Verdi La traviata

Massimo Zanetti was Music Director of the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra (South Corea) from 2018 until the end of 2022. Under his leading it has become one of the most important symphony orchestras in Asia. Among his many concerts, the Brahms, Beethoven, Schumann and Respighi cycles were particularly acclaimed by the critics and audience. His international career has already taken him to the most renowned opera houses and concert halls in the world. In 2023, he will continue his twenty years collaboration with the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, conducting Don Carlo and La bohème. Invitations in recent seasons have taken him to the Monte Carlo Opera (I due Foscari), the Sydney Opera House, La Scala in Milan and the Seoul Metropolitan Opera among many others. In the symphonic field, he has worked with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, the Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Komische Oper in Berlin, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and the Russian National Orchestra, among many others. Massimo Zanetti was music director at the Flemish Opera from 1999 to 2002. During this time, he not only performed a large number of highly acclaimed productions of a wide range of titles including Salome, Der fliegende Holländer and Pelléas et Mélisande but also many symphony concerts presenting some of the most important works of the symphonic repertoire. Zanetti’s successful work is also documented by an extensive discography.

Born in Monaco in 1960, Jean-Louis Grinda began his career in 1981 as artistic secretary at the Avignon Opera and Chorégies d’Orange. From 1986 to 1999 he was director of the Grand Théâtre de Reims. In 1996 he was appointed general manager and artistic director of the Opéra royal de Wallonie (Liège), a position he held until 2006. During his tenure he initiated an eclectic programme, made his debuts as stage designer with Singin’ in the Rain (2001 Molière Award for best musical), and put on a highly acclaimed production of Ring. Since then he has stage designed over 40 operas and musicals, from Paris to Tel Aviv, Montreal, Rome, Hong Kong, Santiago de Chile, Tokyo, Shanghai… For fifteen years, from 2007 to 2022, he was director of the Monte Carlo Opera, during which his notable achievements include enhancing the repertoire, increasing the number of performances, initiating operations aimed at attracting wider audiences to the theatre, especially younger audiences. In 2015 he created with Cecilia Bartoli an orchestra attached to the Monte Carlo Opera, Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco, with performances in major venues in Europe, as well as at the Salzburg Festival. In 2016 he was appointed director of the Chorégies d’Orange where, in addition to opera productions, he introduced a programme to include ballet, silent movie hits, and electronic music. Jean-Louis Grinda is a permanent member of the Operalia jury, created and presided by Plácido Domingo.

Rudy Sabounghi has worked, and continues to work, for the theatre and opera with artists such as Klaus Michael Gruber, Luc Bondy, Jean-Claude Berutti, Jacques Lassalle, Jean-Claude Auvray, Luca Ronconi, Deborah Warner, Jean Liermier, Fabrice Murgia, Muriel Mayette and film director Arnaud Desplechin. This season he has designed the sets for Tosca and Pelléas et Mélisande in Trier, Isabella Rossellini’s Darwin’s Smile, and Muriel Mayette’s stage production of Bérénice in Nice. He also collaborates with Anne-Teresa de Keersmaeker on Verklärte Nacht in Copenhagen, and Mozart’s Concert Arias in Antwerp. He is visiting professor at leading theatre schools such as Ensatt in Lyon and the TNS in Strasbourg. At the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, where he discovered his vocation, he has designed the sets for Die Fledermaus, Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, The Magic Flute, Falstaff, Mefistofele, La Navarraise, La traviata, Amica, Das Rheingold, Pagliacci/A Florentine Tragedy, The Gambler, Lucia di Lammermoor, La bohème, Carmen, Il turco in Italia, Werther, and La Damnation de Faust.  His most recent projects include Farnace at La Fenice in Venice, Ernani at the Lithuanian National Opera (Vilnius), Werther at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Carlo, Tosca and Der Rosenkavalier at the Theater Trier, Rigoletto at the Tbilissi Opera Theatre, La traviata in Saint-Étienne, Carmen at the Opéra de Marseille, the Opéra national du Capitole de Toulouse, the Teatro Calderón in Valladolid, and Dialogues des carmélites at the Opéra national de Bordeaux.

