Maria Dragoni
Opera singing masterclass
7/8/9 June 2024, Rome
Friday 7 (afternoon only) – Saturday 8 (morning and afternoon) – Sunday 9 (morning and afternoon) – Final concert Sunday evening
Invitation to Belcanto
Three days of intensive course in interpretation of the bel canto repertoire with a soprano who needs no introduction!
The lessons will be individual and collective, with the interaction with the pianists participating in the masterclass of master collaborators on the piano.
E’ There will also be a final concert with delivery of participation certificates.
Information and registrations
Info and contacts / Info and contacts
Maria Dragoni
is a famous soprano born in Procida to a mother from Procida Carmela Nuovi and a father from Viterbo Benito Dragoni of Irish and German origins. Talented in painting and singing, he graduated from the Liceo Artistico of Frosinone and in 1972 alone 14 years old he began performing with a blues soul band, with the repertoire of The Platters. Immediately afterwards she began studying opera singing so at the age of sixteen she enrolled at the Licinio Refice Conservatory in Frosinone as a student of the Spanish Maria Alós,wife of the pianist Arnaldo Graziosi and with Raffaele Passaro at the Naples Conservatory. He then perfected himself privately with Melina Pignatelli, Rachele Maragliano Mori, Rodolfo Celletti and Gina Cigna.
In 1977 after winning a solo competition 19 years old he joined the RAI choir in Rome and in the same year he sang some Brahms Lieder with Esther Casas live on radio from the RAI auditorium of the Foro Italico.
In 1981, directed by Ottavio Ziino, sing Chaste Diva at the Vincenzo Bellini Competition in Caltanissetta and is the first soprano to receive the «Special Maria Callas Prize»; on November 11th 1983 wins the Maria Callas Rai Competition in Eurovision from the Rai Auditorium of the Foro Italico where he presents arias taken from Pirate and from Rule.
In 1984 her first Pressagent Nini Castigioni earned her a contract for a tour in Germany with the tenor Gianfranco Pastine and an engagement with the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa for Verdi's Requiem which she will repeat at the Duomo di Pietrasanta.
He made his debut in an opera 4 October 1984 at the Pergolesi Theater in Jesi in the role of Imogene in Pirate by Bellini, joined by Rockwell Blake, while the following year he was already at the San Carlo in Naples where he continued the performances of Sleepwalker started by Edita Gruberová (interpolating a sustained high F in Amina's final rondo) and interpret The Flaminio by Pergolesi, a role that he will also repeat that same year at the Wiesbaden and Dresden festivals.
In 1986 debuts as Norma in Sassari alongside Martine Dupuy's Adalgisa and resumes the Pirate at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, while in 1987 sing Poliuto in Montpellier and returns to Naples where she joins Ghena Dimitrova in Norma playing Adalgisa and proposes the Pirate. And he made his debut at the Teatro alla Scala in the difficult Cantata di Dido by Ottorino Respighi and Benedetto Marcello. He performed Leo's Messa conducted by Fabio Luisi at the Rodolfo Celletti Festival in Martina Franca.
In 1988 returns to the Teatro alla Scala in the role of Fenena in Nabucco directed by Riccardo Muti and it is the Italian premiere after sixty years (by Bianca Scacciati and Tina Poli-Randaccio), to take on the role of Princess Turandot again, first at the Ravenna festival and later at Nancy. He resumes the role after ten years in 1998 At the Bari stadium,in 1999 and Livorno and Jesi, Mantua, in 2000 in Maribor in 2001 at the Rendano Theater in Cosenza with Nicola Martinucci, in 2003 in Torre del Lago for the Puccini Festival with Marcello Giordani, in 2004 back to Torre del Lago with the direction of Kery Linn Wilsonn and Franco Farina The scenes by Pietro Cascella, in 2007 in Toulon.
In 1989 it is Aida at the Sferisterio in Macerata A role performed in many theaters around the world and recorded on CD for the record company Naxos Records, from which the aria Ritorna vincitor was inserted in the seventh episode,of the third season of the TV series Sex and the city.
He returned to Macerata the following year with Trovatore and sings in Guillaume Tell by Rossini at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
In 1991 debuts at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma with Don Giovanni and in Strasbourg with Semiramide, while in 1992 sing Bohemia in Naples e Don Carlos at the Verona Arena with Giovanna Casolla's Eboli.
In 1993 sings Norma in Naples and Venice and continues the performances of the Vestal by Spontini at La Scala (at the start of the season), the following year she played Norma at the Verona Arena with Chris Merritt and Martine Dupuy. He resumes the Sleepwalker in Naples directed by Richard Bonynge.
In 1995 sings Giuseppe Verdi's Radiofonica Jérusalem live, in the role of Elene and Norma in Zurich, Bologna, Aida by Giuseppe Verdi, directed by Zubin Mehta at the Teatro Comunale of Florence.
