Born in Bologna, Italy, Scilla Cristiano began her career very young in H. W. Henze’s Pollicino and in W.A.Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. She performed these works at Bologna’s Teatro Comunale with excellent singers as Devia, Corbelli, Norberg-Schulz, Scandiuzzi and Shade.
Studying both piano and voice, the young soprano subsequently completed her degree with first-class honours at the Conservatoire G.B. Martini in Bologna.
After achieving her degree, she has continued to expand her repertoire and her abilities by working with teachers as Gloria Banditelli, William Matteuzzi, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, Claudio Desderi, Giulio Liguori and Anna Di Gennaro. She has also attended the Rossiniana Academy in Pesaro with Alberto Zedda and the High Specialization Academy of Puccini’s Festival in Torre del Lago honing the Puccini style with internationally renowned artists such as Giovanna Casolla, Fabio Armiliato and Rolando Panerai.
She has had several awards in international singing competitions and she sang at the ceremony to award the Pagliughi “La Siòla d’oro” to Joan Sutherland, performing in a recital in the presence of both the great Australian soprano and her husband M° Bonynge.
She has worked with world-renowned conductors such as Gustav Kuhn, Riccardo Chailly, Leone Magiera, Kazushi Ono, Donato Renzetti, Oliver Diaz, Giuseppe Finzi, Valerio Galli, Renato Palumbo, Massimo Zanetti e Hirofumi Yoshida; as well as directors as Giancarlo Del Monaco, Lorenzo Arruga, Stefano Vizioli, Pierfrancesco Maestrini, Renato Bonajuto, Filippo Crivelli, Francesco Esposito e Alessio Pizzech.
She has already debuted in Italy in important traditional theaters including: Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Regio in Parma, Teatro Coccia in Novara, Teatro Goldoni in Florence, Teatro Comunale in Ferrara, Del Monaco Theatre of Treviso, Teatro Cavour in Imperia, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Opera of Florence.
In Europe, she has performed in theaters in Germany, Austria, France, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, and Bulgaria. In Russia at the Academic Glinka Capella of St. Petersburg, in China at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing and in Japan at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo.
The roles that have seen her several times as a leading interpreter are: Adina in Elisir d’Amore, Gilda in Rigoletto, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Serpina in La Serva Padrona, Violetta Valery in La Traviata, Liù in Turandot, Musetta in La Bohème, Norina in Don Pasquale, Carolina in Il Matrimonio Segreto, Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Micaela in Carmen, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Nannetta in Falstaff, receiving great acclaim from audiences and critics.
Scilla Cristiano off the opera stage has also become internationally renowned as a refined interpreter of spiritual music, chamber music and Lieder.
Scilla Cristiano sang at the concert “Fuoco di Gioia”at Teatro Regio of Parma, in the season of the Verdi Festival 2016, organized by the Club of 27 in Parma.
In 2016, Scilla with great pride and satisfaction has performed Gilda at the Teatro Comunale of Bologna, her hometown, conducted by M° Renato Palumbo.
Among the last engagements a Lyric Concert with great baritone Leo Nucci and the debut in the role of Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow of F. Lehár, Josepha in Im weißen Rößl of R. Benatzky and Carmina Burana at the Teatro Real in Madrid.
Among her next plans, Micaela in Carmen, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor and a Concert tournée in Italy with the Ensemble Berlin (soloists from the Berliner Philharmoniker).