Mariam Battistelli | |
|---|---|
 Battistelli in 2024 | |
| Born | 6 August [1] Addis Ababa, Ethiopia [2] |
| Citizenship | Italy |
| Education | |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 2014–present |
| Height | 1.66 m (5 ft 5 in) [3] |
| Website | www |
Mariam Battistelli (born 6 August) is an Ethiopian-born Italian operatic soprano and actress.
Battistelli was left upon her birth at a Christian orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, [4] [5] [6] being named by the nuns after Mary, mother of Jesus. [5] [6] At eight months old, she was adopted by a family from Mantua, Italy, where she grew up. [4] [5] [7] After her parents' divorce, she was raised by her mother Laura, who worked as an educator for children with special needs. [5] [6]
Battistelli discovered an interest in opera as a child, when her grandmother introduced her to La traviata and La bohème , [6] [8] and her mother brought her, aged 8, to a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Teatro Bibiena in Mantua. [4] [6] [9] She joined the children's choir of her local conservatory , where she went on to study Western concert flute and, aged 18, [4] [6] [9] singing, in which she graduated with honours [5] [7] [10] five years later. [8] She attended Enzo Dara's academy [7] and was noticed in at a café in Mantua –where she was working as a waitress [6] – by Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo, who invited her to play the role of a page on the set of Rigoletto a Mantova [5] [6] [9] and selected her for his Centre de Perfeccionament at Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. [5] [7] [10] She trained there, first as a mezzo-soprano and then as a soprano, [9] from 2013 to 2016. [11] During her studies, she took part in several international opera singing contests in her country. [3] [11]
Battistelli got her first main role on stage in 2014. [8] She came third at the Maria Callas International Competition in Verona in 2014 and the Franca Mattiucci International Competition in Asti in 2015. [3] [11] In 2017, upon winning both first prize and audience prize at the Ottavio Ziino International Lyric Competition for emerging artists in Rome, [7] [10] [11] Battistelli was invited by Dominique Meyer [6] [9] [12] to join the Vienna State Opera, Austria, where she made her debut as Musetta in Puccini's La bohème , Gretel in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel and Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute . [5] [7] [10] She remained there for three years, [3] [9] [10] expanding her repertoire and marking the beginning of her international career. [5] [7]
Since then, Battistelli has worked with conductors such as Ádám Fischer, Sian Edwards (both conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra), Christian Thielemann, Speranza Scappucci, [9] [10] [11] Zubin Mehta, Semyon Bychkov, Valery Gergiev, [3] Federico Maria Sardelli, [9] Kim Eun-sun, [5] Steven Mercurio [11] and Dan Ettinger, [13] and has performed at venues which include the Vienna State Opera, La Scala , Glyndebourne, [7] [10] [11] the Opéra de Monte-Carlo , the Hamburg State Opera, the Royal Opera House Muscat, [3] [11] [12] the Tōkyō Bunka Kaikan , La Fenice , [12] the Teatro di San Carlo , [13] the Toulon Opera, [14] the Teatro Comunale di Bologna , [12] the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari , [15] the Teatro Valli [16] and the Teatro Coccia , [17] as well as in Modena, Piacenza [12] and her native Mantua. [9] She has participated in international events like the Chorégies d'Orange [11] and the Festival della Valle d'Itria . [7] [11] Other orchestras with which she has performed include the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana , the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. [3]
In 2023, the singer reprised the role of Musetta in a La Scala staging of La bohème based on Franco Zeffirelli's. [7] [18] In 2024, she starred in the musical film The Opera! , directed by Davide Livermore and Paolo Gep Cucco [4] [5] [7] and co-produced by Dolce & Gabbana, which was presented at the 19th Rome Film Festival in October 2024 [4] and premiered at La Scala in January 2025. [5] The film, which features arias from several classical operas (including Orfeo ed Euridice , La bohème , Tosca , Madama Butterfly , Turandot , La traviata , Rigoletto , L'italiana in Algeri , Carmen , Mefistofele ) as well as pop songs, [19] is based on a stage version from 2017 at Royal Opera House Muscat, also starring Battistelli; in both, she plays the role of a modern Eurydice. [3] [4] [5] She has also worked on opera and operatic pop events and recordings alongside Andrea Bocelli. [3] [9]
Battistelli has cited inspiration from sopranos Shirley Verrett, Jessye Norman, [4] [12] Maria Callas, [4] Reri Grist, Kathleen Battle, Mirella Freni and Ileana Cotrubaș. [12]
As of January 2024, [update] Battistelli resides in Vienna, Austria. [5] She is also a former American football player and a former athlete, having practiced competitively throughout her youth before she began her singing training. [4] [5] She has been a testimonial for fashion brands Dolce & Gabbana, Etro, Armani and Pomellato. [9]
| Composer | Opera/work | Role(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Georges Bizet | Carmen | Frasquita |
| Alma Deutscher | Cinderella | Cinderella |
| Gaetano Donizetti | Don Pasquale | Norina |
| L'elisir d'amore | Adina | |
| Giannetta | ||
| Engelbert Humperdinck | Hansel and Gretel | Gretel |
| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | The Magic Flute | Pamina |
| The Marriage of Figaro | Barbarina | |
| Susanna | ||
| Requiem | N/a | |
| Giovanni Battista Pergolesi | Stabat Mater | |
| Giacomo Puccini | La bohème | Musetta |
| Manon Lescaut | Il Musico (The Musician) | |
| Henry Purcell | Dido and Aeneas | Belinda |
| Gioachino Rossini | Mosè in Egitto | Amaltea |
| Alessandro Scarlatti | Griselda | Costanza |
| Johann Strauss | Die Fledermaus | Adele |
| Richard Strauss | Ariadne auf Naxos | Echo |
| Giuseppe Verdi | Falstaff | Nannetta |
| Rigoletto | Gilda | |
| Un ballo in maschera | Oscar | |
| Antonio Vivaldi | Juditha triumphans | Juditha |
| L'incoronazione di Dario | Statira | |
| Richard Wagner | Parsifal | Blumenmädchen (A Flower Maiden) |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Rigoletto a Mantova | Page | Supporting role |
| 2025 | The Opera! | Eurydice | Lead role |