In 1996 returns to Strasbourg with Ernani and sings The Corsair in Turin and London. In 1997 debuts the role of Abigaille in Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco with Leo Nucci directed by Daniel Oren.
In 1998 inaugurates the Verdi Theater in Salerno with Nabucco by Verdi and Antonio Salvadori, directed by Nicola Luisotti,In the same theater she debuted the role of Lucia in Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, director Nicola Luisotti.
In 1999 is Turandot in Livorno with Liù Dīmītra Theodosiou and takes part in the first modern performance of the opera at the Pergolesi Theater in Jesi Ines de Castro by Giuseppe Persiani in the title role tailor-made for the extraordinary vocal means of Maria Malibran.
In 2000 sing The Gioconda and Turandot a Tokyo, the next year – to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Vincenzo Bellini – it's Norma in Savona, Cremona, Bergamo, Brescia
In 2003 she made her debut in Torre del Lago in the role of Turandot and was Lady Macbeth in Linz.
In 2004 Turandot again in Torre del Lago With Franco Farina as Calaf. With scenes by Pietro Cascella the same production was brought to Melbourne. The direction was entrusted to Keri Linn Wilsonn.
In 2005 performs Farinelli's arias in concert in the Glinka-Kappella hall in St. Petersburg, just as they were written by his brother Riccardo Broschi for the legendary abilities of the famous castrato.
In 2006, live worldwide, performs the oratory Petros enì by Antonio Pappalardo to celebrate the five hundred years of the Vatican.
In 2007 sings Aida to Damascus, Turandot in Toulon and Sofia and debuted at the Quirino Theater in Rome in Acting director by Mozart (Madame Herz), where he has the chance to show off his high F again[1].
In 2008 debuts Rustic cavalry, takes Turandot back to Torre del Lago (the event was recorded on record to celebrate the one hundred and fifty years of the birth of Giacomo Puccini) and sings in the world premiere in Lampedusa in Trabaccara by Pappalardo.
In 2009 celebrates twenty-five years of career with concerts and a series of Norms in Romania and Italy.
In 2010 at the Todi Festival he performs a Verdi repertoire with maestro Leonardo Quadrini for i 150 years of the unification of Italy. The 12 May for i 100 years of Giulietta Simionato's birth,Vincenzo Bellini's Norma dedicated to her with conductor Leonardo Quadrini, of Craiova.
In 2011, to remember the two hundred and ten years of the birth of Vincenzo Bellini, sings Norma on tour in Sicily directed by maestro Alberto Veronesi.
In 2012 she made her debut at the Carlo Felice Theater in Genoa in the role of Laura Spoto in a contemporary opera by Marco Betta, What happened to little Irene?, taken from a novel by Andrea Camilleri, and it is Turandot in Varna.
In 2013, for the bicentenary of Giuseppe Verdi's birth, debuts in Traviata, which resumes at the Roman Theater of Benevento on 7 August: the performance was recorded on DVD for the Khicco Music record company.
In 2015, participate in the video “I won't be afraid” by Pino Marcucci, together with Roberto Cresca, Alessio Lent Escobar, Sharon Crisera, Andrea Raiti, distributed on newsstands with the Book dedicated to Juileus. In 2016 again embodies the role of Abigaille in Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco at the Serpente Aureo Theater in Offida
In 2018 He returns to the Puccini Festival with a concert at the Villa Paolina in Viareggio and sings in a charity evening at the HumaCoo exhibition event organized at the Angelica Library. Performs Habanera from Georges Bizet's Carmen The second aria of the Queen of the Night from Mozart's The Magic Flute and Summertime from George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.
In 2019 receives the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Pegasus City of Cattolica Literary Award and singsNessun dorma from Giacomo Puccini's Turandot.
In 2022 during the year of Procida, Capital of culture performs on the island in a concert with Al Dolce Guidami and Habanera. The biographical book is presented “Maria Dragoni the mermaid of Procida”, told by Alice Mechelli. The same year he also presented the book in Forte dei Marmi where he sang Vissi d'arte in the presence of Andrea Bocelli.
Maria Dragoni has sung since the early years of her career in the main theaters of the world, collaborating with the major conductors and prestigious directors, choreographers and costume designers Quali Riccardo Muti, Carlo Maria Giulini, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Enrico Stinchelli, Liliana Cavani, Roberto De Simone, Dante Ferretti, Gabriella Pescucci.
Vocality and interpretative personality
Equipped with a powerful but soft voice, ductile, agile, of extraordinary breadth and extension (from the low D of the deep contralto to the high F held)[2] and supported by excellent technical preparation[3], she established herself as an agile dramatic soprano with a measured and courtly style.