Born in Santiago de Chile, Jorge Jara studied architecture there before moving to Berlin, where, from 1975 on, he began creating costumes for the cinema, opera and theatre. He works with stage directors such as Pierre Audi, Luc Bondy, Nicolas Brieger, Guy Joosten and Nikolaus Lehnhoff. His many productions include What Next? (Carter) and Von heute auf morgen (Schönberg) at the Berliner Staatsoper, a Mozart cycle and Lulu in Liège, La Bohème in Lyon and Zurich, Fidelio in Leipzig, Roméo et Juliette at the New York Metropolitan Opera, Der Cornet and Galileo in Geneva, The Tempest and Le Roi Roger in Frankfurt, The Magic Flute at the Salzburg Festival, Un ballo in maschera and Orphée aux Enfers in Lausanne, L’elisir d’amore in Amsterdam, Rigoletto in Copenhagen, La Vestale in Vienna (Theater an der Wien) and about fifteen productions at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. His recent productions include Il turco in Italia in Vienna and Avignon, Aida and La sonnambula in Düsseldorf, and La Bohème in Hamburg. At the Monte Carlo Opera, he has designed the costumes for The Queen of Spades, Le nozze di Figaro, Falstaff, La traviata, Das Reingold, Pagliacci, The Gambler, Tannhäuser, Falstaff, Lucia di Lammermoor, Thaïs, Il turco in Italia and La Damnation de Faust.

Laurent Castaingt divides his time between theatre, dance and opera, constantly seeking to diversify the genres.  He has collaborated with personalities as diverse as Alfredo Arias, Bernard Murat, Jean-Louis Grinda, Richard Brunel, Jean-Claude Auvray, and René Loyon, as well as with Karel Reisz, the Japanese choreographer Hideyuki Yano, Roman Polanski, Gérard Desarthe and François Marthouret, Sylvie Testud, Laure Duthilleul, Madeleine Marion, Pierre Barrat and Marie-Noël Rio, Jean-Claude Berutti, Marie-Pascale Osterrieth, Alain Delon and many more. He has designed the sets and lighting for the theatre adaptation of Virginie Despentes’ novel King-Kong Théorie at the Théâtre de l’Atelier (directed by Vanessa Larré). His research on luminous matter and nature inspired an outdoor installation in Geneva, Écorces vives, as well as a collaboration with the comic book artist François Schuitten for Planet of Visions, for Expo 2000 in Hanover. He has worked for major venues in Paris, Vienna (Volksoper), Barcelona (Liceu), Rome (Teatro Valle), Buenos Aires (Teatro Colón), the opera houses of Hong Kong, Valencia, Tokyo, Dallas, the Chorégies d’Orange, the Sporting de Monaco. He has designed the lighting for more than twenty operas at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, more recently Carmen, Thaïs, Madama Butterfly, Il turco in Italia, Werther, and La Damnation de Faust. He has won three nominations for the Molière award for best lighting design. He is at present working on a book for Deuxième Époque publishers, devoted entirely to the work of stage lighting and its rapport with painting.

After studying dance with Rosella Hightower, Eugénie Andrin was remarked by Éric Vu An who engaged her at the Ballet de l’Opéra d’Avignon where, as soloist, she danced in the classical and contemporary repertoires. She rapidly asserted her vocation for choreography by creating many opera ballets such as Les Saltimbanques at the Avignon Opera, The Magic Flute at the Monte Carlo Opera and The Israeli Opera (Tel Aviv), La traviata in Santiago de Chile, Monte Carlo, Saint-Étienne, Genoa and Lausanne, Manon at the Rome Opera, L’Homme de la Mancha and Carmen at the Capitole de Toulouse, La Boîte à joujoux with the Orchestre philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Les Pêcheurs de perles at the Korea National Opera (Seoul), La Gioconda in Santiago de Chile, Das Fledermaus at the Marseille Opera, Aida  at the Shanghai Opera, Guillaume Tell at the Monte Carlo Opera and the Chorégies d’Orange, Handel’s Duello amoroso, Eugene Oneguine, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Tannhäuser, Adriana Lecouvreur, Samson et Dalila, Carmen  and Thaïs at the Monte Carlo Opera. In Paris she has choreographed the musicals Sol en cirque, written by Zazie, and Aimé et la Planète des Signes. In 2008, 2010 and 2016 she was invited as guest choreographer at the National Romanian Opera House in Timişoara. In November 2020 she was invited by the Opéra Grand Avignon to create The Soldier’s Tale (Stravinsky) with the dancers of the Ballet Grand Avignon. She founded her own company which performs at many venues and cultural events.

