Anna Caterina Antonacci
Winner of the prestigious Voci Verdiane, Callas and Luciano Pavarotti competitions, Anna Caterina Antonacci has enjoyed an international career spanning the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls. She has been honoured with the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’honneur by the French Republic, the country’s highest national distinction, and in 2021 was elected one of the Accademici Effettivi of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Following her early success in the Rossini repertoire, Antonacci expanded into the composer’s serious operas, including Mosè in Egitto, Semiramide, Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra and Ermione. She subsequently added Donizetti’s queens and Mozart’s Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Elettra (Idomeneo) and Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito) to her repertoire. This was followed by Gluck’s Armide, staged by Pier Luigi Pizzi and directed by Riccardo Muti to open La Scala’s 1996/97 season, Alceste in Parma and Salzburg, and Cherubini’s Médée in Toulouse and at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
Her acclaimed portrayal of Cassandre in the Théâtre du Châtelet’s 2003 production of Les Troyens under Sir John Eliot Gardiner marked a decisive move towards the great heroines of the French repertoire. In productions including La Juive at the Royal Opera House under Antonio Pappano and Carmen at the Opéra Comique under Gardiner, she revived a distinguished French singing tradition in the spirit of Pauline Viardot, while also returning to Handel in Agrippina and Rodelinda.
Antonacci’s interpretations of both Poppea and Nerone in L’incoronazione di Poppea inspired Era la notte, her acclaimed one-woman show centred around Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, which continues to tour internationally. Equally accomplished on the recital stage, her long-standing collaboration with pianist Donald Sulzen has seen her champion Italian and French song, including works by Tosti, Respighi, Fauré, Debussy and Reynaldo Hahn. Her first recording, Era la notte for the Naïve label, received widespread acclaim, and she has also recorded L’Alba separa dalla luce l’ombra for Wigmore Live with Donald Sulzen, featuring songs by Tosti, Cilea and Hahn.
Among the many highlights of her distinguished career are the premiere of La voix humaine in 2013, concert performances of Fauré’s Pénélope and Reyer’s Sigurd, Carmen at the Royal Opera House opposite Roberto Alagna under Daniel Oren, Les Troyens at La Scala, her debut as Iphigénie in Iphigénie en Tauride at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and the title role in Marco Tutino’s La Ciociara, commissioned for and premiered by San Francisco Opera.
In recent years, Antonacci has collaborated with Les Siècles for La damnation de Faust, with Edward Gardner and the RAI Torino Orchestra for La Mort de Cléopâtre, and with director David McVicar in new productions of Gloriana at Teatro Real Madrid and Médée at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, before returning to the role of Cassandre in McVicar’s production of Les Troyens at the Wiener Staatsoper. She also made her debut at the Enescu Festival in La voix humaine with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, returned to Wigmore Hall in recital with Donald Sulzen, and appeared as Jocasta in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
Recent highlights include Dialogues des Carmélites at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Bayerische Staatsoper and Teatro La Fenice, La voix humaine at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the title role in Médée at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Les Troyens at San Francisco Opera and the Wiener Staatsoper, Gloriana at Teatro Real Madrid, Carmen at Teatro Regio Torino, Oedipus Rex with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, La Mort de Cléopâtre under Edward Gardner at Teatro Regio Torino, and performances of her one-woman show Era la notte in New York.
In the 2026/27 season, Antonacci appears as Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Teatro Verdi di Pisa and Teatro Goldoni di Livorno, and makes her Opera Australia debut in La voix humaine.