A real talent for composing opera, an immediate expressive power and a great sensitivity for dramaturgy: these are some of the qualities that characterize the work of italian composer Elisa Quarello.

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After working in several theaters, like Deutsche Oper Berlin, Komische Oper Berlin and Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin, since 2020 Elisa Quarello has been a member of Oper Köln.

In 2014 she brilliantly graduated in Composition from Conservatory of Music "G. B. Martini" of Bologna (Italy). She studied with Francesco Carluccio and attended to both composition masterclasses with Salvatore Sciarrino, Manfred Trojahn, Luís Tinoco and opera workshops with Martin Crimp and Klaus Bertisch. Elisa Quarello graduated also in Choral conducting in 2010, in the same year she got the Bachelor degree in Italian Literature and in 2014 the Master degree in Italian Philology and Literature both at University Ca' Foscari of Venice. Her highly successful educational background also includes studies of violin and piano.

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In January 2014, she won the "Neue Szenen II" International Composition Competition of Deutsche Oper Berlin. The jury has conferred her an award and the commission of a new opera, “OHIO-ObstHaine Im Oktober”, that had its debut in April 2015 at Deutsche Oper Berlin to a large audience and had very positive critics.

She won also the “Felice e Luigi Magone Composition Award„ of Conservatory of Bologna (2011) and the Honourable Mention of the “International Award Palazzo del Majno-Torquato Tasso„ (2010). She also collaborated with several Ensemble, like "Zero Crediti" and "Bologna Cello Project", for which composed the opera, "Lohengrin - Bologna, 1871", inspired from Lohengrin of Richard Wagner and Macbeth of Giuseppe Verdi (2013).

In July 2019 her composition “Good body, I thank thee!” for soprano, baritone and orchestra with texts by F. Pessoa and W. Shakespeare had its debut with Gulbenkian Orchestra of Lisbon at Gulbenkian Foundation. In December 2019, her new work for chamber ensemble "Io nel pensier mi fingo" -inspired by G. Leopardi, was premiered by FontanaMIX Ensemble of Bologna. By the same Ensemble she received also in 2021 a commission for a new composition -“Nach Kandinsky: drei Impressionen” for piano- which had recently premiered in Bologna.

 

Elisa Quarello concentrates on opera, folk music and on archaic musical, theatrical and textual arguments. Her other interests are compositions on various texts, poems and plays written in different languages: in most cases, she generally writes the texts herself or re-elaborate pre-existing texts. Consequently, she researches a musical style that follows and increase the musicality of languages.



Her compositions were performed in international theatres and concert halls, like Deutsche Oper Berlin, Grand Auditorium of Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, Teatro Comunale di Bologna and Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, and festivals, including Angelica, Suona Francese and The Schoenberg Experience.

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