Russian soprano Aida Garifullina is the winner of the prestigious 2013 Operalia Competition. She is a regular guest artist of the world’s leading opera houses and concert venues, including the Royal Opera House (London), La Scala (Milan), the Metropolitan Opera (New York), Paris National Opera, Arena di Verona (Italy) and Salzburg Festival. Aida’s highlights include performances at the opening and closing ceremonies of the World Cup in Russia and at the 2018 Concert de Paris for Bastille Day – both events being broadcast live on television to millions worldwide. Season 2018/2019 also saw sensational debuts at Staatsoper Berlin in a new Tcherniakov production of Prokofiev’s Bethrothal in a Monastery conducted by Daniel Barenboim, and at the Metropolitan Opera in Don Giovanni. Aida also joined conductor Long Yu for special performances of Carmina Burana in Shanghai and at the Forbidden City in Beijing, as part of Deutsche Grammophon’s 120th anniversary celebrations which have since been released on CD and DVD. Aida’s stunning self-titled debut album was released globally by Decca Records in February 2017 to unanimous critical acclaim and has since been awarded a prestigious ECHO Klassik award. She was born and grew up in Kazan. It was Aida’s mother, the choirmaster Laylya Ildarovna, who gave Aida her first music lessons and inspired her to be an opera singer. Later, Aida went on to study at the Nuremberg University of Music and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna; subsequently joining the ensemble at the Wiener Staatsoper where she was a member from 2013-2016.

Loriana Castellano made her debut in 2005 in Duni’s Catone in Utica. In 2007 she made her debut in Dido and Aeneas at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna. She debuted the following roles: Emilia in Vivaldi’s Catone in Utica in Vienna (Theater an der Wien) and in Krakow, Angelina (La Cenerentola) in São Paulo; Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia) in Trento and Seoul; Zelinda (Mysliveček’s Medonte) in Leverkusen; Dorabella (Così fan tutte) in Matera; Fidalma (Il matrimonio segreto) in Treviso, Rovigo, Ferrara, Lucca, Ravenna and at the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik; Dorotea (Le convenienze e inconvenienze teatrali) in Taranto. She sang in Vivaldi’s Farnace at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, in Madama Butterfly at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, in Carmen in Xi’an (China), and in Giorgio Battistelli’s 7 Minuti at the Opéra national de Lorraine (Nancy). She starred as Concetta in Battistelli’s Il medico dei pazzi in Nancy and at La Fenice in Venice; Thisbe in La Cenerentola and the Witch in Dido and Aeneas at Teatro Regio in Turin; Zaida in Il turco in Italia in Ravenna, Piacenza and Modena; Lucia in La gazza ladra in Bari; Bradamante in Orlando furioso at the Festival della Valle d’Itria and at La Fenice; Annio in La clemenza di Tito at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. At Monte Carlo Opera, she portrayed Annina (La traviata) in 2013, Zerlina (Don Giovanni) in 2015, Mademoiselle Dangeville (Adriana Lecouvreur) in 2017 and Musico (Manon Lescaut) in 2022.

Federica Sardella was born in Palermo, where she began studying singing at the age of 14. She later obtained a diploma at the Conservatorio di Musica Alessandro Scarlatti in Palermo. During her studies she took part in several competitions and was finalist at the Giovani Emergenti – Premio Ruggero II Città di Cefalù. In 2014, during the 35th season of the Rossini Opera Festival, she attended classes at the Accademia Rossiniana di Pesaro, directed by Alberto Zedda, where she gained considerable distinction. In 2017 she made her debut as soprano solo in Mozart’s Requiem. She then sang the role of Celidora in Mozart’s L’oca del Cairo at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. During the 2018-19 season she was Elisetta in Il matrimonio segreto by Cimarosa, Eurydice in Offenbach’s Orphée aux Enfers at the Ente Luglio Musicale Trapanese (Trapani), Fanny in Rossini’s La cambiale di matrimonio, and Serafina in Donizetti’s Il campanello di notte at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari. During the 2019-20 season she was Melpomène, Jane and Mother at the cradle in the world premiere of Joe Schittino’s Opera minima, which was commissioned by the Teatro Municipale in Piacenza. In 2022 she made her debut at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa in a highly acclaimed production of The Merry Widow.

