Rossella Ragatzu was born in Sardinia in Italy. She studied Voice in her home town Cagliari and finished her studies in 1985 with distinction. Further studies with Gustavo Melis as well as master courses with Joan Sutherland, Magda Olivero, Claudio Desderi and Regine Resnik completed her training. During the recent years she has been a student of Claude Thiolas.

As Leonore, Kassel 2006

After winning several national and international competitions (Voci pucciniane, Mailand; Toti dal Monte, Treviso; Sperimentale, Spoleto), she made her debut as Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor and as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte in the Teatro Nuovo, Spoleto in 1987. In 1989 she made further debuts as Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro in Florence and as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni in Treviso. Since then she has been performing as a Mozart singer in the most important theatres in Italy and Europe.

In Macerata, Sferisterio, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni; in Milano, Teatro alla Scala, Donna Anna/Don Giovanni under the direction of Riccardo Muti; in Neaples, Teatro di San Carlo, L’idolo cinese by Paisiello, Flaminio by Pergolesi, Il convitato di pietra by Tritto and Così fan tutte; in Verona, Teatro Filarmonico, Le nozze di Figaro; in Genoa, Teatro Carlo Felice, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni; in Turin, Teatro Regio, Le nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira/Don Giovanni, Alice/Falstaff, Elena/Mefistofele; in Rome, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Israele in Egitto by Händel and Zauberflöte in the Teatro dell’Opera; in Pesaro, Rossini Opera Festival, in Ferrara, Savona, Bologna and Sassari.

In France Rossella Ragatzu appeared in Montpellier, Nimes, Lyon, Aix-en Provence, Paris, Lille and Strasbourg as Fiordiligi and as a singer of Lieder.

In Germany she contributed in the recording of Cristoforo Colombo (Franchetti) in the Alte Oper Frankfurt. In Leipzig Rossella Ragatzu performed in Le nozze di Figaro and as Teresa in Benvenuto Cellini in the Gewandhaus under the direction of Fabio Luisi; in Essen Così fan tutte; in Düsseldorf Don Giovanni, La Bohème, Otello, Falstaff, Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte and La finta giardiniera; in Dresden Falstaff (with several repeat performances) and Otello in the course of the music festival in Dresden; in Hamburg Otello; in Berlin Don Giovanni and Falstaff at the Deutsche Oper and Verdi’s Requiem in Kaiserslautern.

In Belgium Rossella Ragatzu performed as Mimi in La Bohème at theThéâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels; in Liège she participated in several important opening nights of the season such as Mathilde/Guillaume Tell, Falstaff, Madama Cortese/Il viaggio a Reims, Amelia/Simone Boccanegra and Donna Elvira/Don Giovanni.

In Vienna she made her debut as Mathilde in Guillaume Tell with great success at the Staatsoper and also performed as Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro in Graz.

As Donna Elvira, Rome 2006

At the Teatro Zarzuela in Madrid she sang Le nozze di Figaro and the Stabat mater by Rossini in the Auditorium dei Concerti.

She also appeared in Poland as Nedda in Pagliacci in the auditorium in Katowize.

In Portugal Rossella Ragatzu participated in the performanceof Beethoven’s Mass in C major in the Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos in Lisbon and appeared as Alice in Porto.

In Israel she took part in the music festival in Jerusalem as Contessa and also performed as Gilda in the Suntory Hall in Tokyo.

In Chile she appeared as Contessa in Sao Paolo/Brasilia and as Fiordiligi in Santiago de Chile.

She worked under the direction of many conductors such as Salvatore Accardo, Bruno Bartoletti, Richard Bonynge, Patrick Davin, Daniele Gatti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Alain Guingal, Fabio Luisi, Gustav Kuhn, Peter Maag, Sir Charles Mackerras, Riccardo Muti, Sir Neville Marriner, Zoltan Pesko, Christof Perick, Marcello Viotti, Alberto Zedda and with the producers Gianfranco de Bosio, Robert Carsen, Filippo Crivelli, Adolf Dresen, Michael Hampe, Dieter Kaegi, Denis Llorca, Christof Loy, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Tobias Richter and Roberto de Simone.

Performances so far in 2005 include a Verdi concert by the MDR Orchestra under the direction of Fabio Luisi and an appearance as Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro in Düsseldorf. In addition, Rossella Ragatzu is currently performing in Trovatore in Kassel and has sung Verdi’s Requiem in the St. Stephans Dom in Vienna.