Monica Conesa

Few sopranos begin where Monica Conesa began: the title role of Aida in the Verona amphitheatre, at twenty-six, under Marco Armiliato, in what was her first professional engagement. The Cuban American soprano came to it by way of two Italian competitions won in 2021 — the Premio Fausto Ricci, whose jury José Carreras chaired, and the Maria Caniglia at Sulmona — and by way of a single teacher, the Mexican-Italian tenor Mauricio Trejo, with whom she has studied throughout. Norma followed at the Ravenna Festival under Riccardo Muti, and Anna Bolena, Tosca, Santuzza and La Gioconda joined a repertory that reaches into heavier Verdi and bel canto alike. She returned to the Arena as Aida and sang La Gioconda at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona; her United States debut came as Nedda in Pagliacci at Seattle Opera, followed by the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro at the Teatro Regio in Turin and Tosca at Theater Bonn. Zarzuela has a place beside all this — La Dolores and Goyescas at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid. On 19 July 2025 she sang at Pravets in the open-air programme "Primadonna sotto le stelle" with the Sofia Philharmonic, sharing the evening with Trejo himself. Her Verona Aida made her the youngest singer to take a title role in the amphitheatre's history, and her work with Riccardo Muti has reached beyond Ravenna to Jerash and Pompeii. Her La Dolores was the Spanish premiere of Tomas Breton's opera.