soprano . stage director
BIO
Rosana Orsini is a lyric-coloratura soprano with a wide-ranging repertoire spanning the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, and a career characterised by stylistic versatility. Her performances combine precision and expressiveness, with particular interests in historically informed performance of early music, especially Iberian, Neapolitan and Brazilian repertoire, as well as art song and opera.
On the operatic stage, she has performed roles in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, as well as Jules Massenet’s Manon, Georges Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Giuseppe Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, among other works in the operatic repertoire.
She regularly performs in concert seasons and at international festivals across Europe, the United States and Brazil. Her appearances as a soloist include the concert season of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, as well as festivals devoted to early music and sacred repertoire, including the Madeira International Organ Festival, the Venice International Festival, Espazos Sonoros, Festival de Música Cidade de Lugo – Semana de Música do Corpus, and the Madrid Holy Week Festival.
In Brazil, she regularly performs at major musical events, including the Artes Vertentes Festival in Tiradentes, the Ouro Preto Winter Festival, the Festival of Early Music and Brazilian Colonial Music in Juiz de Fora, and the Diamantina International Early Music Festival.
She holds a Master’s degree in Voice from the Manhattan School of Music in New York and postgraduate qualifications from the Royal Academy of Music in London, with further specialisation in early music at the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella in Naples and in Mozart performance at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. Her studies have contributed to an artistic approach attentive to the stylistic, dramaturgical and historical contexts of the works she performs.
Her artistic practice is grounded in a careful and expressive approach to musical interpretation, informed by the dialogue between research, performance practice and stage experience, with particular attention to the historical and stylistic contexts of the repertoire and to communication with the audience.
CURRENT AVAILABLE REPERTOIRE
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI
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La Musica — L'Orfeo
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Venere — Il ballo delle Ingrate
JOSÉ DE NEBRA
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Amor — Vendado es amor, no es ciego
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
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Cleopatra — Giulio Cesare in Egitto
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Alcina — Alcina
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
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Aspasia — Mitridate, re di Ponto
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Fiordiligi — Così fan tutte
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Donna Anna, Donna Elvira — Don Giovanni
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Susanna, Contessa — Le nozze di Figaro
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Pamina — Die Zauberflöte
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Ilia — Idomeneo
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Aminta — Il re pastore
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Constanze — Die Entfürung aus dem Serail
GIOACHINO ROSSINI
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Semiramide — Semiramide
GAETANO DONIZETTI
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Lucia — Lucia di Lammermoor
CHARLES GOUNOD
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Marguerite — Faust
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Juliette — Roméo et Juliette
GEORGES BIZET
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Leïla — Les Pêcheurs de perles
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Micaëla — Carmen
GIUSEPPE VERDI
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Gilda — Rigoletto
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Nannetta — Falstaff
ANTONIO CARLOS GOMES
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Ceci — Il Guarany
GIACOMO PUCCINI
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Mimì, Musetta — La bohème
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Lauretta — Gianni Schicchi
Selected repertoire studied and performed, with roles currently available for performance.
EARLY MUSIC
Rosana Orsini has developed a significant part of her artistic career in the performance and study of early music, with a particular focus on the vocal repertoire of Portugal and Brazil. Her work in this field combines historical research with performance, bringing to life repertoire that is often rarely heard today.
Among her most important projects has been the musical and musicological recovery of nearly one hundred works from the archive of the former Convent of São Bento da Ave-Maria in Porto, contributing to the rediscovery and performance of repertoire that had remained largely unknown outside specialist circles.
She maintains a long-standing artistic partnership with organist Marco Orsini-Brescia, with whom she has explored an extensive repertoire for voice and organ, developing programs that bring together historical sources, performance practice and contemporary artistic perspectives.
Rosana regularly collaborates with ensembles and musicians specializing in historically informed performance in Brazil, Europe and the United States, performing repertoire ranging from Renaissance and early Baroque music to later eighteenth-century works. Her work in early music has included performances at festivals, concert halls and cultural institutions in different countries, as well as projects dedicated to the rediscovery and performance of Portuguese and Brazilian musical heritage.
Alongside her work in early music, she maintains an active career in concert repertoire, with particular interest in programs that connect different periods, cultures and musical traditions.
STAGE DIRECTION
As a stage director, Rosana Orsini combines artistic rigour, musicological research and critical reflection with close attention to the historical and cultural contexts of the works she stages. Her approach draws on the acting methodology of Uta Hagen and incorporates decolonial perspectives, affirmative action and the principles of the United Nations 2030 Agenda, with particular attention to the relationships between artistic works, cultural heritage, community participation and local identity.
Her productions are grounded in in-depth musicological research and an examination of the reception history of each work within the contexts in which it is presented. She seeks to develop historically informed yet contemporary stage interpretations that engage critically and respectfully with the sources while remaining responsive to the questions and sensibilities of the present.
She studied Stage Direction at the Fondazione Franco Zeffirelli in Florence under the direction of Massimo Luconi. In 2022, she directed and served as artistic director of A Noite de São João by Elias Álvares Lobo, regarded as the first Brazilian opera, in its modern premiere at the Teatro Procópio Ferreira of the Conservatório de Tatuí. She also served as artistic director of Claudio Monteverdi’s Il Ballo delle Ingrate and José de Nebra’s Vendado es Amor, no es Ciego, both presented as part of the International Festival of Early Music and Brazilian Colonial Music in Juiz de Fora.
In 2025, she conceived and performed the staged recital Io, Augusta Candiani, presented at the Casa da Ópera de Ouro Preto as part of the Ouro Preto Winter Festival. The project brings together music, dramaturgy and historical memory, exploring the relationship between the work, the performer and the historic performance space.
Her work as a stage director seeks to bring historical research into dialogue with contemporary performance, creating productions that are attentive both to the specific character of each work and to the social, cultural and historical contexts in which it is presented.
RESEARCH & EDUCATION
Rosana Orsini is a musicologist and educator whose research focuses on the history of opera in Brazil, transatlantic musical exchanges in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the role of women in music, with particular attention to convent music and opera. She holds doctorates from the Université Sorbonne – Paris IV and NOVA University Lisbon and has extensive experience as a researcher and lecturer, having published widely on opera, women in music and sacred music in Portugal and Brazil.
Her teaching and educational work brings together musicological research, performance practice and stage experience. She lectures on opera and musical culture, exploring topics such as the international circulation of opera, transatlantic cultural exchanges, women’s roles in music, and the construction of cultural identities.
Her interdisciplinary approach combines historical research, repertoire analysis and practical examples, allowing her to engage both specialist audiences—musicians, researchers and students—and broader audiences interested in understanding opera as a living art form shaped by social, cultural and aesthetic transformations. Through her teaching and lectures, she seeks to encourage curiosity, critical thinking and a deeper engagement with music and its historical contexts.
CONTACT