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 in Madrid, and the theatres of Florence, Venice, Parma, Genoa, Turin, Bologna, Palermo, and the ROF in Pesaro, only to name a few. She has collaborated with such conductors as Myung-Whun Chung, James Conlon, Charles Mackerras, Semyon Bychkov, John Neschling, Hubert Soudant and Riccardo Muti. In 2004 she opened the Teatro alla Scala’s 2004/05 season as Semele in L’Europa riconosciuta under Riccardo Muti’s baton. Her DVD releases include Der Rosenkavalier at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo (1998), Falstaff at Covent Garden (1999), Die Zauberflöte at the Opéra Garnier in Paris (2000; TdK), Les contes d’Hoffmann (Olympia) at the Opéra National Bastille, Paris (2001) and at the Sferisterio in Macerata (2004).