Sara Mingardo, Aldo Orvieto

Italian singer Sara Mingardo is considered among the more important contraltos of her generation. Her repertory is broad, encompassing works by composers from Monteverdi to Britten, though she has scored some of her greatest successes in operas and sacred music of the Baroque. Mingardo was born in the Venetian suburb of Mestre. Though she displayed musical talent early on, she did not develop quickly: after studies in Venice at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory and in Siena at the Academia Chigiana, she made her official operatic debut in Italy only in 1987, in Cimarosa's I...