RENATA SCOTTO. Internationally famous artist with a repertoire that includes more than one hundred different roles. Madame Scotto has been distinguished with some of the most prestigious international honours, including the "Franco Abbiati Prize". In 1992, she was awarded the "Frankfurter Allgemeine" Prize for the role of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss. She has also received international critical accolades for her interpretation of La Voix Humaine by Poulenc (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, 1993, Teatro Lirico of Barcellona and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, 1995), for the role of Kundry in Parsifal by Wagner (Schwering Festival, 1995), for Erwartung by Schöenberg in 1994 (with the orchestras of the Foundation Santa Cecilia Academy and the RAI in Turin) and for her interpretation of La Medium by Menotti at the Teatro Regio in Turin, which she also directed. Madame Scotto has also been a dedicated performer of chamber music and Lieder, presenting monograph recitals such as Les nuits d'été by Berlioz, the song cycles by  Mahler and Strauss.
Since 1986, after the debut of her production of Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera of New York (successively presented at the Arena in Verona, and at the Miami Opera), Madame Scotto has undertaken the direction of other projects, earning plaudits from critics and audiences alike. For Italy's "Festival Belliniano" in Catania, she has directed productions of Il pirata (1993) and La sonnambula (1994). In New York in 1995, she won an Emmy Award for her direction of a new production of La traviata, which was broadcast live on American television.  Among her most recent stints as a director are Madama Butterfly in Salonika, Ancona, Genoa and Dallas, Adriana Lecouvreur in Santiago, Norma in Helsinki and La Wally in Bern, La Bohème in Chigago and Turandot in Athens. In recent years, she has held specialized courses, seminars and master classes at the Juilliard School and Metropolitan in New York, at Yale University, in Japan and Russia, in Italy (Milan, Parma, Rome) and at the Verbier Festival Academy, Switzerland. In 1997, she founded the "Accademia Operistica Renata Scotto" at Albissola (Italy). Madame Scotto has been "Accademico Effettivo" of Santa Cecilia since 1997.