Paoletta Marrocu

The Italian soprano Paoletta Marrocu, possessing an agile voice of distinctive colour and timbre, has received much international attention for her intensely engaging and committed interpretations. She shapes the roles of her extensive repertoire exquisitely with rich nuance, proper inflection, and spontaneous profound emotion. Her “sonorous voice which amply projects in the theatre”, together with her dramatic qualities make Paoletta Marrocu “a self-assured artist who stirs her public and attentively executes the direction.” (G. Landini in L’Opera Anno XVII – N° 172). A physique that enables her to look the part and a femininity rarely seen on the operatic stage add to the profile of this artist who knows how to create real “music theater”.

Paoletta Marrocu started her vocal studies at the Conservatorio di Musica in Cagliari with Lucia Cappellino and perfected her technique with Renata Scotto.

She made her début in La Wally in Lucca. The great success of this production opened the door to the Teatro alla Scala in Milan where she performed in L’Incoronazione di Poppea. In Ravenna, she made her début in Monteverdi’s Orfeo in the title role; in Cagliari performed as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana, a role with which she also made her début at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. She performed this role again at the Teatro Comunale in Florence as well in Aida conducted by Zubin Mehta. An other important début was at the Teatro Regio in Parma, where she sang the title role in Un giorno di regno directed by Pierluigi Pizzi.

Her career began to reach an international level in 1999, where she performed at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna the role of Ginevra in La cene delle beffe conducted by Bruno Bartoletti. She performed Tosca at the Arena di Verona, and again at the Zurich Opera House, the theatre in which she has made her début in the most important roles of her career such as Macbeth in 2001 with Thomas Hampson in the title role conducted by Franz Welser-Möst and directed by David Pounthney (also on DVD).

In the 2003/2004 season she went on Japan tour with the Teatro alla Scala and performing in Macbeth conducted by Riccardo Muti; she made her début at the Vienna State Opera with Tosca and returned to the House to perform Fedora alongside Placido Domingo. Then she performed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in a new production of La Fanciulla del West conducted by Christian Thielemann and returned to Zurich with a new production of I Vespri siciliani and Un ballo in maschera. In Munich she sang in Il Trovatore conducted by Zubin Mehta.

The 2004/05 took her to the United States, where she made her début at the Washington Opera with a new production of Andrea Chénier and at the Teatro Real of Madrid with Macbeth. In the 2005/06 season she made her début in Turandot at the Opera House in Zurich, she sang in La clemenza di Tito in Sassari as well as in Nabucco in Vienna and in Pizzetti’s Assassinio nella cattedrale in Bari, featured on DVD by “UNITEL” and “DECCA”.

In 2007 she made her début in Shanghai as Turandot, at the Opera House in San Diego with Il Trovatore, and then went on to perform Macbeth in Washington D.C. She then returned to the European stage, performing Tosca in Vienna, and Turandot in Zurich. An important debut of this season was Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia at the Teatro Verdi in Sassari.

In 2008 Paoletta Marrocu performed Alice Ford in Falstaff at the Teatro Piccinni in Bari, Tosca at the Hamburg State Opera, she returned to the Teatro alla Scala in Milan to perform in Il Tabarro, Macbeth and Dallapicola’s Il prigioniero. She was Giovanna d’Arco for a new production set by the Festival of St.Gallen directed by Giancarlo del Monaco. In the same year she made her debut in Nabucco at the Fenice in Venice with Leo Nucci in the title role directed by Günter Krämer and under the baton of Renato Palumbo. An other great debut was as title role in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut at the Teatro del Giglio in Lucca for the Puccini celebration.

In 2009 she sang as Turandot in Bari, then she returned to Zurich to perform in a new production of Cavalleria rusticana with José Cura. In summer she gave a concert at Piazza San Marco with Andrea Bocelli. In Autumn she sang again in Sassari as Lady Macbeth and was received with great critical and public acclaim. At the end of 2009 she returned to Hamburg for Tosca and performed at the Norke Opera Oslo with La Fanciulla del West.
From 2010 in onwards she was Abigaille in Nabucco for the Fondazione Politema in Catanzaro, the Teatro Politeama in Lecce, the Hungary State Opera, the Teatro della Fortuna in Fano and in the Bayerische Staatsoper; she sang Il prigioniero in Amsterdam, London, Stockholm and Munich; Poliuto in the Donizetti’s Festival of Bergamo and Sassari Teatro Verdi with Gregorie Kunde. In Barcellona and Palermo she sang Cavalleria Rusticana directed by Liliana Cavani; Macbeth in Hamburg and Munich.
Paoletta Marrocu, in the last years, she was made a lot of new roles début: 
La voix Humaine of Poulenc, L’Heure Espagnole of Ravel, I Shardana of Porrino,
 La Jura of Gabriel, The Marre Widow of Lehar, Giulietta e Romeo of Vaccaj, Mascagni’s Edipo Re and Senso of the great contemporary composer Marco Tutino.

She collaborated with famous directors such as Peter Stein, Luca Ronconi, Roberto De Simone, David Pountney, Robert Carsen, Pierluigi Pizzi, Liliana Cavani, Andreas Homoki, Graham Vick, Günter Krämer, Grischa Asagaroff and conductors such as Zubin Metha, Riccardo Muti, Daniel Oren, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Daniele Gatti, Michel Plasson, Daniel Hardng, Era-Pekka Salonen, Riccardo Chailly, Christian Thielemann, Alberto Zedda, Marcello Viotti, Fabio Luisi, Kent Nagano, Nicola Luisotti, and Franz Welser-Möst.

Her vast repertoire includes, moreover, important “Prima Donna” roles such as Carmen, Norma, Madama Butterfly, Suor Angelica, Turandot, La Bohéme, Mefistofele, Artaserse, Pierrot au Cinema, Gioconda, Zanetto, L’amore dei tre Re, Les Huguenots, Don Giovanni, La clemenza di Tito, Il Teseo Riconosciuto, Il Turco in Italia, Alzira, Don Carlo, I Vespri siciliani, Il Corsaro, Oberto, Un Ballo in Maschera, Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Salve Regina of Pergolesi and Gloria of Vivaldi.

Paoletta Marrocu she made her directorial début with Pergolesi’s Serva Padrona at the “Bonoris” Theatre of Montichiari, Desenzano Castle and National Theatre of Sarajevo. She has also directed La Bohéme of Puccini in Montichiari.

She was the Vocal Coach in the Conservatory of Venice, Udine, Piacenza, Trento, Riva del Garda and with Mascagni Opera Studio of Teatro Goldoni – Livorno, Accademia Teatrale of Teatro Coccia – Novara, Accademia del Belcanto “Rodolfo Celletti” – Martina Franca, Conservatory of Yerevan. 
Currently she teaches in the “G.P da Palestrina” Conservatory of Cagliari. In 1998 Paoletta Marrocu was nominated “Artist for Peace” by UNESCO in Paris.