Alessandra Visentin

Contralto

“Alessandra Visentin performs a sensual and Machiavellian Fausta with her contralto voice.… it is the third act aria that brings to the full the dramatic intensity, with its two masterly evocations of the infernal divinities through impressive low notes.” 

— Baroquiades France

Recent News

Watch & Listen

Biography

One of the most fascinating voices on today's opera and concert stages, contralto Alessandra Visentin has garnered overwhelming acclaim not only for the rarity of her voice type, but also for her ability to wield it.

A sought-after performer in some of the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals, Visentin has appeared at the Teatro alla Scala Milan, Teatro San Carlo Naples, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Musikverein Wien, Auditorium Nacional de Música Madrid, Halle aux Grains Toulouse, Grand Warner Brothers Theatre (USA), Théâtre des Champs-Elysées de Paris, Opera Royal de Versailles, and the Salzburg Festival.

A leading interpreter of Baroque and classical repertoire, she has collaborated with conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Chailly, Franz Welser-Möst, Ken-David Masur, Juraj Valcuha, Andrea Marcon, Christopher Hogwood, Marc Minkowski, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Ottavio Dantone, and Federico Maria Sardelli, among others. Equally dedicated to contemporary music, Visentin has interpreted numerous premieres: the first Italian performance of O. Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are, as well as the world premieres of Il Sequestro by A. Garcia Demestres and Il Viaggio di Roberto by P. Marzocchi.

Her recent discography includes two acclaimed recordings: Heinichen: Flavio Crispo with Il Gusto Barocco, dir. Jörg Halubek (CPO); as well as her first solo project, a Vivaldi album, “Per la Sig.ra Geltruda” Motets & Stabat Mater with Ensemble Locatelli, dir. Luca Oberti (Pan Classics).

Following the release of her solo album, Stravaganze Barroche noted her “splendid voice,” Il Trillo Parlante celebrated her “full central register and amber colors,” and Opera Lounge (Germany) praised her “completely distinctive voice, beautifully rounded but at the same time slender.” Elsewhere, critics have cheered her “perfect delivery and dark, velvety [vocal] timbre (Platea Magazine),” “Masterly evocations… impressive low notes” (Baroquiades France), “Seductive contraltile tone” (Il Trillo), and ability to “…delineate depth of emotion with a full and dominant voice” (On Line Merker).

Visentin has also been decorated with awards from numerous artistic and cultural institutions. In 2022, the Italian Academy Foundation recognized her as one of the most outstanding exponents of Italianità to have arrived in the US in many years. She has additionally been nominated to serve as a member of the jury for the prestigious Respighi International Prize, and is the winner of several international competitions such as the European Community Voice Competition.

2022 was also the year that witnessed Visentin’s Carnegie Hall Debut with the Chamber Orchestra of New York, as well as with the Milwaukee Symphony under the baton of Ken-David Masur, singing Handel’s Messiah.

In 2024, Visentin looks forward to the release of an album of Respighi songs under the Naxos label, the result of the ongoing Respighi Project in collaboration with Maestro Salvatore Di Vittorio and the Chamber Orchestra of New York. Visentin and the CONY will make a highly anticipated return to Carnegie Hall for its 2024-25 season.

Visentin studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory of Music and the Claudio Abbado Civic School in Milan, and has been a pupil of contraltos Bernadette Manca di Nissa, Sara Mingardo, and Regina Resnik.