FRANCESCA MONDANARO

Reviewed in Opera News as being “destined for bigger houses”, Francesca Mondanaro, a recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, made her debut as Olga in Eugene Onegin with the Skylight Opera Theater. Since then she has gone on to perform roles with such opera companies as Anchorage Opera, Nashville Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Sarasota Opera and New York Grand Opera. Most recently she has been seen as Musetta in La Boheme for Anchorage Opera Company, Violetta in La Traviata and Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte in Tel Aviv, Israel with Paul Nadler and David Briskin conducting, respectively. Other roles performed include the title role in Anna Bolena, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Gilda in Rigoletto, Nymph in L’Orfeo, Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Magda in La Rondine. She created the role of Clara in the world premiere of The Sandman by Thomas Cabaniss, Music-Animateur of The Philadelphia Orchestra, for which she was reviewed in The New York Times as “filling the Off-Broadway space with startling volume and richness”. She has been seen in the role of Sharon Graham in the Terrence McNally’s Tony-award winning play Masterclass at such venues as the Edward Albee Theater Conference in Valdez and the Beam Music Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Ms. Mondanaro made her Carnegie Hall debut with the New England Symphonium as the soloist for Schubert’s Mass in G and Haydn’s Heidel Orgenmesse. She has appeared in concert as a guest soloist with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, and the Bach Society of New York. In the 2006 season she performed as soloist with the Southwest Florida Symphony in the Verdi Requiem with Paul Nadler conducting.

Francesca Mondaro has been the recipient of many awards. In 2006, she was a finalist in the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation, and the winner of the Career Bridges Foundation Competition. She was also the grant winner of the 2005 Amadeus Fund. Past accolades have included the winner of the Silverman Prize at the International Vocal Academy of Israel, the Anna Maria-Saritelli-diPanni Bel Canto Competition, the Metropolitan Opera Northwest Council Scholarship Award, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (district), the Stanley L. Richman Award at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the 5 Towns Music and Art Competition, and the NFAA Arts Competition.