Mexican tenor Javier Camarena is the preeminent Mozart and bel canto specialist of his generation. Praised for his burnished tone, gleaming high notes, flawless coloratura and veracious portrayals, he regularly appears in leading roles alongside today’s foremost stars at the world’s top opera houses. In recent seasons, he showed his great diversity in opera roles and as a concert performer. At the Paris Opera, after his great success as Ernesto in Don Pasquale, he sang Arturo in I puritani and starred in highly acclaimed performances of La Fille du régiment. He made his longed-for debut at the Teatro Real in Madrid as Gualtiero in Il pirata, one of the most difficult tenor roles ever. He returned to the Zurich Opera House as Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola, before also performing this role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Further concert engagements brought him to the Monte Carlo Opera, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the Teatro Real and the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, to name only a few. He portrayed Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor) at the Metropolitan Opera, Tamino (The Magic Flute) at the Liceu, Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and in Bergamo, beginning a longstanding collaboration with the Donizetti Festival. He made his professional debut in 2004 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, as Tonio in La Fille du régiment. In 2007, he joined the ensemble of the Zurich Opera. Four years later, he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, one of his signature roles.

Massimo Cavalletti has quickly established himself on the stages of the most prestigious opera houses and festivals worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera (New York), the Teatro alla Scala (Milan), the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (London), the Vienna State Opera, the Zurich Opera House, the Salzburg Festival and the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan. Recent engagements include: Lescaut in the Met’s new production of Manon Lescaut, which was broadcast in cinemas worldwide; Escamillo in Carmen at the Met and at the Gran Teatre del Liceu of Barcelona; Ford in Falstaff at the New National Theatre Tokyo and in Stockholm; Paolo Albiani in Simon Boccanegra, Ford, Marcello, Figaro and Escamillo at La Scala; his first Renato in Un ballo in maschera with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta; Belcore in L’elisir d’amore at the Zurich Opera House and the Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla; Riccardo in I puritani e Don Carlo in Ernani at the Florence Opera House; and Malatesta in Don Pasquale at the Royal Opera House Muscat. Massimo Cavalletti was born in Lucca, where he began his vocal studies with Graziano Polidori before attending the Academy of La Scala in Milan, where he refined his vocal technique with Luciana Serra. His DVD/Blu-Ray recordings include La bohème from Salzburg and Valencia, Falstaff from Zurich and the Salzburg Festival, and Simon Boccanegra from La Scala.

Alejandro Del Angel was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. He studied music at the National Conservatory of Music of Mexico and the National School of Music at UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). He took part in the 20th edition of the opera studio “Taller de Perfeccionamiento Operistico” founded by the SIVAM (Sociedad Internacional de Valores del Arte Mexicano), and Opera Studio Bellas Artes of the Opera National Company in Mexico. He has studied with Joan Dornemann, Marioara Trifan, Denise Massé, Vlad Iftinca, Yelena Kurdina, Sergio Vázquez, Teresa Rodríguez, Adrian Kelly, Hedwig Fassbender, Thomas Barthel and Eytan Pessen. He has also taken master classes with personalities such as Javier Camarena, Arturo Chacón, Francisco Araiza and Piotr Beczała. As a soloist he has performed at many concerts, festivals, productions and opera galas in various theatres and concert halls in Mexico, the USA, Colombia, Poland, Switzerland and Spain, and worked with conductors such as Nicola Luisotti, Donato Renzetti, Simone Young, Srba Dinić, Marcus Poschner, Marco Armiliato and Adrian Kelly. He has won several national and international competitions. He has been a member of the IOS Internationales Opernstudio Zurich for the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 seasons.

