Paola Valentina Molinari
Soprano

Born in Milan, she studied flute and voice at the Conservatories of Milan and Bergamo. She is a winner of the prestigious Rotary Prize.

She began her career as a solo singer at the age of 24, debuting in Gazzaniga’s Il convitato di pietra in Bergamo, followed by Die Zauberflöte at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza; La finta semplice in Bergamo; Il barbiere di Siviglia in Rovereto; L’elisir d’amore at the Donizetti Night in Bergamo; and A. Raskatov’s Cuore di Cane in Lyon and at La Scala in Milan, conducted by Martin Brabbins and directed by Simon McBurney.

She has collaborated with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Giovanni Antonini, Adam Fischer, Enrique Mazzola, and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Her collaborations include Coro della Radio Svizzera and Diego Fasolis, Canto di Orfeo and Gianluca Capuano, LaVerdi Barocca with Ruben Jais, Ghislieri Choir & Consort with Giulio Prandi, Concerto Romano with Alessandro Quarta, and La Risonanza with Fabio Bonizzoni.

She recorded for Outhere Music the Messa in Re Maggiore and the previously unreleased motet Dignas Laudes with Giulio Prandi and the Ghislieri Choir & Consort (Diapason d’or 2018).

She made her debut at the Boston Early Music Festival singing Pasquini’s San Vito with Concerto Romano and Alessandro Quarta. With La Risonanza and Fabio Bonizzoni, she performed a project of Handel arias in Korea and later a Scarlatti program in Mainz, also staged in Graz. She debuted in the modern revival of Hasse’s Enea in Caonia, under the artistic direction of Vivica Genaux, which led to a CD release with the CPO label, conducted by Stefano Montanari, who also led her in a Vivaldi concert at the Opéra de Lyon. With Ensemble Mare Nostrum conducted by Andrea De Carlo, she performed in the oratorio Santa Editta (as Humiltà), recorded Stradella’s oratorio Esther and Il Trespolo tutore, the latter also performed for the opening of the 2020 season at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa (broadcast on Radio3 and Sky Classica).

In January 2021, the complete recording of Luigi Rossi’s L’Orfeo was released with the ensemble Allabastrina, conducted by Elena Sartori (Glossa label).

She recently performed in L’incoronazione di Poppea (Amore/Valletto) in Cremona, Como, Pavia, Pisa, and Ravenna; Il barbiere di Siviglia (Berta) in Pisa and Jesi; Dido and Aeneas (Spirit) in Bologna and Reggio Emilia; Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Proserpina) in Cremona; Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria (Amore) and Dido and Aeneas (Second Witch) in Ravenna; L’Ercole amante (Iole) at the Monteverdi Festival; and Scarlatti’s La Santissima Annunziata in Halle with Europa Galante.

August 2025