Francesca Ascioti graduated in singing from the Conservatoire in Brescia, later specializing with Bernadette Manca di Nissa and Teresa Berganza. In 2010, she won a scholarship that enabled her to attend the ‘Ateneo Musicale’ in Sulmona. In November 2013, she made her debut as Quickly in Falstaff in Busseto, opposite Renato Bruson, a co-production of the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala and the Teatro Regio di Parma; in 2014, she sang in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania and then made her debut as Zita in Gianni Schicchi in Piacenza and as Baronessa di Champigny in Nino Rota’s Il cappello di paglia di Firenze, directed by Elena Barbalich.
In the following seasons, she sang Ozias in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans conducted by Alessandro Marchi in Venice and took part in the Riccardo Muti Academy, thus singing Quickly in Falstaff, conducted by Riccardo Muti. Francesca Ascioti works regularly with Andrea Marcon, with whom she has performed: Giunone in Vivaldi’s Fida Ninfa in Basel and Baden-Baden (Festspielhaus); Marzia in Vivaldi’s Catone in Utica and Euterpe in Handel’s Parnasso in Festa at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; Ozias in Juditha Triumphans in Brussels (Bozar), London, Athens and New York (Carnegie Hall); Bach’s Mass in B minor on tour in Italy; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at the Teatro La Fenice. She also returned to this theatre to sing the role of Diana in Krenek’s Cefalo e Procri.
Past engagements include: Hasse’s Enea in Caonia (title role) in Rome (recorded for CPO) conducted by Stefano Montanari; Handel/Leo’s Rinaldo (Argante) at the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca, conducted by Fabio Luisi; Handel’s La Resurrezione (Cleofe) with La Risonanza and Fabio Bonizzoni in Brussels, Bruges and Metz; Handel’s Messiah with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia at the Palacio de la Ópera de La Coruña; Juditha Triumphans at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and at the Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid conducted by Andrea Marcon; Cesti’s La Dori (title role) with Ottavio Dantone in Innsbruck, also recorded for CPO; Handel’s La Resurrezione (Cleofe) in Prague conducted by Vaclav Luks.
Her recent engagements include: Juditha Triumphans at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Federico Maria Sardelli; Anna Bolena (Smeton) in Liège and on tour in Muscat; Handel’s Orlando (Medoro) and Oreste (Filottete) with Il Pomo d’Oro and Francesco Corti; Rigoletto (Maddalena) in Nancy and Luxembourg; Scarlatti’s Griselda (Ottone) in Martina Franca conducted by George Petrou and directed by Rosetta Cucchi; Hasse’s Aeneas in Caonia (title role) in Herne; Giulio Cesare (Cornelia) at the Reiseopera and Handel Festival in Göttingen conducted by George Petrou; Bononcini’s Astarto (Clearco) in Innsbruck with Stefano Montanari and directed by Silvia Paoli; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at the Festival de Musica Sacra in Bogotà; the “Women in Opera” project and the premiere in modern times of Ziani’s opera Damira placata with the Enea Barock Orchestra in Rome; a new production of Juditha Triumphans (Holofernes) in Pisa and Cremona, with Carlo Ipata and Deda Cristina Colonna; the Easter Concert at the Ravello Festival under George Petrou and Aristea in Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade in Beaune under Spinosi.