Born in Catania, Roberto Accurso studied in Milan with Carla Castellani. Winner of the international competition “Adriano Belli” in Spoleto, he made his operatic debut at Teatro Lirico Sperimentale in Spoleto as Escamillo in La Tragédie de Carmen, a new version of Bizet’s masterpiece staged by Peter Brook and Marius Constant. Since then, he has been invited by leading Italian and international opera houses, working with conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Bruno Bartoletti, Daniele Gatti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Zubin Mehta, Daniel Oren, Seiji Ozawa, Kazushi Ono, Wladimir Jurowski, and with stage directors such as Henning Brockhaus, Robert Carsen, Hugo De Ana, Laurent Pelly, Luca Ronconi, Carlos Saura, and Franco Zeffirelli. He has performed in many prestigious and highly acclaimed productions including La traviata at Teatro alla Scala in Milan for the opening of 2013-14 season, La fanciulla del West at Paris Opera and at Monte Carlo Opera, Guillaume Tell (Leuthold) at La Monnaie in Brussels, Don Giovanni (Masetto) and La Cenerentola (Dandini) at Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, La traviata (Giorgio Germont) at Wexford Opera Festival, Cyrano de Bergerac (Raguenau) at Palau de les Arts in Valencia, alongside Plácido Domingo. Among his latest performances are Gianni Schicchi at La Monnaie, La bohème at Teatro Real in Madrid and at Liceu in Barcelona, La traviata (movie version) at Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Rigoletto at De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam.

Fabrice Alibert studied singing and composition at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional of Toulouse. He received a Master’s degree from the Conservatoire national supérieur musique et danse of Lyon, and went on to improve his skills in the class of Andreas Schmidt at the Munich Hochschule. In 2011-12 he attended the CNIPAL in Marseille. He also received further instruction from Alain Garichot, Rie Hamada, Didier Laclau-Barrère, Giovanni Mastino, Udo Reinemann, Ludovic Tézier and Vincent Vittoz. In 2010 he made his stage debut as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia in a production by Alain Garichot. In 2013 he joined a world-tour of West Side Story with the Solistes de Lyon-Bernard Tétu (China, Canada, Switzerland, France). He subsequently performed in Le Nozze di Figaro (Figaro), The Magic Flute (Papageno), La Cenerentola (Dandini), La Bohème (Marcello), Carmen (Escamillo, Moralès), Pelléas et Mélisande (Pelléas), L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (Clock and Cat), Les Cloches de Corneville (Henry), Roméo et Juliette (Mercutio), Il barbiere di Siviglia (Figaro) at venues including the Scène nationale of Besançon, the Opéras de Clermont-Ferrand, Limoges and Saint-Étienne, the Théâtre impérial in Compiègne, the Summum in Grenoble and the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse. In 2019 and 2020 he performed Taddeo in L’italiana in Algeri on tour with the Ensemble Matheus, under the direction of Jean-Christophe Spinosi. He portrayed Benoit in La Bohème, Second Apprentice in Wozzeck, and Mathieu in Andrea Chénier at the Monte Carlo Opera. In 2021 he made his debut at the Chorégies d’Orange in L’elisir d’amore (Dulcamara), where he also sang Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem.

One of the most talented basses of his generation, Alessandro Spina graduated from the Conservatory “G. Verdi” in Milano. He also trained as an actor. He made his operatic debut as Lunardo in Ermanno Wolf Ferrari’s I quattro rusteghi at Teatro Verdi in Pisa. He has performed in major venues such as Teatro alla Scala (Milan), La Monnaie (Brussels), Monte Carlo Opera (Il pirata and Adriana Lecouvreur), Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Florence), Teatro dell’Opera (Rome), Teatro La Fenice (Venice), Arena di Verona, Teatro di San Carlo (Naples), Teatro Regio (Parma), Teatro Comunale (Bologna), Opéra royal de Wallonie (Liège), Wexford and Macerata Festivals. His most recent successful performances include Il trovatore (Ferrando) at Macerata Festival, La bohème (Colline) in Liège, Turandot (Timur) and La Cenerentola (Alidoro) in Pavia, Brescia, Cremona and Como, L’elisir d’amore (Dulcamara) at Teatro Coccia in Novara. Recent and future engagements include: Maria Stuarda (Talbot) at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Il trovatore (Ferrando) in Bari and in Japan, Ernani at Teatro alla Scala, La bohème (Colline) in Marseille and Naples, Adriana Lecouvreur in Marseille, at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and at Teatro alla Scala, La traviata and La Cenerentola (Alidoro) at Teatro alla Scala, I masnadieri at Teatro alla Scala and at Savonlinna Festival, La forza del Destino (Marchese di Calatrava) at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, La bohème and Tosca in Napoli and Bari, Cecilia by Licinio Refice in Cagliari.