Giacinta Nicotra was born in Naples and graduated at Naples University in Italian literature. She studied singing in Rome and began her career in the chorus of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. She has since appeared in a series of leading rôles at theatres throughout Italy and abroad, most recently in Juditha Triumphans in Korea and in Macerata, as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni in Messina, as Despina in Così fan tutte in Ancona and Macerata, and as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi in Messina.