Giulia Semenzato is an internationally recognized soprano, particularly for her interpretation of Baroque and Mozart repertoire. She studied at the Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello di Venezia, graduating from there with honours. She then studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, specialising in Baroque repertoire under the tutelage of Rosa Dominguez. She later won the Toti dal Monte di Treviso competition (2012) as well as Winner of the Farinelli award for best baroque voice at the Bologna competition 2013 and at the Cesti-Competition of Innsbruck 2014. Her career debut was in the role of Elisetta in Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto at the major opera houses in Treviso, Lucca, Ferrara, and Pisa.
Giulia soon undertook an international career that saw her debut in major European theatres and concert halls such as Teatro La Fenice in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans and Ottone in Villa, and Teatro alla Scala in Mozart’s Lucio Silla. Other Mozart roles include Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Serpetta in La finta Giardiniera, Despina in Cosi fan tutte and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte. She has also performed the role of Nanetta in Verdi’s Falstaff at Beijing NCPA, Carolina in Cimarosa’s Matromonio Segreto at Innsbruck Festwochen, as well as Michal in Handel’s Saul and Dorinda in Orlando, both at the Theater an der Wien.
A refined interpreter of the Italian seventeenth and eighteenth-century repertoire, she has performed the role of Poppea in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the Opera du Rhin, Venere in Ercole Amante at the Opera Comique in Paris, Salome in Stradella’s San Giovanni Battista at the Concertgebeuw in Amsterdam, as well as the title roles in Cavalli’s Elena and Eritrea at Aix-en-Provence, Opera Comique, Theatre de Versailles and Teatro La Fenice.
In concert, she has sung as Soprano Soloist in Mozart’s Requiem in Naples, Madrid and Cuenca, Handel’s Messiah with Collegium 1704 conducted by Daniel Harding, Poulenc’s Gloria at the Teatro Regio in Turin, and Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo by Caldara at the Paris Philharmonie, Hamburg Elbphilarmonie, Freiburg, and Berlin Philharmonie. In Sevilla and Martina Franca, she performed a recital with Romantic Guitar together with Jadran Duncumb.
Giulia regularly collaborates with conductors such as René Jacobs, Giovanni Antonini, Raphaël Pichon, Alessandro de Marchi, Leonardo García Alarcón, Václav Luks, Riccardo Minasi, Diego Fasolis and many more. She also worked with P. Jaarvi, Z. Metha, J.E. Garidiner, A. Bernardini, K.Lynn-Wilson, I. Metzmacher, D. Rustioni, C. Moulds, S. Montanari, and stage directors including Claus Guth, Christof Loy, Damiano Michieletto, Robert Carsen, David McVicar, Barrie Kosky, Evgeny Titov, Christoph Marthaler and Jetske Mijnssen.
As a recording artist, she has recorded for the labels Accent, Arcana, Glossa, Harmonia Mundi, CPO, Pentatone. She recently released her first solo album, Angelica Diabolica, with Alpha Classics. Giulia has also held masterclasses for Baroque singing at the University of Arts of Havana in Cuba, as well the SMAV early music courses in Venice.
Recent engagements include Dido and Aeneas at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Orlando at the Teatro Real Madrid, Faure’s Requiem Op 48 with Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Idomeneo at Grand Théâtre de Genève, as well as a European tour of Handel’s Tolomeo in concert with Kammerorchester Basel.
In the 2024/25 season, Giulia continues to perform internationally, including appearances as Iole in the Frankfurt Opera’s run of Hercules, Susanna in La Nozze di Figaro at the Teatro Regio Torino, Dorinda in Orlando at the Theatre du Chatelet, and Fortuna in La Monnaie’s new production of I Grotteschi, a collection of Monteverdi operas.
July 2024
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSO by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
