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.

BACH | St. John Passion | Musiciens du Louvre | Marc Minkowski, cond.

“The alto Alessandra Visentin sang the most famous and emotive aria "Es ist vollbracht." We appreciated her perfect emission and its dark and velvety timbre…” — Platea Magazine

…three female voices from which a great contralto stood out, Alessandra Visentin, who sang a wonderful "Es ist Vollbrach"…” — Classico

“…Alessandra Visentin perfect in the low range of Es ist Vollbracht.” — El Pais

BEETHOVEN | Symphony No. 9 | Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra and Chorus | Zubin Mehta, cond.

“ Good choir and orchestra (excellent first parts), good soloists (Visentin, Schneider and Reuter more than Kaisorfeld); great Mehta.” – Enrico Girardi, Nona Correiere della Sera (translated from Italian)

         “Good also the mezzo-soprano [sic] Alessandra Visentin, young and early musical talent” – Opera Click

DEMESTRES | The Kidnapping – Gazing at the One Thousands and One Night (WORLD PREMIERE) | Municipal Theatre Modena

“The cast on stage is very theatrical and technically committed in a score that isn’t certainly easy to run, for the variety of themes and the technical virtuosity….The talent of the actor competes with a great-shaped and strong tone, accompanied by thee xcellent performance of the talented Alessandra Visentin, who traced her Mansure with the required sensibility.” --

HANDEL | Serse “Amastre” | Coin de Roi | Christian Frattima, cond

“Alessandra Visentin sang a dignified, anchored Amastre in rich, soft, warm tonalities” -- Bachtrack

HEINICHEN | Flavio Crispo “Fausta” |

“The fantastic Alessandra Visentin (contralto) with her sensual voice as Fausta.” 

 -- Ihr Opernratgeber Worldpress Germany  

“Alessandra Visentin outlines an intriguing and emotionally unbalanced Fausta, sung with very deep alto notes. "Crude porte disseratevi" of the third act is, through the expressiveness of Visentin, a wonder.”  -- Magazin Klassik Germany.  

“Alessandra Visentin performs a sensual and Machiavellian Fausta with her contralto voice. Her aria in the first act certainly does not lack vivacity but 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  

“Fausta finds in the contralto Alessandra Visentin a performer able to delineate the depth of the emotions with a full and dominant voice.”  -- On Line Merker Germany  

“ ...other excellent singers in this recording, the contralto Alessandra Visentin especially in the depth of the low register.”  -- Klassik Heute Germany  

MOZART | Betulia Liberata “Giuditta” | Vicenza in Lirica Festival | Marco Comin, cond.

“ Contralto Alessandra Visentin, who possesses an alluring, distinctive voice that is able to draw in the listener, was cast as Giuditta. It is a role packed with opportunities for displaying a contralto’s talent, with extensive passages of recitatives and two attractive arias. Her first aria “Del pari infeconda” in which Giuditta encourages the people to have faith in God is a light, attractive piece, which Visentin’swonderfully dark-colored palette, gentle phrasing, and easy coloratura brought splendidly to life….she dealt well with the demanding amount of recitative which she delivered with the necessary level ofexpressivity, in which she again made excellent use of the darker colors from her palette.” -- OperaWire

PUCCINI | La fanciulla del West “Wowkle” | Theatre la Scalla | Ricardo Chailly, cond.

“ The magnificent Alessandra Spina in the picturesque role of Indian redskins Billy Jackrabbit and the remarkable contralto Alessandra Visentin in Wowkle, the Bill’s Indiana woman, in the duet at the beginning of the second act, they outlined a real suggestion of the environment.” – MusiCulturA online

         | Madama Butterfly “Suzuki” | Teatro San Carlo | Gabriele Ferro, cond.

“With a sound and homogeneous voice of mezzosoprano with a rich timbre of warm tones, Alessandra Visentin has fully convinced giving life to the painful figure of an impotent Suzuki, spectator of the tragedy.” – Opera Click

| Manon Lescaut  ‘Musico’ | Teatro alla Scala | Ricardo Chailly, cond.

