The American Soprano Barbara DeMaio Caprilli, thanks to her gifts of interpretation, precise phrasing and complete conquest of the Italian language, has won in a very brief time a deserved international fame.
Her vast repertoire includes all the great roles of a Puccini and Verdi soprano; Tosca (Palermo, Torre del Lago); Lady Macbeth (Firenze); Turandot (Genova, Torre del Lago, Cagliari, Palma de Mallorca); Aida (Caracalla, Verona, Taiwan, Avenches), Abigaille in Nabucco (Bern, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Brussels, Torino, Genova), and also Amelia in Ballo in Maschera, Elvira in Ernani, Lucrezia in I Due Foscari, Leonora in La Forza del Destino and Odabella in La Scala's Attila directed by Riccardo Muti, which have given her great success in recent seasons.
Her interpretation of Norma at the Teatro Carlo Fenice in Genova in 1994 consecrated her as irreplaceable interpreter of this important Bellini character, and since then she has sung the role with immense success in Bologna, Marseille, Chicago and Germany.
Barbara DeMaio Caprilli is also known for her modern repertoire, one of the most noted examples being the production of Il Caso Makropoulos in Bologna and Torino.
Among her contracts for the 98/99 seasons; Nabucco in Torino and Athens; Aida in Buenos Aires, Norma in Kassel, La Forza del Destino at the Herod Atticus Theatre in Athens, Nabucco and Aida in the Arena di Verona, Nabucco at the reopening of the theatre in Prato and also in Ravenna, Fedora in Faenza, Il Corsaro in Trieste, Aida in Japan and Rome, Norma in Ascoli Piceno, Nabucco at the Speyer Festival, Turandot in Rome, Nabucco and Un Ballo in Maschera in Germany and concerts all over Italy with the Toscanini Orchestra. She was principal voice teacher for the Academia for young singers of Fondazione Arturo Toscanini.
Barbara DeMaio Caprilli lives now in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she is the head of the voice department at Salem College.