Chilean-Swedish mezzo soprano Luciana Mancini is internationally in demand for her intense stage presence and vocal expressiveness in repertoire that spans from the Renaissance and Baroque to Berio and Piazzolla.
This season 2024-25 sees her return to MusikTheater an der Wien to reprise her signature role of Maria in Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires and to appear in Combattimenti, a new pastiche with music by Monteverdi. She will perform Messagiera/Orfeo with Christina Pluhar at Mozartwochen Salzburg and Ottavia/Virtù in the acclaimed Ted Huffman’s production of L’incoronazine di Poppea with Nederlandse Reisopera. With Le Poème Harmonique she will appear as Nerone/L’incoronazione di Poppea in Bogotà. In concert she will perform various programs with Christina Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata throughout Europe and Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium with Collegium 1704 and Vaclav Luks.
In recent seasons she performed the title roles of La Cenerentola, Handel’s Serse and Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires at Theater Bonn, Melissa in Francesca Caccini’s La Liberazione at Theater an der Wien and was part of Sasha Waltz’ productions of Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Other opera engagements have led her to Staatsoper Berlin, Teatro Real Madrid, Opéra Comique Paris, Drottningholm Festival, De Nationale Opera Amsterdam, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Grand Théâtre deLuxembourg, Opera de Lille, Bergen, Nationale Reisopera and Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon in roles such as Annio/La Clemenza di Tito, Proserpina/Euridice/Musica/Messagiera in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Zaida in Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia, Ottavia/Virtù in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Panthalis/Mefistofele, Volupia and Didone in Cavalli’s Egisto. With the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer she appeared in various concert and opera projects, featuring works by Monteverdi and Ravel.
Equally sought after in concert, Luciana Mancini has worked with conductors such as Pablo Heras-Casado, Raphaël Pichon, Jordi Savall, René Jacobs, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Jan Willem de Vriend and Juanjo Mena and performed with ensembles like the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Freiburger Barockorchester, Bergen Philharmonic, Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Bachconsort Wien, Ensemble Pygmalion, Il Pomo d’Oro, O/Modernt, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Les nouveaux Charactères, Residentie Orkest and Noord Nederlands Orkest at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Händelfestspiele Halle, Musikfestspiele Sansoucci Potsdam, Festivals Chaise-Dieu and Sablé et al.
Most recent releases of her extensive discography include Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans with Ensemble Lorenzo da Ponte and Roberto Zarpellon and Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires with Beethovenorchester Bonnn and Christoph Sprenger, released by Capriccio.