Born in Palermo, Désirée Rancatore began her musical studies at a very young age. Winner of important singing competitions, she made her operatic début in Le nozze di Figaro at the Salzburg Festival.

She is now acknowledged as a major lyric coloratura soprano and her extraordinary vocal timbre and great acting skills have enabled her to perform a vast and varied repertoire in the world’s most important theatres, such as La Scala, the Salzburg Festival, Covent Garden, the Opéra National de Paris, the Opernhaus-Zürich, the Vienna State Opera, the Teatro Real de Madrid, and the theatres of Florence, Venice, Parma, Genoa, Turin, Bologna, Palermo, and the ROF in Pesaro, among many others.

She has collaborated with such conductors as Myung-Whun Chung, James Conlon, Charles Mackerras, Lorin Maazel and Riccardo Muti. She performed at the Teatro alla Scala as Semele in L’Europa riconosciuta under Riccardo Muti’s baton. She made her début as Lucia in Bergamo, repeating her great success in the rôle in major theatres in Japan.