About Giuseppina

Giuseppina Bridelli, from Piacenza, is a mezzosoprano and one of the most highly regarded singers of the Baroque repertoire, with a career spanning almost twenty years. Today, her extensive repertoire ranges from Mozart to Rossini and from Haydn to Pergolesi, with noteworthy forays into romantic, late romantic and contemporary works.   

She trained under the guidance of Maria Laura Groppi at the Conservatorio Nicolini in Piacenza, graduating summa cum laude while still very young. Following this, she completed her training at the School of Italian Opera of the Teatro Comunale, Bologna, and at the Accademia Rossiniana, Pesaro. She has won many international competitions, including the Aslico competition in 2007, and made her debut at the age of just twenty as Despina in Così fan tutte conducted by Diego Fasolis. Since then, her career has taken her to the most prestigious theatres and festivals, where she divides her time between opera and the great chamber and choral-symphony repertoires such as the Mozart Mass in C minor, The Triumph of Time and Truth by Händel, Vivaldi’s Serenata a tre, the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor by Bach, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, the Pergolesi Stabat Mater, Vespro della Beata Vergine by Monteverdi, the Beethoven Ninth Symphony, the Te Deum by Charpentier, the Haydn Paukenmesse, Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder and Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the Donizetti Requiem, Le nuits d’été by Berlioz, Cinque frammenti di Saffo by Dallapiccola and Rota’s Mysterium. 

It is in the opera houses, however, that the greater part of her musical career takes place. Over the years, she has performed in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Dido) at Teatro La Fenice; Händel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (Galatea) and Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina) at the Teatro Municipale, Piacenza; Le nozze di Figaro (Cherubino) at the Copenhagen Opera Festival, Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli, Opéra Royal de Versailles and Malmö Opera; Orlando furioso (Alcina) by Vivaldi at the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival; L’Isola Disabitata (Costanza) by Haydn at the Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna; Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo (Worldly life / Blessed soul) by Cavalieri at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna; La Clemenza di Tito (Sesto) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria (Melanto / Human frailty / Minerva) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, and then on tour in Spain, at the Festival d'Aix en Provence and at the Monteverdi Festival; Atys by Lully (Cybèle) in Geneva and Versailles; Vivaldi’s Tamerlano (Idaspe) in Ravenna and Piacenza; Händel’s Poro, re delle Indie (Erissena) in Versailles; Händel’s Tolomeo in Madrid, Paris, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Basle; Le Comte Ory (Isolier) at the Teatro Comunale, Bologna; Les contes d'Hoffmann (Nicklausse) and Scarlatti’s Il trionfo dell’onore at the Teatro Malibran; Rodelinda by Händel at the Theater an der Wien and at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; L’Orfeo (Messaggiera) by Monteverdi in Brema and on tour in Brussels, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Amsterdam; Orfeo by Porpora and Le Bel indifférent by Tutino at the Festival della Valle d’Itria; L’Ercole amante (Deianira) by Cavalli at the Opéra Comique, Paris; Idomeneo (Idamante) in Bologna, Ravenna and Piacenza; La Doriclea (Lucinda) by Stradella at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; Haydn’s Il mondo della luna (Ernesto) in Montecarlo; Elena (Ippolita) by Cavalli in Aix en Provence, Lille and Lisbon; Orontea (title role) by Cesti and L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Ottavia) by Monteverdi in Innsbruck; Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (Amore) in Naples; Il viaggio a Reims (Corinna) at the Rossini Opera Festival and Rossi’s Orfeo (Aristeo) in Nancy, Versailles, Bordeaux and Caen. 

Recent and upcoming engagements include La Calisto (Diana) by Cavalli at the Festival d'Aix en Provence; Händel’s Giulio Cesare at the Teatro Petruzzelli, Bari; the Mozart Requiem at the Auditorium de Radio France, Paris; Händel’s Alcina at the Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna; Lully’s Atys at the Opéra Royal de Versailles, and Enrico di Borgogna by Donizetti at Teatro La Fenice. 

Distinctive moments in her career include regular work with the most prestigious Baroque ensembles and with conductors of the calibre of Ottavio Dantone, Federico Maria Sardelli, Giovanni Antonini, Fabio Biondi, Diego Fasolis, Enrico Onofri and Alberto Zedda. She has also worked under the baton of Zubin Mehta, Nello Santi, Michele Mariotti, Fabio Luisi, Roberto Abbado, Renato Palumbo, Leonardo García Alarcón, Raphaël Pichon, Jérémie Rhorer, Christina Pluhar and Antonello Manacorda. She has worked with stage directors Robert Carsen, Damiano Michieletto, Emilio Sagi, Peter Stein, Stefano Vizioli, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Davide Livermore, Daniele Abbado, Denis Podalydes, Pierre Audi, Jetske Mijnssen and with choreographer and director Angelin Preljocaj.

She has been a regular guest at important festivals and concert halls such as the Carnegie Hall, New York; Bozar, Brussels; Festival de Saint-Denis; the Händel-Festspiele, Halle; the Musikfest Bremen; Festival international d'opéra baroque de Beaune; Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik; the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; and at the Wigmore Hall, the Barbican, and the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, London.  

Her many recordings include Rota’s Mysterium (Decca); L’Incoronazione di Dario by Vivaldi (Naïve); Rossi’s Orfeo (Harmonia Mundi); Passio Secundum Johannem by Scarlatti (Ricercar); Stradella’s La Doriclea (Arcana); L’Orfeo by Monteverdi and Prometeo by Draghi (Alpha); Lully’s Atys (Château de Versailles Spectacles) and Rossini’s Péchés de vieillesse, Ercole Amante by Cavalli and Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo (Naxos). Il Bajazet by Gasparini, Händel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, and two collections of cantatas by Scarlatti e Porpora, respectively Quella pace gradita and L’amato nome, have been released under the Glossa label. She has also recorded two solo albums released by Arcana: Duel – Porpora and Händel in London and Appena chiudo gli occhi (cantatas by Scarlatti and Caldara).

She has conducted Baroque singing workshops at the Conservatorio Nicolini,  Piacenza, and taught Baroque and Renaissance singing at the Conservatorio Steffani, Castelfranco Veneto. She currently teaches Baroque singing at the Conservatorio Monteverdi, Cremona.