Haendel Giulio Cesare in Egitto

Since 2019, Gianluca Capuano has been musical director of Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco. In Milan, his hometown, he graduated in organ, composition and conducting at the Conservatory, studied early music performance at the Scuola Civica and graduated with honours in theoretical philosophy at the Università Statale. He dedicates himself to research in the field of musical aesthetics. In 2006 he founded “Il Canto di Orfeo”, an ensemble dedicated to European Baroque masterpieces, which he conducted for, among others, the Milano Arte Musica Festival (2017) and La morte d’Abel at the Salzburg Festival (2019), La clemenza di Tito on tour (2022) and at the Salzburg Easter Festival (2023) with Cecilia Bartoli and the Musiciens du Prince-Monaco. In 2016, he conducted Norma with Cecilia Bartoli at the Edinburgh Festival, in Paris and Baden Baden. Since then, many collaborations with Cecilia Bartoli and Les Musiciens du Prince: La Cenerentola in Monte Carlo, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Versailles, Luxembourg; Il turco in Italia in Monte Carlo; Ariodante, La donna del lago, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Alcina and a series of concerts at the Salzburg Festival; La clemenza di Tito in Lucerne; La Cenerentola, Il turco in Italia and a Gala Concert at the Vienna Staatsoper ; L’italiana in Algeri at the Zurich Opera; a series of concerts in the most important venues of Europe. Other engagements, are worth mentioning: Catone in Utica, Gli uccellatori, Il matrimonio segreto, Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno in Cologne; Idomeneo and Alcina at the Maggio Musicale in Florence; Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome; Guillaume Tell at the Chorégies d’Orange; Il matrimonio segreto in Amsterdam; Il barbiere di Siviglia in Palermo; Mozart’s Requiem in Bari; Orlando Paladino, La Cenerentola, Iphigénie en Tauride in Zurich; , Ariodante and Le nozze di Figaro in Moscow; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in Lucerne; Il turco in Italia in Munich; L’elisir d’amore, Don Pasquale and Il barbiere di Siviglia in Vienna. He conducted the first two CDs in Decca's "Mentored by Bartoli" collection, Contrabbandista with tenor Javier Camarena and Rhapsody with mezzo-soprano Varduhi Abrahamyan. In 2022, he won the Premio Abbiati, Italy's most prestigious musical award, as best conductor of the year.

Born in Turin, Davide Livermore has been active as an opera and prose director since 1999. In his brilliant and eclectic career he has also worked as a set designer, costume designer, lighting designer, choreographer, screenwriter, actor and teacher, as well as performing as a singer in the most important theatres in the world alongside Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Mirella Freni. From 2002 to 2020 he has been Artistic Director of the CineTeatro Baretti in Turin, outpost of cultural militancy. As a pupil of Carlo Majer, he is a staunch supporter of public theatre and of the function of social promotion of culture. In 2013 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, where he became, in January 2015, Superintendent and Artistic Director. He is the creator of Les Arts Volant, a mobile theatre on a truck on tour that has brought the opera for free to the Comunidad Valenciana for over 50,000 people. Among his most recent works: Idomeneo conducted by Fabio Biondi; Un ballo in maschera at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow; Manon Lescaut for the San Carlo of Naples. In 2017 he signed Tamerlano, his first direction for La Scala in Milan, which was followed by Don Pasquale, while the production of Aida in 2018 at the Sydney Opera House opened a next long collaboration with the Australian theatre. Adriana Lecouvreur inaugurated the 2017/18 season at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, winning the Prix de la Critique de l’Europe Francophone. He inaugurated La Scala 2018/19 season with Attila, and the 2019/20 one with Tosca. In Milan follow even the production of Macbeth, La Gioconda and Les Contes d’Hoffmann. On 7 December 2020, to replace the premiere of Lucia di Lammermoor (cancelled due to the Covid19 epidemic), he inaugurated the season of La Scala with the direction of a great concert/event, the first of its kind and live on TV worldwide.

Giò Forma was founded in 1998 by Florian Boje, Cristiana Picco and Claudio Santucci, to explore and experiment in all fields of design, but with a special attention towards architecture, concerts, events and stage design. Their multi-disciplinary spirit has fuelled them in creating iconic experiences beyond compare, propelling them on their multi-faceted ever-growing journey. The milanese studio works worldwide: Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sydney, Chicago and more. In recent years they have designed sets for numerous Operas with Davide Livermore in some of the most prestigious opera houses around the world, including Teatro alla Scala in Milan (for which they did, unprecedented, 4 premieres in a row), The Bolshoi in Moscow, The Sydney Opera House, The Barcelona Opera, The Opera House of Muscat (Oman), The São Paolo Opera House, The Monte Carlo Opera, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, San Carlo in Naples and many more. Through the years the studio has grown to become a multi-talented force. Even if stages have helped them to launch into the world, for Giò Forma, “Everything Is a Stage”; by this they mean that everything has the potential of becoming, a show, an emotional experience of pure magic. Giò Forma fills the gap between the viewer and what they are viewing through deeply meaningful storytelling; this formula is carried into the world of architecture, generating award-winning iconic designs like the Cartier “Legendary Thrill” pavilion (Milan), the Maraya Concert Hall (Oasis of Al’Ula, Saudi Arabia) and the world’s first Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).

