Marianna Pizzolato graduated with honors at the Bellini Conservatory in Palermo. At the same time, she attended Lieder courses in Nuremberg with Rosemarie Cabaud and Werner Dormano, specialising with Claudia Carbi. She had the opportunity to collaborate with Raul Gimenez and deepen many of his Rossini interpretations with him.

She made her operatic debut in 2002 singing the title role in Rossini's Tancredi under the baton of Marco Zambelli.

Marianna Pizzolato is one of the leading interpreters of the Rossini repertoire.

She made her debut at the Rossini Opera Festival in 2003 in Il Viaggio a Reims (Marchesa Melibea); her presence at the Pesaro Festival continues with Tancredi (title role), L'Italiana in Algeri, Ermione (Andromaca), Zelmira (Emma), Cenerentola, Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina), Giovanna d'Arco (title role), La Cambiale di Matrimonio and Rossini's Stabat Mater.

Her inclination for Rossini allowed her to take part in acclaimed productions all over the world, such as: Ermione in La Coruña (conducted by Alberto Zedda); Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Bologna, Zurich, Naples, Kiel, Tel-Aviv, Liège and Lisbon; Il Viaggio a Reims in Bologna, Ferrara, Luxembourg, Bad Wildbad, Santiago de Chile, Liège, Florence, Toulouse, New York, Muscat, Palermo, Paris, Madrid and San Sebastian; La Cenerentola in Liège, Seville, Paris and Cardiff; La Donna del Lago in Santa Fe and Liège (conducted by Michele Mariotti and directed by Damiano Michieletto); La gazzetta in Barcelona (directed by Dario Fo); Tancredi at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, Santiago de Chile, Tokyo and Bremen (conducted by Ottavio Dantone); Zelmira in Lyon, Paris and Bologna; Sigismondo in Munich and Semiramide in Bad Wildbad. Active in the bel canto repertoire in general, she also sung: Lucrezia Borgia in Las Palmas, Santiago de Chile, Liège, and Ancona; Maria Stuarda (Elisabetta) in Barcelona and Liège; and Linda di Chamounix in London.

Other highlights of her successful collaborations are: Madama Butterfly (Suzuki) in Valencia; Suor Angelica in Tokyo; Nabucco at Covent Garden alongside Placido Domingo and in Barcelona conducted by Roberto Abbado; Falstaff in Bari, Palermo, Zurich, Stuttgart, Liège and Charleroi; Gluck's Orphée et Euridyce (vers. Berlioz) at the Berlioz Festival; Così fan tutte in Klagenfurt, Cincinnati and Catania.

She regularly performs Baroque and 18th century repertoire. Among her most significant interpretations are: Orfeo ed Euridice at Teatro Massimo di Palermo; Ascanio in Alba (title role) at Teatro Comunale di Bologna with Ottavio Dantone; Mitridate Re di Ponto (Farnace) at Welsh National Opera; La Clemenza di Tito in Barcelona; Vivaldi's La Rosmira fedele with Ensemble Baroque de Nice and Gilbert Bezzina; Vivaldi's Orlando furioso (Bradamante) with the Ensemble Matheus and Jean-Christophe Spinosi at the Ambronay Festival; Vivaldi's Tito Manlio at the Beaune Festival; Cavalli's Gli amori d'Apollo e Dafne and L'incoronazione di Poppea at the Festival de La Coruña conducted by Alberto Zedda; Händel's Serse with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie in Caen and with Il Pomo d'Oro in Toulouse and Essen; Vivaldi's Orlando finto pazzo (Brandimarte) with the Accademia Montis Regalis and Alessandro De Marchi at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées; Händel's Fernardo Re di Castiglia (Isabella) with Il Complesso Barocco and Alan Curtis at the Teatro São Carlos in Lisbon and at the Spoleto Festival; Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria at the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp (Penelope) with Federico Maria Sardelli and at La Scala in Milan (Ericlea) with Rinaldo Alessandrini in the new production by Robert Wilson. In 2017 Marianna Pizzolato starred in the Monteverdi project conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, she took part at the worldwide tour performing Penelope in Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria and Ottavia in L'incoronazione di Poppea in Bristol, Venice, Salzburg, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Berlin, Paris, Chicago and New York.

Through the years she collaborated with many important conductors such as Alberto Zedda, Riccardo Muti, Roberto Abbado, Daniele Gatti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Donato Renzetti, Nello Santi, Paolo Carignani, Bruno Campanella, Michele Mariotti, Carlo Rizzi, Rani Calderon, Maurizio Benini, Antonio Pappano and director such as Dario Fo, Robert Wilson and Luca Ronconi.

Active and admired also on the concert side Ms. Pizzolato performed: Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle in Naples (with Maurizio Benini), Lucerne and Moscow; Rossini's Stabat Mater in Florence, Palermo, Santander, Zurich, Salzburg, Edinburgh (conducted by Antonio Pappano), Tanglewood (conducted by Charles Dutoit), Turin (with the RAI Orchestra) and in Liège; Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in Palermo (conducted by Gianluigi Gelmetti); Pergolesi's Stabat Mater in Dresden, Munich and Berlin (conducted by Antonio Pappano) and with the Orchestra Arturo Toscanini in Parma; Mozart's Requiem with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome (conducted by Antonio Pappano) and with the Kammerorchester Basel (conducted by Giovanni Antonini); Verdi's Requiem in Stavanger, Tenerife and with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the RAI Orchestra of Turin, the Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra (conducted by John Eliot Gardiner); Cherubini's Solemn Mass in E major with Riccardo Muti in Florence, Paris, Munich, Toulouse and Vienna; Coronation Mass in Monte Carlo; Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in Monte Carlo and at the St. Denis Festival; Symphony No. 3 by Mahler and Rhapsody for contralto by Brahms in Palermo; Haydn's Missa in tempore belli in Rome with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; Mozart's Missa Solemnis K 139 in Salzburg with the Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini; Haydn's Harmoniemesse in Eisenstadt. Marianna Pizzolato took part in the project "Il Salotto Rossiniano" in Taranto and Florence with Stefano Montanari at the fortepiano and then in a solo recital in Tokyo.

Other recent engagements include: Falstaff (Mrs. Quickly) in Tokyo, Stuttgart, Liège, Charleroi; Suor Angelica (Aunt Princess) in Tokyo; Mozart's Requiem at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; Rossini's Stabat Mater in Siena; Verdi's Requiem in Palermo and Seoul.

Plans include: Falstaff (Mrs. Quickly) at Teatro alla Scala in Milan; and Rossini's Stabat Mater at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Gateshead.

January 2025