What is a performing arts soprano
A new frontier of soprano...
“Paintings and sculptures communicate silent emotions. When the arts soprano sings for material works, she actually generates a new open work made of sound and vision. It will then be the audience, with its sensitivity and culture, who will close this new work, giving it meaning, to experience, internalize, and re-experience it.”
After years of success on major international stages as an opera soprano, Silvia Colombini has revolutionized the figure of the classical opera singer, earning the title of “Soprano d’Arti”, literally Soprano “of the arts” because she juxtaposes opera singing with the other arts.
She can be considered a performing arts soprano because in the unique formats of her concerts, she not only sings but also acts and sometimes plays the violin (she also graduated in violin).
Her performances, always created ad hoc, are commissioned for cultural, institutional, immersive, innovative events, for the inauguration of exhibitions and museums, and to create exclusive evenings for important international companies and firms.
Colombini gives voice to both material and non-material different arts: painting, sculptures, but also books, historical recurrences and so on.
Her performances are therefore much more than a simple concert because they create a real inter-connection with the various arts.
Colombini has a vast repertoire and performs opera arias but also cross-over songs. She is able to sing in 13 languages and recites (pieces edited or created by her).
Passionate about classical culture, her performances sometimes also contain Greek texts recited in metrics.
Singing for different arts
When she sings for the material arts, the choice of musical pieces is juxtaposed to the museum exhibition or to the specific work of art, without having a didactic or explanatory intention; the work of art is in fact already complete in itself. Rather, the aim is to add art to art, creating a musical suggestion around the work, which enhances it, thus offering the public ideas for a possible new and personal internalization of the work itself.
She receives commissions from museums, international artists and festivals
She has sung as performing arts soprano in the official concert “Memorial Pavarotti” organized by Pavarotti Foundation (which was also attended by the famous trio of tenors Il Volo) and in the recital with star tenor Vittorio Grigolo.
She sang at many opening nights of exhibitions and museums including the M.A.C. of Milan and the Ara Pacis of Rome. She is the voice of “Musica Picta Project” an innovative project that blends music and paintings. The evocative “A’mors” and “Logos” belong to this cycle, they are paintings that “contain” a musical composition created for and with the painting, which can be listened to via a QR code. (“A’mors” has been presented at the Dante Society in London).
Recently she sang for the inauguration of “The Palace of Arts – Madlena” in Belgrade wanted by the the patrons Madlena e Philip Zepter.
Ermione – M.A.C Milano
Tributo a Lucio Fontana Ara Pacis Roma
Il Buio e la Luce – Francesco Messina Museum in Milan
Lonely Moons – Armonie d’Arte Festival with Vittorio Grigolo
Unique of its kind is also the performance “Corpora Creata” created for an innovative international Festival held every year on the island of Stromboli in Italy where the electricity is not used. For this festival Colombini has created a story in music on the figure of Pinocchio, also reciting and singing unpublished compositions.
Corpora Creata – Stromboli, Italy
Soprano d’arti and the dance arts
Some concert programs also include other artists as happened in her recent performance at the Ara Pacis in Rome in which Colombini gave voice to the paintings of the great Lucio Fontana in a performance that also included the dance of the NoGravity company. The show won a competition for the Municipality of Rome. Colombini was the author and sole interpreter of the pieces of contemporary music that gave voice to Fontana’s art.
Even the cycle of concerts “Fragile Forte Farfalla”, conceived in support of the non-profit organization for research on the rare disease Epidermolysis Bullosa, saw the union of dance alongside Colombini’s singing and acting.
Theme concerts, music and science
Some concerts are instead themed, Colombini starting from a literary or scientific idea, develops the performance. The concert takes place as a concert dialogue with the public and often also includes interventions by scientists.
An example is the concert “Il Bacio”, a recital that starts from some scientific information on why we kiss and develops with arias, music and quotations that create a link with the many types of kisses we exchange.
The concert of “Il Bacio” was held in 2022 at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan in collaboration with Milano Classica, a musical organization with which Colombini presents some of his most innovative projects.
Il Bacio – Castello Sforzesco, Milan
Art Soprano and Human Rights
Throughout her artistic life, Colombini has maintained one constant: attention to human rights. For this, she has created a cycle of concerts on the theme of Human Dignity.
Examples of these themes are the fight against violence against women (with numerous concerts in collaboration with non-profit organizations and organizations in defence of women), the Memory of the Holocaust with the video installation “Scusa, sai dirmi perché?” (“Excuse me, can you tell me why?”). This work was performed on Memorial Day of the Holocaust at the Italian MEIS (National Museum of Italian Judaism and of the Shoah).
She has also held many concerts in favour of research on rare diseases and in favour of the REB Foundation (of which she is a testimonial) for research on the rare disease Epidermolysis Bullosa.
The concerts in support of Afghan women also belong to this cycle on Dignity, including the performance “Cryme”, awarded in the hall of the Protomoteca in Campidoglio in Rome last year and repeated on several occasions also in Milan, for example for the exhibition “One Hundred female artists in solidarity with Afghan women” (2022)
“Scusa, sai dirmi perché?” – Memory of the Holocaust
Soprano for corporate events
Prestigious firms and international companies have commissioned her to create exclusive events. She thus created performances, among others, for Samsung, L’Oréal, Saint Gobain, the Zepter International Ffoundation, several international flying and financial companies. She was also the protagonist of one of the most important events related to cosmetics: the world cosmetics conference with two twin concerts held in Milan and Hong Kong.
Gala Dinenr Samsung – Como Lake, Italy
Gala Zepter International Foundation
Dinner Saint Gobain, Palazzo Visconti in Milan