Ciofi performed infrequently in the US: as far as I know her appearances here included just Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier in San Diego; Violetta at Chicago Lyric and several roles in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges with the New York Philharmonic.

Throughout her career, Ciofi maintained a wide-ranging repertoire. The last time I saw her she was as a delicious Poppea opposite Anna Caterina Antonacci’s febrile Nerone in Paris in 2004. Their duets, conducted by René Jacobs, were spellbinding. David McVicar’s production of L’Incoronazione di Poppea stands out as some of his best work, far superior to his many uninspiring Met productions. Luckily it was filmed and remains available for everyone to enjoy.

I was shocked to realize that it has been twenty-five years since I heard Ciofi for the first time.  Christophe Rousset conducted Mozart’s Mitridate, Re di Ponto at the Chatelet in 2000 with a cast slightly different from his Decca recording, the biggest changes being Ciofi and Barbara Frittoli instead of Natalie Dessay and Cecilia Bartoli. I didn’t feel short-changed at all. Perhaps you’d agree after listening to a broadcast from that run.

Four years later, I visited the Palais Garnier for a revival of Robert Carsen’s production of Alcina in which Ciofi portrayed Morgana. The title character was sung by Luba Orgonasova, another strong candidate for the “favorite under-appreciated soprano” sobriquet. They were predictably wonderful but the evening I attended differed quite a bit from the pirate I’m posting today.

Three days later on May 25, 2004 it was announced that Vivica Genaux was ailing and she’d be omitting some of Bradamante’s music. A second announcement brought happier news indeed: Vessalina Kasarova had called in sick and would be replaced by the special (and under-appreciated) Spanish mezzo Maite Beaumont who fitted in splendidly.

Maybe my favorite Ciofi commercial recording is Handel: Amor e Gelosia, rarely performed duets paired with Joyce DiDonato.

Ciofi also has a small part in a recording of Bajazet, a pasticcio by Vivaldi in which she tosses off page after page of crazy coloratura with enviable ease.

I’m particularly fond of the pirate of her Athens concert included today as it features Ciofi in challenging and rare Italian arias from the late baroque/early classical period by de Majo, Cimarosa, and Piccinni. Several of the extended numbers might remind some of “Marten aller arten,” a notable example of the type. The concert is conducted by Antonio Florio who also leads Rosa Feola’s upcoming CD of Piccinni arias.

Ciofi excelled at bel canto and appeared often in Rossini works like Tancredi, Il Turco in Italia, Il Viaggio a Reims, La Gazza Ladra, even Adelaide di Borgogna. It seemed only right to include her in excerpts from one of her best bel canto roles: Giulietta in Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi opposite a particular favorite under-appreciated mezzo of mine, Anna Bonitatibus.

Though Italian, Ciofi performed a good deal of French opera in France. She also participated in the Deutsche Oper’s Meyerbeer cycle. Her live Berlin Dinorah was released on CD but today’s installment shares her Marguerite in a concert performance of Les Huguenots where she duets with Juan Diego Florez’s Raoul. In the years since this 2016 broadcast two of her colleagues have graduated from Meyerbeer to Wagner: Irene Roberts and Derek Welton.

Ciofi also performed all four heroines in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann in Marseille in 2004 and it can be heard here.

Handel: Alcina

Alcina: Luba Orgonasova
Ruggero: Vesselina Kasarova
Morgana: Patrizia Ciofi
Bradamante: Vivica Genaux
Oronte: Toby Spence
Melisso: Luca Pisaroni

Conductor – John Nelson
Palais Garnier, Paris
22 May 2004
In-house recording

Arias by Di Majo, Cimarosa & Piccinni

Patrizia Ciofi

Cappella della Pieta de’ Turchini
Conductor: Antonio Florio
Megaron, Athens
28 April 2006
In-house recording

Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi—extended exc.

Giulietta: Patrizia Ciofi
Romeo: Anna Bonitatibus
Tebaldo: Sergey Romanovsky
Capellio: Pauls Putnins
Lorenzo: Mirco Palazzi

Conductor: Luciano Acocella
Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Moscow
9 April 2008

Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots

Patrizia Ciofi: Marguerite
Olesya Golovneva: Valentine
Irene Roberts: Urbain
Juan Diego Flórez: Raoul
Derek Welton: Saint-Bris
Marc Barrard: Nevers
Ante Jerkunica: Marcel

Conductor: Michele Mariotti
Deutsche Oper Berlin
20 November 2016
Broadcast

Each Ciofi gem can be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a cloud with an arrow pointing downward on the audio player above and the resulting mp3 file will appear in your download directory.

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