Petra Magoni is an Italian singer whose career is as unclassifiable as it is spellbinding. Trained as an opera singer, she soon broke free of the mould and embraced a protean musical aesthetic where jazz, rock, baroque, punk and electronica meet. Born in Pisa in 1972, she has developed a unique voice, powerful and supple, which has become her main instrument of artistic exploration.
In 2003, she met double bassist Ferruccio Spinetti. Their chemistry gave birth to the duo Musica Nudaan atypical project based on a radical formula: one voice and one double bass, with no tricks or gimmicks. The first album, Musica Nuda (2004), released on the Storie di Note label, won immediate recognition, coming third in the Prix Tenco in the Performers category. The public discovered a performer capable of reinventing the most diverse repertoires, from Monteverdi to The Beatles, via Brel, Madonna and Gainsbourg. Their appearance on FIP as support act for Stefano Di Battista marked a turning point, propelling them onto an international tour.
In 2006, Musica Nuda 2acclaimed by Jazzmanfurther explores the mixing of genres. Alongside Spinetti, Petra Magoni invites Stefano Bollani, her partner at the time, trumpeter Erik Truffaz and Monica Demuru. The duo’s stylistic audacity is confirmed on stage and in the studio with Live in Paris (DVD, 2006), Live à FIP (2007), and 55/21 (2008), featuring Jacques Higelin, Sanseverino and an Italian retelling of “La Chanson des vieux amants”.
In 2011, the album Complici focuses on a more introspective Italian repertoire. Then, with Little Wonder (2015), the duo broaden their range by mixing international standards (Bob Marley, Bill Withers, Édith Piaf) and Italian gems revisited with humor and elegance.
Petra Magoni has given over 1,500 concerts worldwide, appearing in such prestigious venues as the Olympia in Paris, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Joe’s Pub in New York and the Herodes Atticus in Athens. Her reputation transcends borders, seducing audiences as varied as her repertoire.
Alongside Musica NudaPetra leads a prolific career in the world of live performance. From 2009 to 2011, she plays a colorful Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute by the Piazza Vittorio Orchestraan ambitious production presented in Rotterdam, at the Bahrain Festival, and at Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice. She followed this with the role of Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Gioele Dix (2011-2012), then participates in Il Sangue by Pippo Delbono at Vicenza’s Teatro Olimpico (2013).
On the silver screen, she was cast in the film Transeuropae Hotel by Luigi Cinque, alongside Pippo Delbono and Peppe Servillo, awarded at the Rome Independent Film Festival (RIFF) in 2013. Between 2017 and 2019, she performs a transgressive Don Giovanni in a modern retelling of Mozart’s work, again with the Piazza Vittorio Orchestra. In 2020, she takes part in the David Bowie tribute album orchestrated by trumpeter Paolo Fresu.
Singer, actress, improviser, Petra Magoni is a total artist. Each project she tackles becomes the terrain for free vocal and stage play, often playful, always virtuoso. Refusing to be labelled, she embodies a rare form of living art, on the borderline between the learned and the popular, the classical and the contemporary.
