Carlotta Colombo began her singing training at the age of 16. After graduating in Opera Singing from the Conservatorio di Musica in Como, she dedicated herself to the Baroque repertoire under the guidance of Roberto Balconi. She also gained a first-class honours degree in Philosophy from the University of Milan.
A finalist in the 2022 International Cesti Singing Competition for Baroque Opera in Innsbruck, Carlotta made her debut in Monteverdi’s ‘L’Orfeo’ (La Musica and Proserpina) at the age of 23; she subsequently collaborated with numerous Early Music ensembles including Il Pomo d’Oro, Europa Galante, Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco and the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble. Other important operatic debuts followed shortly, such as the roles of Fortuna and Drusilla in Monteverdi’s ‘L’Incoronazione di Poppea’ in a George Petrou/Ted Huffman production at Oper Köln and La Musica and Euridice in ‘L’Orfeo’ under Gianluca Capuano at both the Opéra de Monte-Carlo and Salzburger Festspiele. Carlotta was Maddalena in Handel’s ‘La Resurrezione’ for the Teatro Comunale Ferrara and Melissa in ‘Amadigi di Gaula’ by the same composer for the Sofia National Opera. In 2023, she made her Scala house debut with I Cameristi della Scala conducted by Giulio Prandi.
Carlotta recently embarked on a European tour alongside Joyce DiDonato and Il Pomo d’Oro led by Maxim Emelyanychev, performing Carissimi’s ‘Jephte’ and Purcell’s ‘Dido and Aeneas’ at the Barbican Centre in London, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Teatro Real in Madrid and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. An recording of the concert will be released on the Erato label.
Under the baton of Ottavio Dantone, she performed as Amanzio in Vivaldi’s ‘Giustino’ at the Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid and Sociedad Filarmónica in Bilbao. Also active on the concert stage, the soprano appeared at the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin.
Her recordings include Pergolesi’s intermezzo ‘Livietta e Tracollo’ (Livietta) with the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble (CPO), four little-known pastoral cantatas by the young Handel (Brilliant Classics), Zelenka’s ‘Missa Omnium Sanctorum’ (Glossa) and Fux’s ‘La Corona d’Arianna’ (Arcana). Add to this the recording, with Giulio Prandi, of a programme featuring sacred music for the Naïve Vivaldi Edition and the release of Carlotta’s first solo album ‘Arianna a Roma’ alongside the Italian ensemble Anima & Corpo and Gabriele Pro dedicated to the seventeenth-century repertoire for Roman female singers (Arcana).
Recent and forthcoming engagements include her title role debut in Handel’s ‘Rodelinda’ under Alessandro Quarta at the Theater Kiel, Cleonilla in Vivaldi’s ‘Ottone in villa’ at La Fenice, Aristea in a new Giulio Prandi/Fabio Ceresa production of Pergolesi’s ‘L’Olimpiade’ at the Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi and Ismene in ‘Pelopida’ by Girolamo Abos for the Valletta Baroque Festival. Carlotta will also team up with Ottavio Dantone for a concert dedicated to Alessandro Scarlatti at the Innsbrucker Festwochen and with Alessandro Quarto for a series of recitals in Rome and Darmstadt.