, Qatar, Ethiopia, Algeria, Morocco, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, and Brazil.
In Vienna and Rome in the year 2000, as part of a series of tributes to the 18th-century Italian poet and librettist Pietro Metastasio, she performed in Giuseppe Riconosciuto by Pasquale Anfossi, and in La Passione di Gesù Cristo by Antonio Salieri. These two oratorios were recorded live for the Florence-based Fonè label.
The summer of 2006 marked a turning-point in her career, when she sang as Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at the Erl Festival in a production conducted by Gustav Kuhn. For this performance she received unanimous acclaim, both public and critical, with glowing reviews in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Wiener Zeitung, and the Frankfurter Allgemeine. She then appeared in this role in subsequent seasons of the festival (DVD for the Paris-based Col Legno label).
In 2006 she sang the title role of Adelia by Donizetti with the Bolzano-based Haydn Orchestra conducted by Gustav Kuhn, in a performance recorded for RCA’s Red Seal label. In September 2010 she performed the same role, to unanimous acclaim, at the Mahler Festival in Dobbiaco, with Gustav Kuhn again the conductor.
In November 2007 she sang in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in a performance conducted by Lorin Maazel inside the European Parliament in Brussels.
In 2008 she made her début appearance as Tosca at the Kazan Opera House in Russia, in a performance conducted by Marco Boemi.
At the Erl Festival in 2009 she made a celebrated début appearance as Chrysothemis in Richard Strauss’ Elektra, conducted by Gustav Kuhn. The next year, in Italy, she reprised this role in Bolzano, Modena, Piacenza and Ferrara, to international critical acclaim. For these performances she won the Gianni Poggi prize, presented to her in 2011 at a ceremony in the Teatro Municipale in Piacenza.
In 2009, as a guest of the Mariinsky Theatre and together with the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Alberto Maria Giuri, she sang in the renowned St Petersburg Philharmonic Hall at a gala evening based on the repertoire of Puccini, her performance winning favour with the public and critics alike. And in 2011 she returned to St Petersburg to give a recital, accompanied by the pianist Emanuele Lippi, in the Glazunov Hall at the St Petersburg Conservatory; for whose pupils she also gave a masterclass in singing.
In June 2010 she again appeared in the Two Worlds Festival in Spoleto, in a recital inspired by the repertoire of the 19th-century singer Maria Malibran, performed together with Angela Naccari; this recital being reprised in April 2011 at the Parco della Musica in Rome.
She has sung lead roles beside numerous distinguished artists, including Giuseppe Taddei, Piero Cappuccilli, Franco Bonisolli, Ruggero Raimondi, José Carreras, Francisco Araiza, Marcello Giordani, Leo Nucci, Renato Bruson, Kurt Rydl, Pietro Ballo, Lando Bartolini, Mariella Devia, Lucia Valentini Terrani, Bonaldo Giaiotti, Nicola Ghiuselev; diretta, per citare ancora qualche nome, da Gianandrea Gavazzeni (La Rondine), Karl Martin (Turandot), Isaac Karabtchevsky (Butterfly ed un gala verdiano), Lu Jia (Les Nuits d'été, Berlioz), Krzysztof Penderecki (Nona Sinfonia, Beethoven), Pier Giorgio Morandi e Bruno Aprea (Stabat Mater, Rossini), Claudio Desderi (Il Re pastore, Mozart), Dmitry Kostin e Giuliano Silveri (Requiem, Mozart e Nona sinfonia, Beethoven).
È stata diretta da numerosi registi tra i quali: Ermanno Olmi, Saverio Marconi, Franca Valeri, Michele Placido, Lamberto Pugelli, Gigi Dall’Aglio, Manfred Schweighofer, Filippo Saint Just, John Cox.
Dal 2012 è stata più volte invitata a tenere delle Masterclass presso il “Zhou Xiaoyan International Opera Centre” in collaborazione con il Conservatorio a Shanghai e dal 2015 è docente di canto ospite presso l’Università dell’Henan a Kaifeng, in Cina.
La raccolta completa dei Lieder per soprano di Wagner in duo con il pianista Marco Scolastra, il cui cd, edito dalla “Brilliant Classics”, si è avvalso della supervisione e direzione artistiche di Luca Ricci.
È tra i soci fondatori del Festival Internazionale “Sanctae Juliae” a Livorno, a cui ha partecipato in concerti e masterclass anche in collaborazione con altre istituzioni concertistiche internazionali.
Dal 2023, dopo una pausa dedicata soprattutto all’activity di docente, ha ripreso l’activity concertistica in duo con il pianista M. Colacicchi tenendo recital in Italia, Bulgaria e Brasile.
Da molti anni al fianco del soprano Mietta Sighele, sua maestra, ispiratrice ed amica, ha collaborato con il “Musicariva Festival”, a Riva del Garda, sia come cantante che tenendovi masterclass, invitata anche con regolarità nella giuria del prestigioso concorso internazionale “Riccardo Zandonai” per giovani cantanti.
È titolare della Cattedra di Canto lirico presso il Conservatorio “Santa Cecilia” a Roma.