"Special mention to the Musico of Alessandra Visentin" — Connessi all' Opera

"..applause convinced for Riccardo Chailly, but also for Jose Maria Siri, Marcelo Alvarez, Massimo Cavalletti and Alessandra Visentin" — La Repubblica

 "Alessandra Visentin, excellent in the role of Il Musico" — Beckmesser International

"Alessandra Visentin seduces with her singing in the role of Il Musico." — Res Musica Press

“Il Musico of the second act is sung by Alessandra Visentin, an excellent venetian contralto. After the La Scala debut in 2016 in Fanciulla del West, Chailly himself applied her for this role in Manon. Very elegant in her eighteenth-century white dress, she sang with a seductive contraltile tone and her voice soared over that of the shepherdesses who made her choir. A production that, as we see, has been treated in all its aspects.” — Il Trillo

“the best of all, for enthralling force of characterization of the character, unmistakability of vocal means and tasty scenic resources, is shown in the end by Carlo Lepore as Geronte, followed by a couple of characters who, for projection in the ungrateful acoustics of the Scala, give a hard time to their superiors: allusion to Marco Ciaponi, as Edmondo, Dance Instructor and Lamplighter merged in the sameleft transverse figure, and to the full-bodied Musician by Alessandra Visentin.” – www.apemusicale.it

VIVALDI | Per la Sig. Geltrude: Motets and Stabat Mater | Pan Classics label

“The splendid voice of Alessandra Visentin” – Stravaganze Barocche

“.... the Italian contralto Alessandra Visentin has a completely distinctive voice, beautifully rounded but at the same time slender, particularly suitable for the Stabat Mater and solisitic motifs.” – Opera Lounge Germany

"...very, very well interpreted .... it combines quality, precision but also a certain sobriety, if we can say so. In Vivaldi's corpus we have seen very “colorful”, almost brusque interpretations of this music, but finally in the last few years we return to interpretations that gain in finesse and that go to the heart of the composer's intentions .. "  -- Denis Grenier, Radio Canadese CKRL per la trasmissione “Continuo” Canada    

“A special jewel in terms of repertoire and interpretation" – Pan Classics          

“Heavenly beautiful disc...Geltruda's unusual voice has been described as particularly delicate and was probably most effective in expressive music or virtuoso pieces. This writing style can also be found in other pieces by Vivaldi, most likely also composed for Geltruda….The CD contains Clarae stellae, scintillate, RV625, 'Sonata à 4 al Santo Sepolcro', RV130, Introduzione al miserere, RV 638 'Filiae maestae Jerusalem', Sinfonia “al Santo Sepolcro” RV169, Introduzione al miserer Non in pratis aut in hortis RV641 and Vivaldi's Stabat Mater, RV621. Can not be missed!” --Michel Dutrieue, Stretto Magazine

“In this precious CD she reveals all her mastery. In the motet Clarae stellae, glitter sparkles Geltruda in her thanks to a full central register and amber colors.

“Alessandra Visentin colors the sentences and gives the various sections a remarkable compactness. Spectacular Alleluia in minor key where the low register is exposed, without the contralto showing any fatigue. The tonality, the contrasts between ff and pp in the ensemble and the well thought out vocalizations make this piece an authentic expressive jewel, which we have listened to and listened to several times.

“The Introduction to the Miserere "Filiae Maestae Jerusalem" RV 638 begins with a dramatic recitative where Alessandra Visentin manages to weigh each syllable by describing the pains of Christ on the cross. A rarefied suspension “Sileant zephyri” aria follows. The contralto paints with short sentences the desolation of the world which is the spectator of death on Golgotha. 

“Alessandra Visentin converses with the ensemble with full-bodied, dark phrases, in some broken moments such as to bring out the suffering of the text. The theory of affects is well illustrated here by the singing of the good contralto that gives us musical progressions that bring the phrases to a particular tension.

“Alessandra Visentin delves into the sophistication of the melodies ringed by the Red Priest. A loose, free, theatrical musicality of considerable impact. Hieratic the pointed accompaniment of “Eja Mater” on which the authentic contralto hovers in expressing love and pain at the same time. The body of the perfectly balanced voice is in communion with the key of F minor and C minor which characterize almost all Stabat Mater. The result is a very concentrated sequence and it is almost regrettable that Vivaldi has not set all the triplets of Blessed Jacopone da Todi to music. The "Amen" closes the CD with an articulate vocalization that maintains the serious and dramatic atmosphere of the sequence unchanged.

“The purchase of this CD is a must for all lovers of Baroque music.” – Il Trillo Parlante

VIVALDI | Juditha Triumphans “Ozias” | Vicenza in Lirica Festival | Francesco Erle, cond.

“The role of the priestess is relatively small, restricted to a couple of passages of recitative and two arias in the second part. This did not, however, prevent contralto Alessandra Visentin from making a strong impression. She has a dark, sensuous voice suggestive of the deep mysterious truths possessed by the priestess. Yet, it is one she is able to color with even deeper shadings, which when added to her secure vocal technique and her strong stage presence, allowed her to develop a fully fleshed-out character” – OperaWire