BIOGRAPHY

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Italian lyric soprano Elisa Balbo graduated “cum laude” by the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, under the guidance of Cristina Rubin. She then pursued her studies with Patrizia Orciani. Balbo’s professional career started in 2013, thanks to the Pavarotti Foundation, which allowed her to perform, despite her young age, on important stages at Broadway (New York), Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Teatro Pavarotti-Freni di Modena and Arena di Verona, among others. Also in 2013, she was also chosen by Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai to sing Verdian and Wagnerian commemorative concerts, broadcasted on the channel RAI5, under the baton of Daniele Rustioni.

 

Elisa appeared on the operatic scene as Alice in Verdi’s Falstaff, at the Teatro del Giglio di Lucca, in a Ravenna Festival’s production by Cristina Mazzavillani Muti. Then, she sang the role of Stephana in Giordano’s Siberia, in concert version, at the Verdi Hall in Milan. She debuted in the Rossinian repertoire, singing Anna Erisso in Maometto II at Rossini in Wildbad, under the baton of Antonino Fogliani, being broadcasted on the national radio and recorded in CD by the label Naxos Classical. Other Rossinian roles brought her to the stage in Wildbad such as Anaï in Moïse et Pharaon, conducted by Fabrizio Maria Carminati (also recorded by Naxos) and Amenaide in Tancredi, also with Antonino Fogliani.

 

Balbo has already performed in important opera stages such as Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Teatro Bellini di Catania, Arena in Verona, Wiener

Konzerthaus, Ravenna Festival, Festival Puccini Torre del Lago, Enescu Festival, Bunka Mura in Tokyo, Rossini in Wildbad Festival and Ljubjana Festival.

 

Balbo has a wide repertoire including roles from Rossini (the title role in Armida, Anna Erisso in Maometto II, Anaï in Moïse e Pharaon , Amenaide in Tancredi and solo parts in Petite Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater), but also from Pergolesi (La Serva Padrona), Bellini (Adalgisa in Norma), and Mozart (Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and Requiem), Schumann (Margherita in Szenen aus Goethes Faust), Verdi (Desdemona in Otelloa and Alice in Falstaff), Puccini (Mimì/Musetta in La Bohème and Liù in Turandot), Bizet (Micaela in Carmen), Leoncavallo (Nedda in I Pagliacci), Giordano (Stephana in Siberia), Carlos Gomes (Contessa in Lo Schiavo), Lehár (Hanna in Die Lustige Witwe), Bernstein (Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti), Cura (Ecce Homo), Orff (Carmina Burana), Mendelsohn (Symphony No.2 op. 52), Saint-Sëans (Oratoire de Noël) and Beethoven (9th Symphony).

 

In the 2025/26 season, Elisa is singing Musetta in La Bohème at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff, at the Teatru Manoel – Malta National Opera; and Liù in Puccini’s Turandot, at the Festival Puccini Torre del Lago 2025.

 

During the 2024/25 season, she sang Adalgisa in Bellini’s Norma, at the Teatro Massimo Bellini di Catania; a New Year’s concert with the Kraków Philharmonic; Liù in Turandot by the Festival Puccini Torre del Lago at the Montecatini Terme; the solo part in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, with the Canova Chamber Orchestra; and Prima Sorella in S. Colasanti’s L’Ultimo Viaggio di Simbad, at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma.

 

Highlights of E. Balbo’s 2023/24 season include the title role in Rossini’s Armida, at the Teatru Manoel; Liù in Turandot, at the Teatro Massimo Bellini; a Verdi gala concert, conducted by Riccardo Muti, at the Ravenna Festival; and Musetta in La Bohème, at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

 

In the 2022/23 season, Elisa sung Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, at the Massimo Bellini; Serpina in Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona and Dinah in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Hannah Glawari in Lehár’s Die Lustige Witwe and Margherita/Gretchen in Schumman’s Szene aus Goethes Faust, at the Teatro Alighieri di Ravenna.

 

Among her next commitments, Elisa Balbo will sing Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti and Lucy in Menotti’s The Telephone, at the Teatro La Fenice.

 

She has worked with conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Renato Palumbo, Daniele

Rustioni, Andrea Battistoni, Antonino Fogliani and Francesco Ivan Ciampa.

 

Her live recordings include Rossini’s Maometto II and Moïse by Naxos and Carlos Gomes’ Lo Schiavo by Dynamic. In 2022, Balbo recorded her first chamber music album “Lunaria – Songs to the moon”, with the pianist Michele D’Elia, by Illiria.