About this Artist
Born in Florence, the young French-Italian soprano CÉLINE RICCI studied in Paris with Ana Maria Miranda and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. In 2002, renowned conductor William Christie selected this gifted artist for his first elite academy, Le Jardin des Voix. In 2005, Ricci was named one of opera’s promising new talents by Opernwelt magazine. She already has an impressive discography and may be heard on a number of audio recordings and two DVDs.
For the 2009/10 season, Ricci appears in two productions under the baton of William Christie with Les Arts Florissants, first in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in Amsterdam and in London, and in Charpentier’s Acteon and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in New York City. Ricci sings in Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra’s production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas on tour (San Francisco Bay area, Sacramento, and Los Angeles). She made her debut with them in April 2009, in Handel’s Athalia. Ricci has embarked on a series of solo recordings under the Dorian Sono Luminus label; her first recording featuring French mélodies will be released in Spring 2010.
She made numerous appearances in the 2008/09 season in Dido and Aeneas. Those included the Akademie für Alte Musik (Sasha Waltz, choreographer) in Berlin, London, Brussels, Israel, and Barcelona, followed by a second, new production of the same work under the direction of Deborah Warner with William Christie conducting, in Paris and Vienna.
Ricci also sang a number of performances in France during the 2008/09 season which included arias by Rossi and Lully with Les Folies Françoises featuring an all-violin orchestra much like that in the court of Louis XIV. In 2007/08, critics hailed Céline Ricci’s debut in Los Angeles with Musica Angelica, under Jory Vinikour, a recital of arias by Handel and Rameau, and as Fraarte in Handel’s Radamisto under Martin Haselböck. She appeared with them again in March 2008, Martin Haselböck conductor, as a part of a multi-media project, Seduction and Despair, with the actor John Malkovich. The Los Angeles Times hailed her performance as “a knockout once more.” She returned this past January for an evening of solo cantatas with this same organization.
Her remarkable professional debut was in 2001 in the role of Vagaus in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans at the Opéra of Montpellier. She later joined Les Arts Florissants under William Christie for a European tour of Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes, in which she sang the role of Émilie at the Barbican Centre, La Cité de la Musique, and other venues. Continuing with her international career, she appeared as Polissena in Handel’s Radamisto with the Wiener Akademie under Martin Haselböck at Vienna’s Musikverein and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. In 2005, on her first CD, she appears in the title role in Alessandro Scarlatti’s La Giuditta with the Parlement de Musique with Martin Gester (Festival d’Ambronay) as conductor.
Other performances include the title role in Mozart’s Il Re Pastore with Les Folies Françoises (Patrick Cohen-Akenine, director) at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées. She was the featured soloist with the Dresden Philharmonic in arias by Porpora and Weber under the direction of Martin Haselböck. She has been heard in Vivaldi’s La Griselda (Festival d’Ambronay) and in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (French tour) with the Ensemble Matheus under Jean-Christophe Spinosi. She has performed in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Opéra of Montpellier with Friedmann Layer, in Paisiello’s Il Re Teodoro in Venezia at the Festival Radio France of Montpellier under Enrique Mazzola, in Rameau’s La Naissance d’Osiris, Lully’s Amadis, in Rebel’s Ulysse under Hugo Reyne, in Martín y Soler’s Ifigenia in Aulide, and in Mazzoni’s Aminta, Il re pastore with Juan Bautista Otero. The production of Charpentier’s Les Plaisirs de Versailles, in which she appeared with Les Folies Françoises at the Opéra Royal de Versailles, was filmed for a DVD recording.