Gian-Carlo del Monaco Director
Gian-Carlo del Monaco, the son of the famous tenor Mario del Monaco.He made his debut as a stage director in 1964 in Siracusa (Italy) with
Samson et Dalila (starring Mario del Monaco).
He started his career in Germany as assistant to Wieland Wagner, Günther Rennert and Walter Felsenstein before assuming the post of principal stage director in Ulm from 1970 to 1973 where he staged some 15 productions.He was General Manager of the Macerata Festival (Italy) from 1986 to 1988 and the General Manager of the Opera der Bundesstadt Bonn from 1992 to 1995. From 1997 to 2001, Giancarlo del Monaco was the General Director of the Opera House of Nice (France).
Contemporaneous with his career as General director, Giancarlo del Monaco becomes one of the most important and sought after stage directors of his generation.He has staged productions in renowned theatres in major cities around the world and collaborated with the most important conductors and stage designers of the operatic world. Fluently speaking 5 languages, his operatic repertoire contains more than 100 operas, staged in their original language.
In 1991, he was invited to stage
La Fanciulla del West at the Metropolitan Opera. This was followed by
Stiffelio,
Madama Butterfly,
Simon Boccanegra and
La Forza del Destino (for which he was honored by the American Institute of Verdi Studies). All of these Met productions were filmed and internationally broadcast.Gian-Carlo del Monaco has been the recipient of numerous honors. From 2009, he is the artistic director of the Tenerife Opera Festival.
Jesus Ruiz Costume Design
Born in Cordoba, Spain, Jesus Ruiz got a degree in Art History, Design and Music Composition at the Complutense and Politecnica universities in Madrid and at the Real Consevatorio Superior de Musica.
Awarded with the First National Contest "Ciudad de Oviedo" for stage design, he began his career working with Emilio Sagi as a stage and costume designer in Mozart's Magic Flute which was put on at the Hong Kong Arts Festival.
He has cultivated all the theatrical genres: drama, ballet, flamenco, opera, musical comedy and films, with a special devotion to opera of which he has debuted in over fifty productions.
He has worked for some of the main theaters and festivals: Teatro Real (Madrid), Grand Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona), Theatre Chatelet (Paris), Maggio Musicale (Florence), Euskalduna (Bilbao), Saddlers Wells (London), Palau de les Arts (Valencia), opera houses in Nize, Laussane, Achem, Perm...
His upcoming projects include I due Figaro by Mercadante for the Salzburg Festival and Teatro Real, conducted by Riccardo Muti, and Samson and Delilah by Massenet for the Massada Festival with maestro Del Monaco.
William Orlandi Stage Designer
After studying at the Academy of Belle Arti of Brera in Milan, William Orlandi designed sets and costumes for Il Trovatore directed by Alberto Fassini at the Theater San Carlo in Naples, Don Carlos, Don Giovanni directed by Lorenzo Mariani in Parma and numerous other operettas. He worked with Alberto Fassini in various operas, such as Romeo et Juliette in Palermo, Il Trovatore and Werther at the New National Theater in Tokyo and Norma at the Regal Theater in Turin.
Since 1987 he has worked regularly with Gilbert Deflo, Liebermann's La Foret at the Grand Theater Geneva is the beginning of this collaboration, followed by Aida, The Coronation of Poppea, Carmen etc. And in the 2005-2006 season a new version of L'amour des trois oranges for the Opera Bastille in Paris.
His design also can be seen in Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni, Massenet's Therese, Rigoletto by Verdi and La Gioconda by Ponchielli in 2002 and 2003 seasons at Hopernhaus Zurich and Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci for Arena of Verona in 2006 season.
Recently, he served as designer for The Turn of the Screw by Britten in Bari, directed by Lorenzo Mariani and Mefistofele by Boito Festival Savonlinna, Il Trovatore by Verdi at the Teatro Liceu in Barcelona and Aida for the Theater Massimo of Palermo, directed by Franco Ripa Di Meana.
