Francesca

Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli, after graduating from the 'Giuseppe Verdi' Conservatory in Milan and from the 'Girolamo Frescobaldi' Conservatory in Ferrara with Mirella Freni, was a pupil of Luciano Pavarotti, Alessandra Molinari and Sonia Prina, and currently perfects her studies with Fernando Opa and Vivica Genaux. During her career, she won the Finalist Prize at the Händel Singing Competition in London, and the Critics' Prize at the Early Music Festival in Varazdin, Croatia.

 

Since her debut, her concert and opera activity has seen her play a leading role alongside orchestras, ensembles and conductors devoted to the historically informed recovery of the 17th and 18th century repertoire. Among her most significant collaborations are those with the Accademia Bizantina conducted by Ottavio Dantone, La Venexiana with Claudio Cavina, Il Complesso Barocco with Alan Curtis, L'Arte del Mondo conducted by Werner Ehrhardt, Fabio Biondi's Europa Galante, with whom she recently made her debut at the Wiener Konzerthaus in Händel's 'Silla' for the Resonanzen Festival, and at the Enescu Festival in Romania. 

 

Among many others, she took part in the Styriarte Festival in Graz, the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Hamburg, the Händel Festival in Halle, the Resonanzen Festival in Vienna and the Roma Festival Barocco.

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Her keen interest in Baroque music theatre has seen her engaged in the rediscovery of forgotten operas, debuting in leading roles in Francesco Cavalli's 'La Rosinda', 'Artemisia' and 'Veremonda', Sarro's 'Achille in Sciro', Cesti's 'La Dori', Gluck's 'Antigono' and Bohuslav Martinu's 'Mirandolina', among others. He also performed Mozart roles in 'La clemenza di Tito', 'Così fan tutte', 'Don Giovanni' and 'Le nozze di Figaro'.

 

In 2013, she took part in the 'Opera Buthan' project, coordinated by Stefano Vizioli and Aaron Carpene, with the staging of an opera in the small Himalayan kingdom, which was revived in 2014 in El Paso (Texas). A fruitful collaboration connects her with Mehmet Yesilcay's Pera Ensemble, with whom she has performed in prestigious European concert halls and recorded numerous CDs for Glossa, Oehms Classics and Berlin Classics.

 

Her recent roles include Cleopatra in G.F. Haendel's "Giulio Cesare" in Bonn, Donna Elvira in Mozart's "Don Giovanni" at the Heidelberg Theatre and for the Wuerzburger Mozartfest, Contessa in Salieri's "La Scuola dei gelosi" and Falsirena in Salieri's "La Fiera di Venezia" under the baton of Werner Ehrhardt, as well as Rosane in Vivaldi's "La Verita in Cimento".

 

In 2021, she sang in Händel's "Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno" in Parma with Fabio Biondi's Europa Galante orchestra, in Vivaldi's "Farnace", in the role of Gilade, at the Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, with Federico Maria Sardelli's Modo Antiquo, repeated this year at the Teatro di Piacenza. In 2022, she made her debut at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Lully's "Acis et Galatée", conducted by Sardelli and directed by Benjamin Lazar, then at the Fenice in Venice in the contemporary opera "Le baruffe", by Giorgio Battistelli, conducted by Enrico Calesso and directed by Damiano Michieletto.

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After her debut in Florence, she sang in Monteverdi/Toni's "Orfeo" at the Innsbruck Festival in the roles of Proserpina, Musica and Messaggera with Arte del Mondo and Massimiliano Toni. With the latter and La Terza Prattica she sang at the Festival of Sacred Music in Bogotá (Colombia) (October 2022). 

In the same month she appeared in Yokohama (Japan) in Handel's "Silla" with Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante (DVD recording of the opera).

In December she sang Handel's cantata "Aminta e Fillide" with Fabio Bonizzoni and La Risonanza at the Museo delle Scienze e della Tecnica in Milan. She then sang Ziani's "Damira Placata" and recorded a CD with the Enea Baroque Orchestra conducted by Salvatore Carchiolo.

In January 2023 she performed in a Handel concert at the Valletta Festival with Arte del Mondo and Massimiliano Toni on harpsichord. 

In February and March she was heard in Halle and Karlsruhe as Magdalena in Handel's 'The Resurrection' with Attilio Cremonesi; at the same time a CD was recorded for Naxos at the Handel Festival.

She then performed Pergolesi's 'Stabat Mater' with the Orchestra Sinfonica Città di Prato conducted by Simone Ori.

She also made her debut in Milan with La Verdi under the baton of Ruben Jais in Bach's 'St John Passion'. In July she can be heard in Poland for the cantata 'Didone Abbandonata' by G. A. Ristori with Arte dei suonatori. Upcoming engagements in 2023 include Boccherin's 'Stabat Mater'.

 

Discography: Bononcini's "La Conversione di Maddalena" (2020), "Clorinda e Tancredi" (2018), "Jerusalem" (2018), "Sacred Music in Lombardy" (2017), "Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria" (2011), "Artemisia" (2010) all for the record company Glossa.

For Berlin Classics she recorded 'Momenti d'amore' (2014) and 'Trialog' (2012). For Ohems Classics she recorded Verdi's 'Oberto di San Bonifacio', 'Ballo turco' (2015) and 'Carnival Oriental' (2016). For Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, in addition to works by Salieri, she recorded 'Marc'Antonio and Cleopatra' with V. Genaux in 2012 and, with the same, she recorded Bertoni's 'L'Orfeo' in 2015 for Fra Bernardo. Sony International/DHM last released "L'isola d' Alcina" by Gazzaniga with Arte del Mondo conducted by W.Ehrardt (Leverkusen, 2023).