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The Italian contralto, Cristina Calzolari, after high school graduated in piano at the Conservatorio Cesare Pollini, Padova and in singing at the Musical Institute Orazio Vecchi of Modena. She became part of the Cappella Musicale di San Petronio in Bologna, where she studied with Sergio Vartolo and Gloria Banditelli.
After her studies Cristina Calzolari began an intense activity in the field of early music during which she has performed as a soloist or in ensembles with conductors such as Antonio Florio, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Andrew Lawrence-King, Kees Boeke, Michael Radulescu and Ruben Jais. She has participated in major early music festivals such as Los Siglos de Oro (Spain), Early Music Festival in Brugge (Belgium), Festival of Ambronay (France), Musica e Poesia a San Maurizio (Milan), Festival di Musica Rinascimentale in Erice, Utopias Music (Austria), Festival Taormina Arte, Festival de La Chaise-Dieu (France), Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, Settimane Musicali in Ascona.
In the opera field, Cristina Calzolari performed the role of Dama Disincantata in the opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola di Alcina at the Teatro Metastasio in Prato under the direction of Alan Curtis, the role of Mater in the mystery Provencal Aines at the Festival di Musica Sacra in Lucca, the role of Rome in the opera Il S. Alessio for the Sagra Musicale Umbra, the role of Katchen in the opera Werther, directed by Reynald Giovaninetti at the Teatro Regio in Parma, Teatro Municipale Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia and Teatro Comunale in Modena, the role of Speranza ans Proserpina in Orfeo by Monteverdi under the direction of Claudio Cavina in a tour that included Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Israel and the USA.
Cristina Calzolari collaborates with RSI - Radio Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, for which she performed and recorded under the direction of Diego Fasolis, Robert King, René Clemencic, Alain Lombard, Michel Corboz and Claudio Abbado.
Cristina Calzolari is dedicated to the performance of live music for the theater prose with directors and actors such as Tamas Ascher, Fabio Battistini, Giorgio Albertazzi, Alessandro Preziosi, Jim Dale, Gerard Depardieu. She is also in contemporary music: she played the role of the Seconda Donna in the oratorio Passio Christi di Giancarlo Facchinetti, premiere held at the 41st Festival Internazionale Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in Brescia; she collaborated with the ensemble Icarus; she performed the first two absolute by Giorgio Battistelli for the Canto delle Anime, a series of readings and music held last October in Lugano and has been a soloist in Messa Arcaica by Franco Battiato, performed with the composer in Lecce and Caserta.
In parallel to the her singing activity, Cristina Calzolari is also engaged as accompanying pianist, specializing in opera and vocal repertoire. In this capacity she has given concerts at the Teatro Comunale in Alessandria, Teatro Comunale in Carpi, Teatro Municipale Valli in Reggio Emilia, Auditorium del Conservatorio in Parma, Amici della Musica in Ferrara, Società dei Concerti in Ravello, Teatro Magnani in Fidenza, and was frequent guest of the Italian Cultural Institutes in Germany, where she has performed in concert halls in Kiel, Oldenburg and Wolfsburg. She plays in a piano duo with Marcello Zuffa, with whom she conceived and executed on behalf of the Culture of Reggio Emilia the show Cult Music (music by L.v. Beethoven, Rossini, Alfredo Casella, Satie), musical tribute to the centenary of cinema.
For several years, Cristina Calzolari dedicates herself to perform on ancient instruments with the medieval music ensemble laReverdie (Festival di Stresa, Settembre Musica di Torino, MI-TO, Festival di Musica Antica di Anversa, Ravenna Festival, Rai-Radio3/I Concerti del Quirinale) and has recently inaugurated the restored fortepiano kept at the ’Oratorio di Santa Cecilia in Bologna with music by Haydn, W.A. Mozart, L.v. Beethoven, Schubert. |
