Fiorenza Cedolins is one of the leading stars of the operatic stage, best known for roles in the operas of Puccini and Verdi. She has appeared at many of the major opera houses in Europe, particularly in Italy and Spain, and has given acclaimed performances at the Met, Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, and the most prestigious opera festivals. She has regularly appeared in concert at such important venues as Avery Fisher Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and the Vienna Konzerthaus, and has made numerous recordings for such labels as ArtHaus Musik, TDK, and Decca. While she has scored many successes in operas by Puccini and Verdi, her repertory is broad and takes in lead roles in Monteverdi (Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda), Bellini (Norma), Donizetti (Lucrezia Borgia, Maria Stuarda), Leoncavallo (I Pagliacci), Mascagni (Cavalleria rusticana), Richard Strauss (Salome), and many others. Cedolins' concert repertory includes Verdi's Requiem and Orff's Carmina Burana. Cedolins' lyric soprano voice is both beautiful and powerful, quite appropriate for the dramatic coloratura repertory she has generally favored. Born Fiorenza Cedolin in Anduins, Italy, on March 18, 1966, she would later add the s to her surname to honor the town of her birth. In her childhood she sang in a local choir and studied piano. It was during this time that Cedolins sang on a popular Italian television program Zecchino d'oro. At age 12 she decided on a career as a singer. Cedolins later studied with renowned vocal pedagogue Roberto Benaglio. Her official debut came in 1989 at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Italy, where she sang Rosalinda in Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus. Other important debuts followed, including her 1992 appearance as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. From 1993 Cedolins served as an artist-in-residence with the Split Music Festival in Croatia. Her watershed breakthrough came in 1996 when she won the Luciano Pavarotti Vocal Competition, yielding her a debut with the Philadelphia Opera Company as Tosca, with Pavarotti as Cavaradossi. That same year she sang Santuzza, under Riccardo Muti, at the Ravenna Festival. Invitations began pouring in and soon she was an international presence. Cedolins debuted at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, Italy, in 2000 singing Tosca. She debuted at the Met in 2001 as Cio-Cio-San, and returned in 2004 as Aida. In between, Cedolins' first major recording appeared, a 2003 Decca CD of Tosca, on which she sang the title role opposite Andrea Bocelli. Cedolins sang at the highly viewed Requiem Mass for Pope John Paul II in April 2005. More succesful recordings and appearances followed, including her 2008 portrayal of Elizabetta in Verdi's Don Carlo at La Scala. In 2009 Cedolins was appointed artistic director at the Rassegna Lirica Torelliana in Fano, Italy. Despite the demands of this post, she continued with a heavy schedule of appearances, scoring successes at the Zurich Opera House as Nedda in I Pagliacci and at the Vienna State Opera as Cio-Cio-San, both in March 2011.