Cecilia Bartoli

Cecilia Bartoli, who celebrated her 60th birth­­day this summer, made her opera debut in Rome in 1985 as Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. She was trained by her mother, Silvana Bazzoni. In 1988, she worked with Nikolaus Harnoncourt on Mozart’s Così fan tutte; Herbert von Karajan, Sir Georg Solti, and Daniel Barenboim were also among the first conductors with whom she collaborated. Since then, Cecilia Bartoli has performed at the most prestigious opera houses and concert halls, as well as at major international festivals. She has appeared not only with leading symphony orchestras but also with early music ensembles, including Les Arts Florissants, Concentus Musicus Wien, Il Giardino Armonico, Les Musiciens du Louvre, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, La Scintilla, and Il Pomo d’Oro. In 2016, she founded the Monte-Carlo-based orchestra Les Musiciens du Prince — Monaco. Baroque music, the operas of Mozart, and bel canto are central to her repertoire. She has regularly championed the rediscovery of works that have fallen into oblivion. Bartoli has served as Artistic Director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival since 2012, where in recent years she has appeared in works by Handel, Gluck, Rossini, Bellini, and Bernstein; in 2026, she portrayed Corinna in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims. Since 2023, she has also served at the helm of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo as its Director, becoming the first woman in the institution’s history to hold that position. She will also appear onstage there in the 2026–27 season as Isabella in Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri. Cecilia Bartoli’s CDs and DVDs have sold more than twelve million copies, and she has won no fewer than five Grammy Awards. Among her many distinctions are the Léonie Sonning Music Prize (2010), the Herbert von Karajan Music Prize (2012), and the Polar Music Prize (2016). In 2023, she was named an Austrian Kammersängerin, and in 2025, she received the Austrian Music Theater Prize.

Lucerne Festival (IMF) debut on 7 September 1995 in a lieder recital, with György Fischer at the keyboard; last appearance here was on 21 August 2025 as Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, with the dem Musiciens du Prince — Monaco under Gianluca Capuano.

June 2026