Nicola Beller Carbone Tosca
Born in Germany, Nicola Beller Carbone grew up in Spain where she initially studied to be an actress but later turned to singing, studying at the Escuela Superior di Canto of Madrid. In Munich she studied under Astrid Varnay and in 1991 obtained a permanent contract at the Opernstudio of the State Opera of Munich.
In 1993 she obtained the position of permanent soprano at the Gaertnerplatztheater München, and from 1996 to 2001 at the National theater Mannheim, where she sang the lyric repertoire as Fiordiligi, Violetta, Mimi, Antonia, Tatjana, Liu. Having begun with the lyrical repertoire, her debut as Salome in 2003 marked a shift to a more dramatic register. She achieved enormous success in this role at various prestigious venues in Europe.
In 2005 she made her debut as Tosca and as Santuzza in Braunschweig, in the role of Strauss's Ariadne at the Staatstheater Darmstadt, and as Marie (
Wozzeck) at the Aalto Theater Essen.In the Deutsche Oper Berlin, after her debut as Freia in Wagner's
Rheingold (May 2005), she went on to sing the part of Jenny (
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Kurt Weill) and Santuzza again. In 2006 she sang her first Katerina Ismailova in
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Shostakovich at the Stadttheater in St. Gallen. This role also brought her to Weimar, Berlin and to Toronto's Canadian Opera Company. That year she also appeared at the Macerata Festival singing the title role in Puccini's
Turandot. She then made another return to Weimar singing Sieglinde in
Die Walkure.
In 2008 she was Tosca at the Opéra de Nice followed by a hugely successful return to Salome at Torino's Teatro Regio. She returned to Tosca for the Greek National Opera in Athens later singing Marie in
Wozzeck for the Graz Oper. In the summer of that year she sang at the Bregenz Festival and opened the Stresa Festival (Italy). She then was Tosca for Opéra de Nantes while finishing that year singing Rosalinde in
Die Fledermaus for the Opéra de Lyon. 2009 brought performances of Salome at the Grand Théatre de Génève, the Festival de Opera de Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the Deutsche Opera am Rhein, Düsseldorf. In 2010 she sang Tosca for Opéra de Montréal and Tours. She made her debut in
La voix humaine by Poulenc and in Argentina`s Teatro Argentino La Plata with the opera
Francesca da Rimini by Zandonai.
She worked with many world famous conductors and stage directors.She is also widely heard in concert repetoire with the Berliner Symphoniker, the BBC Manchester, Bamberger Symphoniker, ORT Florence, and also as a recital singer accompanied by Stefan Blunier, Todd Camburn and Wei Zhi Wang. Currently Nicola Beller Carbone is also preparing a show of the music of Kurt Weill.
Sun Xiuwei Tosca
Sun Xiuwei was studying vocal composition under a famous opera sopranist in Milan, Italy. She competed many kinds of contests around the world within less than two years and won first prize six times. In 1994, she began her opera career in Europe with her first singing engagement of G. Verdi's
La Traviata at the Tokyo Opera House. She sang
Norma,
La Traviata,
La Forza Del Destino,
Trovatore,
Atilla,
Sucr Angelica,
Andrea chenier,
Macbeth,
Turandot,
Pagliacci,
Requiem. She, also, sang Madama Butterfly by G.Puccini, after it's first night in Verona Di Arena, Italy, 1997, and it was played more than two hundred performances around the world. She sang at opera houses in Roma, Bologna, Palermo, Trieste, Genova, Venice, Torre Di Lago, Catania, Verona, Italy; Berlin, Bonn and Carlsruhe, Germany; Nizza, France; Zurich, Switzerland; Oslo, Norway; Helsinky, Finland; Bilbao, Spain; Serbia; Washington, Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia in the United States; Toronto, Canada; and Santiago, Chili. She worked with famous cantors like Arena, Bartoletti, Domingo, Gatti, Nagano, Oren, Palombo, Renzetti, Rizzi e Santi. She is one of the few Chinese sopranists that is still active on European opera stages.