Born in Turin, Mariana Fracasso has worked in the fashion industry for forty years. She designs collections ranging from sportswear to cars, participates in the design of haute couture fabrics, footwear, as well as working with major fashion brands such as Coccapani, Piacenza Cachemire, Max Mara, Casadei, Lancetti, Rocco Barocco and Ferrari, to name but a few. She was professor at the Istituto Europeo del Design from 2000 to 2004, and then moved to the field of car design, designing interior fittings for prototypes and cars for Bertone, Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia, as well as the “Popemobile” that was offered to Pope John Paul II. In 2012 she began working on stage productions, and has collaborated with major international theatres: Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Teatro Real in Madrid, Sydney Opera, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía de Valencia, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma for its summer season at the Baths of Caracalla, Royal Opera House in Muscat… In recent months she has worked on various productions, including Anna Bolena at Sydney Opera, Luisa Fernanda at Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, Norma and Tosca at the Teatro Bellini in Catania, La traviata and Doktor Faust at Maggio musicale fiorentino, Tamerlano (directed by Davide Livermore) and La Gioconda at La Scala. In March 2023 she joined Dolce & Gabbana as costume designer and coordinator for the film The O !.

Born in Cambil-Jaén, Andalusia, Antonio Castro began his career in lighting after training in electrical engineering and working as a lighting technician with Cánovas Theater in Málaga (Spain). After graduating with honors for his degree project, which consisted of a remodeling, design and lighting equipment of a stage, he joined several theatre companies as a technician on tours and later as a lighting designer for theatre, dance, and live music. He has worked with the School of Dramatic Arts, the Conservatory of Dance of Málaga and with Escénica (Andalusian Center for Performance Studies). Since 2006 he has been working at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía (Valencia Opera House), currently as the resident lighting designer, where he has worked with the best lighting designers, stage directors and companies. He also works as a freelance with other theatres. His achievements include designing lighting for the “Centre de Perfeccionament Palau de les Arts”, such as Le nozze di Figaro, Dido and Aeneas, L’incoronazione di Dario, Juditha Triumphans, Silla, Cafe Kafka, Bastien und Bastienne and Il tutore burlato. He has also worked on productions in numerous theatres including La bohème, Otello, Norma, Idomeneo, Tamerlano, Un ballo in maschera, Attila, Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Die Zauberflöte, Luisa Fernanda, Rigoletto, Idalma, La traviata, Giovanna d’Arco, Macbeth, La Gioconda, Aida, Les Contes d’Hoffmann and La forza del destino that was honoured with a 2014 Campoamor Award in the category of Best Opera Production in Spain. For the Opéra de Monte-Carlo he was the lighting designer for The Telephone and Amelia al ballo in the 2013/14 season.

We are D-Wok, an entertainment design company that develops creativity, performance, innovative formats for shows and events, and video design systems. For ten years our creative director Paolo Gep Cucco has worked with Davide Livermore, contributing to profound changes in the aesthetics of opera, producing four world premières of La Scala (Milan), and dozens of productions in the world’s most important theatres, from the Bolshoi (Moscow) to the Sydney Opera House and the Royal Opera House Muscat. Our fields of activity range from big events to shows, opera, concerts, museum tour, tv, where performance, technology and surfaces used become sensitive storytelling elements. We are a content production agency that develops multi-experiential systems with an emotional approach, devising innovative tailor-made communication strategies. We love to innovate: we have developed video design systems for shows and events including the digital sets for the entire Arena di Verona 2021 season, and produced technologies for the entertainment. Our custom-made AR system built on the Unreal engine is today the only software with cinematic quality in Italy, so much so that it was used by RAI for the world premiere of La Scala’s A riveder le stelle.

Born in Livorno (ltaly) in 1960, Stefano Visconti studied the piano and then choral conducting with Fosco Corti and Roberto Gabbiano, as well as orchestra conducting with Piero Bellugi and Giancarlo Andretta. He was appointed Choirmaster at Opéra de Monte-Carlo in 2007. Before this he was Choirmaster at the Teatro Goldoni, Livorno (1991-2001), Choirmaster at the Opéra-Théâtre d'Avignon (2001-2007), as well as Choirmaster at the Festival Puccini, Torre del Lago (1999-2015). From 1984 to 2001 he conducted the Guido Monaco Polychronic Choir of Livorno which, under his direction, won several national awards (Vittorio Veneto, Arezzo and Florence competitions). In 2000 he founded the Chamber Choir of Tuscany, formed of professionals. He directed the reconstitution of the complete sacred works of Giuseppe Cambini for soloists, choir, and orchestra. Since 2008 he has conducted the chairs of the Sanxay Lyrical Evenings. He is the artistic and music director of the Monte-Carlo Chamber Choir. He has made several recordings with Foné, Agora and Kikko Classics, in particular several of Mascagni's operas (L'amico Fritz, I Rantzau, Lodoletta, Guglielmo Ratcliff, Silvano, Cavalleria rusticana, Iris and Sì). Since 2017 he has directed the coordination of the chairs for the Festival des Chorégies d'Orange.

