Erika Grimaldi

Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for the “expansive warmth” and “expressive vigor” of her interpretation of Mimì in La bohème,” and by the Washington Post for her “diamond clarity” as Desdemona in Otello (“a stunning Willow Song”), as well as by the New York Times, which described her performance of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem as “strong and impressive”, Erika Grimaldi is widely considered as one of the most established and requested sopranos of her generation in theaters and festivals such as the Teatro alla Scala Milan, Opernhaus Zürich, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, San Francisco Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Arena of Verona, as well as the Teatro Regio Turin.

Erika Grimaldi’s 2025/2026 season includes several role debuts: in the title role of Suor Angelica and as Giorgetta in Il tabarro with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Washington Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall New York, and as Abigaille in a new production of Nabucco at Theater Bonn, where she also appears as the protagonist of Tosca. Erika Grimaldi also returns to the roles of Leonora in Il trovatore at Opera Carlo Felice, Genova, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera at Teatre Principal de Maó, Menorca, and Desdemona in Otello at the Ópera de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and appears in gala concerts in Malmö and Rebild. Other future engagements include her house debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Mimì in La bohème.

In 2024/2025, Erika Grimaldi opened the season of the Teatro Regio of Turin in the title role of Manon Lescaut, a part that she also sang at the Zurich Opera. In Zurich, she also made her role debut as Amelia in a new staging of Un ballo in maschera. At the Teatro Municipal de Santiago (Chile) she sang her first Ciò-Ciò-San in Madama Butterfly. Erika also returned to the roles of Alice Ford in Falstaff at the Opera Carlo Felice Genova, Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro for the Welsh National Opera, performed Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, a Puccini Anniversary Concert with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra at the Teatru Astra in Gozo, and a gala concert celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Italian Embassy in Copenhagen.

Engagements for the 2023/2024 season included her debut as Puccini’s Manon Lescaut at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and as Tosca at the Ópera de las Palmas, her Zurich Opera debut as Maddalena di Coigny in Andrea Chénier, her debut at the Teatro Regio Parma and the Festival Puccini of Torre del Lago as Tosca, Desdemona in Otello with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Mimì in La bohème at the Teatro Regio di Torino, Rossini’s Stabat Mater at the Teatro Filarmonico Verona, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the Czech Symphony Orchestra Prague and at the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the ADDA Simfónica in Madrid, Alicante, Barcelona, and Zaragoza, and in a mini-tour of Veneto with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto in Padova, Mozart’s Requiem at the Auditorio De Falla in Granada, and a Verdi recital in Aix-les-Bains.

Highlights of her last past seasons include a series of role debuts: as Maddalena di Coigny in Andrea Chénier and as Leonora di Vargas in La forza del destino at the Teatro Comunale Bologna, as Aida at the Teatro Regio Turin, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth at the Korean National Opera Seoul, and as Leonora in Il trovatore with Auckland Philharmonia.

Erika Grimaldi made her Teatro alla Scala debut as Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco, the inaugural opera of the 2015/2016 season. Other highlights have included Micaëla in Carmen and Mimì at the San Francisco Opera, Mathilde in Guillaume Tell at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Alice Ford in Falstaff at the Verbier Festival, Nedda in Pagliacci and Adina in L’elisir d’amore at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro at the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, Micaëla at the Teatro dell’Opera Rome, Mimì at the Savonlinna Opera Festival and the Teatro San Carlo Naples, Amelia Grimaldi in Simon Boccanegra at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Fiorilla in Il turco in Italia at the Palau de les Arts Valencia, Amelia Grimaldi, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Liù in Turandot and Nedda in Pagliacci at the Teatro Regio Turin.

Engagements on the concert platform include Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the Philharmonie Paris, Edinburgh Festival, Hong Kong Cultural Centre and on tour with the London Symphony Orchestra led by Gianandrea Noseda at the Barbican Centre, New York Lincoln Center, and Palau de la Música Barcelona, with the Orchestra Verdi in Milan and with the Orquestra Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Penderecki’s Symphony No.8 Lieder Der Vergänglichkeit conducted by the composer himself at the Festival Enescu in Bucharest, Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 at the Arena di Verona and Rossini’s Stabat Mater at Carnegie Hall New York, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Toulouse as well as on tour with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.

Born in Asti, Erika Grimaldi developed her passion for music in her early childhood, first learning to play the piano and then approaching the art of singing at 16. She obtained her diploma in both disciplines (Piano and Voice) at the Conservatoire “Giuseppe Verdi” in Turin, making her stage debut at 18 as Serpina in La serva padrona. In the following years, she won several prestigious competitions, such as the “Concorso Lirico Internazionale” in Orvieto, and was cast as Carolina in Il matrimonio segreto, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Nannetta in Falstaf and Zerlina in Don Giovanni.

Erika Grimaldi made her debut at the Teatro Regio Turin as Mimì and has since nurtured an intense relationship with this prestigious opera house.

She has collaborated with conductors such as R. Abbado, Armiliato, Battistoni, Callegari, Chailly, Gamba, Lyniv, Muti, Noseda, Oren, Palumbo, Penderecki, Renzetti, and Steinberg and stage directors like Pier’Alli, Bieito, Bussotti, Del Monaco, Hampe, Lavia, Montaldo, Patroni Griffi, and Scola.

Erika Grimaldi wears exclusively high-fashion designer Eleonora Lastrucci.

You can see Erika Grimaldi live with the Auckland Philharmonia on Saturday 25 July at Madame Butterfly.