Aquiles Machado Cavaradossi
He was born in Barquisimeto (Venezuela) and began his music studies at the Vicente Emilio Sojo Conservatory. He studied with professor William Alvarado at the Simon Bolivar Music Conservatory in Caracas. Once he arrived in Spain, he attended the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía where he studied with maestro Alfredo Kraus, thanks to a scholarship from Banco de Espa?a and the Mozarteum Foundation in Venezuela.
In 1996 came his debut in Caracas with
Elisir d′Amore, and in Europe that same year, with
Macbeth at the Teatro Benito Pérez Galdós in Palmas de Gran Canaria. His career has been constantly evolving since then, with memorable performances in the most prestigious theatres worldwide as Teatro Sao Carlo in Lisbon, L′Arena di Verona, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Teatro Regio di Parma, Opera di Roma, Washington Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Gran Teatre de Liceu -Barcelona, Teatro Real de Madrid, Teatro de la Zarzuela de Madrid, Staatsoper Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Wiener Staatsoper, Zurich Opera, Metropolitan Opera House and Teatro alla Scala di Milano, among others.
He has received many awards from different lyric associations, including one from the Parma Lyric Association for his Verdian performances. He also won the first prize in lyric contests like
Francisco Vi?as in Spain,
Cardiff Singers of the World in the UK, and Plácido Domingo's world famous contest
Operalia in 1997.
Throughout his career, he has perfomed alongside maestros like Plácido Domingo, Jesús Lopez Cobos, Ricardo Chailly, Mistlav Rostropovich, Daniel Oren, Leopold Hagger, Rafael Frubeck de Burgos, Friedrich Hayder, Semyon Bychkov, Daniel Barenboim, James Conlon, Myung-Whun Chung, Alain Guingal, Marco Armiliato, Renato Palumbo, Bertrand de Billy, Sir Mark Elder, Gustavo Dudamel, Eve Queler, Massimo Zanetti and Gianliugi Gelmetti.
His repertoire consists mostly of French and Italian opera, with an ongoing interest in chamber music, recitals and oratorio.
He has recorded a great number of performances, from Bel-Canto to traditional music, which include: Bellini's
Norma with soprano Edita Gruberova and Maestro Friedrich Hayder; Donizetti's
Elisir d`Amore with Erwin Schrott and Valeria Sposito in Lo Sferisterio di Macerata; Giuseppe Verdi's
Rigoletto in the Arena di Verona with Inva Mula and Leo Nucci; Verdi's
Requiem with Maestro Gerd Albrecht and the Tschechische Philarmonie Brno; and Franz von Suppé's
Requiem directed by Maestro Michel Corboz. He has also recorded Giacomo Puccini's
Gianni Schicchi with the Concertgebouworkest directed by Maestro Ricardo Chailly in the ámsterdam Main Hall;
Le Villi for radio with the Paris Philarmonic Orchestra directed by Maestro Marco Guidarini;
La Bohème in the Teatro Real de Madrid with the Madrid Philarmonic Orchestra directed by Jesús López Cobos; Jacques Offenbach's
The Tales of Hoffmann during the ABAO season (Bilbao Association of Friends of the Opera) directed by Alain Guingal with Giancarlo Del Monaco as scenic director, and Isaac Albeniz′s opera
Henry Clifford with the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid.
He recently performed titles like Giuseppe Verdi's
Ernani, Un Ballo in Maschera, I Due Foscari or La Forza del Destino. Among his future commitments, his performances in Lucia di Lammermoor (Trieste - Italy),
Norma (Oviedo - Spain), Verdi's Requiem (Germany, Sweden and Denmark), Un Ballo in Maschera (Italy) and his debut with titles like
Aida as well as Verdi's
I Masnadieri, Umberto Giordano's Andrea Chenier and Bizet′s
Carmen.
