Maria Agresta

Maria Giovanna Agresta (born 16 July 1978) is an Italian operatic soprano.

Maria Agresta with tenor Giorgio Berrugi and her manager Gianluca Macheda (2016).

Life

Born in Vallo della Lucania, Agresta obtained her diploma at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Martucci in Salerno with top marks and then completed her studies with Raina Kabaivanska in Modena. In 2006 she made her debut in Spoleto as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia and then appeared as Selene in Baldassare Galuppi's Didone abbandonata. She made her role debut as Micaëla in Carmen in 2007 in Messina and sang Desdemona in Otello in various venues.

Further roles from the Italian repertoire followed; including her role debut as Elena in I vespri siciliani at the Teatro Regio di Torino in 2011, which brought her wide recognition.[1] Since then she has also sung at La Scala in Milan and other important opera houses such as the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, La Fenice in Venice, the Bayerischen Staatsoper München, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, the Semperoper in Dresden, the Royal Opera House London and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía Valencia. In 2015 she appeared for the first time at the Salzburg Easter Festivals with Jonas Kaufmann in the role of Nedda in Pagliacci.[2] She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera (New York) in January 2016 in the role of Mimi in La Bohème.[3] At the Salzburg Festival in August 2016 she made an acclaimed role debut in the French repertoire as Marguerite in Gounod's Faust.[4] In 2017 there followed further engagements at the Metropolitan Opera as Micaëla in Carmen in January[5] and as Liù in Turandot in October.[6] In 2014 Agresta was awarded the XXXIII Premio della Critica Musicale Italiana.[7]

Repertoire

Roles include:

Operatic repertoire
Role Title Composer
NormaNormaBellini
ElviraI puritaniBellini
MicaelaCarmenBizet
GemmaGemma di VergyDonizetti
SeleneDidone abbandonataGaluppi
MargueriteFaustGounod
NeddaPagliacci Leoncavallo
Donna ElviraDon GiovanniMozart
MimìLa bohèmePuccini
AngelicaSuor AngelicaPuccini
LiùTurandotPuccini
RosinaIl barbiere di SivigliaRossini
JuliaLa VestaleSpontini
LeonoraOberto, Conte di San BonifacioVerdi
Lucrezia ContariniI due FoscariVerdi
OdabellaAttilaVerdi
AmaliaI masnadieriVerdi
LeonoraIl trovatoreVerdi
Violetta ValeryLa traviataVerdi
Amelia GrimaldiSimon BoccanegraVerdi
ElenaI vespri sicilianiVerdi
DesdemonaOtelloVerdi

Her concert repertoire includes also Rossini's Stabat Mater and Verdi's Requiem.[8]

gollark: My project purgatory is just my laptop.
gollark: This is evidence that Jesus is nonbinary.
gollark: Jesus is the plural of Jesu.
gollark: Really.
gollark: Ours are just signed by God, not Jesus.

See also

Discography

Recordings
  • Galuppi: Didone abbandonata – Piva/Grasso/Giansanti/Agresta/Carnevale/Carè, Welterstaufnahme 2006 Bongiovanni
  • Verdi: Sacred Verdi. Quattro pezzi sacri, Libera me, Ave Maria – Maria Agresta, Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia nazionale di Santa Cecilia / Antonio Pappano. 2014 Warner Classics

Video recording on DVD or Blu-ray Disc
  • Gaetano Donizetti, Gemma di Vergy, Maria Agresta as Gemma. A live recording from the Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo; director: Laurent Gerger. Orchestra del Bergamo Musica Festival Gaetano Donizetti, Roberto Rizzi Brignoli. Published by Bongiovanni, 2011.
  • Giuseppe Verdi, I due Foscari, Maria Agresta as Lucrezia Contarini, Placido Domingo as Francesco Foscari, Francesco Meli as Jacopo Foscari, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Antonio Pappano, director: Thaddeus Strassberger. Issued by Opus Arte, 2015.
  • Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Pagliacci, Maria Agresta as Nedda, Jonas Kaufmann as Canio, Staatskapelle Dresden, Christian Thielemann. A production of the Salzburg Easter Festival 2015; director: Philipp Stölzl. Published by Sony, 2015. (also with Pietro Mascagni, Cavalleria rusticana.)
  • Giacomo Puccini, Turandot, Maria Agresta as Liù, La Scala, Riccardo Chailly. Published by Decca, Jan. 2017.
  • Charles Gounod, Faust, Maria Agresta as Marguerite, Pjotr Beczala as Faust, Ildar Abdrazakov as Mephisto. Salzburger Festspiele 2016, Philharmonischer Chor Wien, Vienna Philharmonic under Alejo Perez, director: Reinhard von der Thannen. Published by EuroArts,[9] July 2017.

References
  1. Kurzportrait von Maria Agresta, Salzburger Nachrichten vom 27. Juli 2015.
  2. Rezension von kultur24.berlin zu Cavalleria Rusticana + Pagliacci bei den Salzburger Osterfestspielen 2015
  3. "Review: In ‘Turandot’ and ‘La Bohème,’ a New Depth of Emotion", New York Times, 14 January 2016.
  4. Rezension der Premiere von Gounds Faust bei den Salzburger Festspielen 2016, Süddeutsche Zeitung (11 August 2016).
  5. Eric C. Simpson (20 January 2017). "Margaine makes sensational debut in Met's riveting "Carmen"". New York Classical Review. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
  6. Wilborn Hampton (18 October 2017). "Met Opera: A Stirring "Turandot" With Dyka, Antonenko, and an Homage to James Morris". Huffington Post. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
  7. "XXXIII Premio della Critica Musicale Italiana a Maria Agresta". Archived from the original on 2015-09-29. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
  8. Konzertkritik Berliner Morgenpost, 2 April 2013.
  9. Euroarts
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