Sorrento-raised soprano Elena Perroni sings for Nicola Bulgari of luxury Bvlgari brand fortune

Singing a new composition to Nicola Bulgari, grandson of Sotirio Bulgari who founded luxury brand Bvlgari, is not the first time Sorrento-raised soprano Elena Perroni has performed for a billionaire, and it probably won’t be her last. The piece, Canti Della Natura, was commissioned in honour of Nicola Bulgari as a birthday gift to the Italian businessman from his family, first presented at Bulgari’s Rome estate in June, before an encore performance in Siena, Tuscany. Sung in Italian, it was written by Grammy-winning American composer and academic Richard Danielpour, who works at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the University of California in Los Angeles. Perroni first crossed paths with Danielpour during her days at Curtis — where she continued her studies after graduating from the WA Academy of Performing Arts — and the pair have since collaborated on a few music projects. “Canti Della Natura is basically the Four Seasons,” Perroni says, between rehearsals of Verdi’s Rigoletto in her New Zealand Opera debut. “It’s said Vivaldi actually released poetry for the same premiere of his very famous Four Seasons, but nobody paid attention to the poetry, only to the amazing piece of music that he wrote. This piece is set to that poetry.” Previously based in New York, Perroni moved to Rome mere months after her Carnegie Hall debut in 2022, lured to the Italian capital by her Sicilian heritage and longing to submerse herself in the language. “I got my first Italian review as well (for Canti Della Natura), which said I had perfect Italian, so I’m very happy,” she laughs. “When we were invited to perform at Nicola Bulgari’s Rome estate, we were told we’d be able to rehearse in the garage. At first I was a little bit shocked, like, ‘Oh, typical, put the artist in your garage’. We rocked up and had to go through all this security, and then we walked into the garage, and it was like a museum of 250 classic cars. “Then one of the rooms was set up like a little concert hall with a grand piano in there. “I was hoping I was going to get paid in jewels, but it didn’t work that way.” Known as a collector of American vintage automobiles and as a lover of classical and jazz music, Bulgari sits on the boards of Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and Carnegie Hall in New York, where his passion to support art forms such as opera is just one example of how the world has opened up to Perroni throughout her career. While Perroni was meant to sing Canti Della Natura for a third performance, the date unfortunately clashed with prepations for WA Opera’s July season of Rusalka, where she starred in the title role in the opera inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale The Little Mermaid. The production continued her average of returning home to Perth twice a year to collaborate with WA Opera and West Australian Symphony Orchestra, the former featuring Perroni in seasons of Iolanta and La Boheme in recent years. “I love the fact and feel so lucky that my home opera company, and the symphony, have allowed me to grow as an artist,” she says. “It seems like with every year, and each different repertoire piece, I’ve grown tremendously. It feels like they’re nurturing me, and they believe in me as a singer. That is a really special feeling.” Perroni’s love of storytelling and communication saw her experiment with jazz music and musical theatre as a teenager, before her mentor and singing teacher suggested she had the ethos and sound suited for an opera singer. “During my WAAPA years is when I understood this is what really speaks to me,” she says. “It’s this amalgamation of all the art forms, and I also love the discipline of classical music. It was really helpful, as a young adult, to be dedicated to something with a slow dopamine release. You have to work so hard for the reward, and I think at the time it was really helpful to have something as your sort of love/hate best friend.” After spending 10 years in the US, Perroni’s life in Rome focuses on continuing to learn the language while preparing for upcoming roles with her singing teacher and pianist. “The rest is normal life, and I would say it’s a little bit exciting,” she admits. “I’ve just had wacky experiences, like where I’ve walked out of my apartment and there’s a movie being shot. “It’s a welcoming city. The people are really beautiful, and they have a great way of immediately making you feel like you’re part of their culture. “Of course, I eat way too much pizza and pasta because it’s so good.”