Renzo Zulian Cavaradossi
Born in Venice, Renzo Zulian was attracted to music at a tender age, first playing his father's guitar, and then singing. A local singing teacher discovered his tenor voice and later he improved his singing technique with the great tenor Franco Corelli.
Now his repertoire includes:
Il Trovatore, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, La Bohème, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Traviata, Un Ballo in Maschera, Turandot, Aida, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Adriana di Lecouvreur, Andrea Chénier, I Vespri Siciliani, La Fanciulla del West, Conchita, Norma, S. Francesco, Rhea.
Where he has sung around the world: England, Ireland (Wexford festival, 2000); Taiwan; Hong Kong; Austria Salzburg; Spain (Teatro della Maestranza, Sevilla 2001); France (Opéra de Toùlon, 2002); Japan (on tour and then at the New National Theater, Tokyo,2003); Germany (Staats Theater,Stuttgart, 2004).
Alberto Mastromarino Scarpia
A student of baritone Paolo Silveri, Alberto Mastromarino won the Mattia Battistini competition of Rieti in 1987 and 1988, ranking third in the competition Bellini of Caltanissetta, he is a finalist in competitions, 'Lauri Volpi' in Latin and 'Verdi Voices' of Busseto.
After debuting in 1987 with the role of Amonasro in
Aida at the Theater Eliseo in Rome, he sings most of the the great roles from
Traviata to
Simon Boccanegra, from
Trovatore to
Macbeth, from
Rigoletto to
Nabucco, from
Don Carlo to
Un Ballo in Maschera.
He made his debut in the most prestigious Italian opera houses including the Comunale Theater of Florence with
Un Ballo in Maschera and
Macbeth, the Board of Palestrina in Cagliari with
Cavalleria Rusticana opposite G. Giacomini and G. Casolla, Grand Theater Dijon with
Nabucco, the City Theater of Klagenfurt with
Un Ballo in Maschera, then at the Wiener Staatsoper in the role of Alfio in
Cavalleria Rusticana.
He had great success with the role of Gianciotto in
Francesca da Rimini at the Theater Zandonai of The Opera of Rome and later with
Scarpia at the Theater of the Muse in Ancona and Verona Philharmonic Theatre, was also Alfio in
Cavalleria Rusticana in the Tuscan circuit for fifty years after the reopening of the Teatro Goldoni in Livorno.
.
He was engaged with
Cavalleria Rusticana for the Theater S. Carlo; the Deutsche Opera Berlin in
Tosca and
Cavalleria Rusticana /
Pagliacci,
Tosca at the Staatsoper in Vienna and again in
Le Villi. Among his other commitments he included the new production of
Aida in the role of Amonasro at the festival in Avenches in July 2007.
Between December 2010 and January 2011 he played Tonio in the opera
I Pagliacci by R. Leoncavallo at La Scala in Milan. He recently sang the role of Barnabas for the opera
La Gioconda by A. Ponchielli at the Theater Massimo in Palermo.
Zhang Yalun Scarpia
Mr. Zhang is an American Chinese baritone. He graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in China. Pavarotti once claimed him as "a real Verdi baritone". In 1990, his excellent performance in
Un Ballo in Maschera as Renato catapulted him to stardom, and started his career on the stages around Europe and America. He has won numerous awards in international singing competitions, including: winner of Metropolitan National Council Auditions in 1991, winner of Luciano Pavarotti Voice Competition in 1992, Silver Medalist in 1988 the 9th International Competition for Young Singers in Sofia, Bulgaria, First Place in the Loren L. Zachary Voice Competition in 1996, and First Place in the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition, among others. In recent years, he has performed the principal baritone roles in dozens of opera productions in such prestigious opera houses as the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National du Rhin, and the Stuttgart Opera, among many others. In 1998, Yalun Zhang performed in
Turandot in the Forbidden City in Beijing conducted by Zubin Mehta. He was the only Chinese performer at that time. In early 2006, he performed the main role in
the Flying Dutch in Hannover Opera. The premiere night was a huge success.