The mezzo-soprano Marina Comparato, born in Perugia and Florentine by adoption, “possesses this peculiar – not to say exceptional – quality: a singer who probes, studies, and undertakes genuine musicological and historiographical investigation” (Le Salon Musical). After graduating in Political Science in Florence, she completed her vocal studies at the city’s conservatoire and made her debut shortly afterwards in London as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia. In the same year she won first prize at the “Valentino Bucchi” competition in Rome, and later the “Adriano Belli” competition of the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale in Spoleto, where she debuted as Sesto in La clemenza di Tito.

Since then, she has pursued an international career that has taken her to major theatres throughout Italy and Europe, as well as the Far East and Latin America. Among the roles that marked the early years of her career is Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, which she performed at the Teatro del Maggio, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, La Fenice in Venice, Opera Carlo Felice in Genoa, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Real in Madrid, and in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Leipzig and at the Glyndebourne Festival. Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia is another of her signature roles, which she has sung at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro Regio in Turin, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Teatro Verdi in Trieste, Opéra de Paris, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville.

Specialising in major Mozart roles, she also devotes herself with passion to the Baroque repertoire (Monteverdi, Handel, Pergolesi, Vivaldi), bel canto and the Romantic repertoire (Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Gounod, Berlioz, Weber and early Verdi), extending her interests into twentieth-century music (Ravel, Poulenc, Berg, de Falla, Henze).

In 2017 she expanded her repertoire with her debut as Carmen at La Fenice under Myung-Whun Chung, a role she has since reprised at the Teatro del Maggio, Tokyo Opera City Hall and Suntory Hall; and as Charlotte in Werther at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. Very active in concert repertoire, she has appeared in prestigious venues such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, London’s Royal Albert Hall and Barbican Centre, the NHK Hall in Tokyo, Theater an der Wien, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Salle Pleyel in Paris.

She has collaborated with conductors of international renown including Riccardo Chailly, Claudio Abbado, Rinaldo Alessandrini, James Conlon, Sir Andrew Davis, Ottavio Dantone, René Jacobs, Jesús López Cobos, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, Roberto Abbado, Daniel Oren, Christophe Rousset and Jeffrey Tate.

Her discography includes Verdi’s Aroldo (Philips); Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans, Orlando finto pazzo and Armida (Opus 111); Weber’s Oberon (Decca); Terradellas’s Artaserse (Harmonia Mundi–RCOC); Fedora and La finta semplice (Deutsche Grammophon, DVD); Le nozze di Figaro (TDK, DVD); Rossini’s Zelmira (Naxos, DVD); and Vivaldi’s Giustino (Virgin Classics). Her solo albums include Cantate by Crescentini (Tactus), Melodie by Pauline Viardot (Brilliant), and Hommage à García Lorca – Preludios y canciones (Musica Novantiqua).

Ever curious and multifaceted, she devotes herself to archival research, uncovering unexplored musical treasures that have inspired several of her solo recordings. In line with this path, on 12 December Dynamic released Romantic Florence, dedicated to Luigi Gordigiani and recorded with pianist Gianni Fabbrini. The album was presented at the Teatro del Maggio, which supports the project, and will subsequently be taken on tour across various Italian cities.