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The Italian soprano, Lucia Casagrande Raffi, carried out a large part of her musical studies at the Conservatory “ F.Morlacchi “ of Perugia graduating first in singing (1997) and later in music education with the highest of honours (2001). For several years she concentrated on didactics and along with the conservatory participated in important musical events with the pedagogist A.M. Freschi, the musicologist R. Meucci and the composer F. De Rossi Re the celebrity who personalized her from a cultural and musical point of view. During these years of didactics she approached a creative - interpretive side of music, discovering contemporary language and subsequently the possibility to tackle various exprssive ranges by means of her voice. Inizially she studied with Anna Panni and Marinella Meli afterwhich she improved her abilities together with Raina Kabaivanska, Mariella Devia, Simone Kermes, Claudine Ansermet and Gloria Banditelli. She also studied Musical Disciplines at Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali G. Braga (Class of 2011).
Lucia Raffi made her debut at Cantiere Internazionale D’Arte di Montepulciano in Stabat Mater by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. Contemporarily she met the Evangelist Father Nicolini, a man of deep humanistic culture but above all a refined musicologist and musician, student of D. Bartolucci, founder and director of Cantori D’Assisi until his death in 2004 with whom he enhanced his amateur sacred repertoire and his influence in Gregorian song vocally. She achieved a specialistic degree at level 2 – Musical discipline in SONG specialising in interpretation and composition , with a thesis on “A scene of folly” by Lucia Di Lammermoor of G. Donizetti.
Lucia Raffi has performed in numerous lyrical operas, concerts and recitals in both Italy and abroad (Greece, the USA, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Israel and Japan). Throughout the years she has collaborated with numerable artists of national and international fame such as Dimitra Theodossiou, Carmela Remigio, Norma Fantini, Piero Giuliacci, Umberto Gazale, Sara M’Punga and directors such as L.G. Dolcini, M. Belli, P. Baiocco, G. Marras, G. Ferrari, G. Scandella, G. Pressburger, A. Cuocolo, P. Fosso, A. Allegrezza. She had her debut in the role of Gilda in Rigoletto and that of Violetta in G. Verdi’s La Traviata obtaining approval of the critics and the public (Operaclick, L’Opera, Classic Voice, Corriere dell’Umbria, Repubblica, Into the theatre, Nuove dimensioni Musicali). Furthermore she performed Carlotta in the first modern shooting of the opera Carlotta e Werther by Coccia, Ifigenia in Ifigenie en Tauride and Euridice of L’Orfeo e Euridice by C. Gluck, Valencienne of La Vedova Allegra by F. Lehàr, Pamina in Die Zauberflote and Contessa and Susanna of Le Nozze di Figaro by W.A. Mozart, Sacerdotessa in Aida by Verdi, Alisa of Lucia di Lammermoor by G. Donizetti, Melia in Apollo et hyacintus, Musetta in La Bohéme and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi by G. Puccini, Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Monticchi by V. Bellini, Micaela in Carmen by Georges Bizet.
Lucia Raffi is also very occupied in the world of sacred music such as important oratorio and symphonic works like Messa da Requiem by G. Verdi; Stabat Mater by G.B. Pergolesi; Carmina Burana by C. Orff, Messa per il Giubileo by Michael Haydn, Gloria RV 588, RV 589 and Magnificat by Antonio Vivaldi; Missa Brevis, Vesprae Solennes De Confessore, Requiem, Messa dell’Incoronazione in C by W.A. Mozart, Petite Messe Solenelle and Stabat Mater by G. Rossini; Messiah by George Frideric Handel; Symphony No. 9 by L.v. Beethoven, Messe-G-dur, Magnificat D 486, Tantum ergo D460, Salve Regina D686 by F. Schubert; Symphony No. 2 Lobgesang by Felix Mendelssohn; Requiem by Gabriel Fauré; Messe solonnelle Sainte Cécile by Charles Gounod. In 2010 she appeared at the awards “Beniamino Gigli” in Helsinki.
Lucia Raffi worked with Francesco Marchetti on Requiem and The Composition, a part of the soundtrack of the film of the same name by A. Bergamo in competition at Mostra del Cinema in Venice 2012 and L’Apocalisse-L’Opera in the extraordinary presence of Gigi Proietti and Enzo Decaro. She is also one of the cast of L’Arca di Giada by T. Verde - UNIARTE of which a DVD has been produced. In 2014, she worked with Paolo Fosso on the music composition Quasi una canzone d’amore a show of Paolo Fosso in which the actress Laura Lattuada also performed.
Thanks to her command of the Spanish language, Lucia Raffi has delved deeper in the Piazzolliano and Latin-Americano repertoire giving life to the musical projects “Italian Dream in Buenos Aires” (2012) which went on stage at Gubbio Noborders Music Festival (PG) and “MuJeres: Pasiones y Milagros al Sur” (2018) that appeared for the first time at “Cantalice Artem Festival” (RI) and later in “Stagione Musicale Aquilana” obtaining the approval of the critics and the public. The project was purchased and produced with the label “Sheva Collection”. In 2016 she had her debut in the role of Poppea of C. Monteverdi with “L’Ensemble Strumentale della Cappella Musicale S.Petronio directed by Michele Vannelli in Bologna.
In the last few years Lucia Raffi has broadened her studies of song and Baroque repertoire with specific reference to 1700. Since November 2022, she studies Renaissance and Baroque Singing - II level at Conservatorio Casella L'Aquila. She is ollaborating with influential musicians of the industry and important chamber formations such as Accademia degli Unisoni, Solisti Aquilani, Ensemble Strumentale della Cappella Musicale S. Petronio, ARTeM, Accademia Hermans (Director: Fabio Ciofini), with whom she participated in the role of soprano soloist at Festival Villa Solomei from 2015 until 2019, at 70° Sagra Musicale Umbra, at festival Arti in Movimento (NA) and at the discograpic recording of Bottega Discantica “O Magnum Mysterium”. With Roma Barocca Ensemble she published for Bongiovanni “Cantata a due voci con violini in onore di Sant’Antonio da Padova” by Girolamo Rossi and for Da Vinci "Cantate Spirituali" by Francesco Feo. She currently lives Spoleto, Italy. |