In just a few years, Carlo Vistoli has reached the firmament of countertenors on the biggest stages in the world. He seduces with the warm beauty of his timbre while impressing with technical means. Guitarist and pianist by training, Carlo Vistoli began his studies as a countertenor in 2007. In 2015, his entry into Le Jardin des Voix of Les Arts Florissants (William Christie) led to an acceleration of his career, with concerts all over the world. In 2017, he was selected by Sir John Eliot Gardiner for the roles of Umana Fragilità in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea for the gigantic Monteverdi 450 tour in Europe and the United States. The last two seasons were dazzling: La rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo at Theater an der Wien (Vienna), Il trionfo del Tempo at Paris Philharmonie and in Moscow, Orfeo ed Euridice (title role) by Gluck at Komische Oper in Berlin, Stabat Mater by Pergolesi alongside Cecilia Bartoli, L’Olimpiade with Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare at Paris Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Montpellier Opera, Ruggiero in Alcina in Florence, and Nerone at Berlin Staatsoper. During the 2023/24 season, he returns to Berlin to sing Farnace in Mozart’s Mitridate. He is again Orfeo in Carsen’s production of Gluck’s masterpiece in Valencia, sings the title role in Rinaldo on tour, as well as Giulio Cesare alongside Cecilia Bartoli. He will make his debut at San Francisco Opera with the role of Arsace in Partenope.

The mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli is one of the world’s leading classical artists with an outstanding and ongoing stage career that, so far, spans more than 30 years. Her work is inspired by her passion for re-discovering little-known music, and her profound interest in historically-informed performance practice. Her large-scale projects, which embrace various art forms, have brought her international recognition and led to prestigious managerial positions in Salzburg and Monte Carlo. A role model for future generations, Cecilia Bartoli can truly be said to have made musical history. Cecilia Bartoli always brings key aspects of her personality to her performances and projects: her musicianship, intellectual imagination and keen sense of theatre, together with her charisma, depth of feeling and great personal warmth. Born in Rome and educated by her mother, the singing teacher Silvana Bazzoni, Cecilia Bartoli was first discovered by Daniel Barenboim, Herbert von Karajan and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Each of the three helped to shape her fast-developing international career in a different way. Soon she began to perform with other leading conductors and prestigious orchestras in all the great opera houses and concert halls of North America, Europe, the Far East and Australia, and at many famous festivals. Her innovative investigations of neglected music have become a hallmark of her career, and have led to extensive concert tours, best-selling records, spectacular staged productions, original film projects and multimedia events. Since 2012 Cecilia Bartoli has been artistic director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival. At the start of 2023 she also took up the post of director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo: the first woman to hold this position in the company’s history. In 2016 her orchestra Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco was founded in Monte Carlo under the patronage of HSH Prince Albert II and HRH Princess Caroline of Hanover. Cecilia performs regularly with this period-instrument orchestra both at their homebase in Monte Carlo and on large-scale tours throughout Europe. Cecilia Bartoli’s repertoire focuses on the music of Rossini, Mozart, Handel and their contemporaries. Her extensive research into the vocal characteristics and roles of such legendary singers as Farinelli, Maria Malibran and Giuditta Pasta has also encouraged her to explore areas previously considered atypical for mezzo-sopranos. Milestones of her career include the first ever production of Rossini’s Cenerentola at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1997, the legendary Vivaldi Album which has sold millions of copies since its release in 1999, the Paris concert marathon on Maria Malibran’s 200th birthday in 2008, her radical new approach to Bellini’s Norma in 2013 – which led to a scholarly reconstruction of the original score – and, in 2022, a rapturously received week dedicated to Rossini at the Vienna State Opera. The Cecilia Bartoli – Music Foundation was created as part of Cecilia’s philanthropic work. It aims to establish collaborations with talented young musicians, and to bring classical music to a wider audience. Among other projects, the Foundation has set up a new record label in collaboration with Decca, mentored by Bartoli. Thanks to this initiative, wonderful artists such as Javier Camarena and Varduhi Abrahamyan have been able to record their first studio albums. Honorary doctorates, five Grammy Awards, more than a dozen ECHO Klassik and BRIT awards, the Polar Music Prize, the Léonie Sonning Music Prize, the Herbert von Karajan Music Prize and many other awards highlight Cecilia Bartoli’s importance in the world of culture and music. In this context, Europa Nostra – the European Voice of Civil Society Committed to Cultural Heritage – appointed Cecilia as their president. She took up this position for an initial term of five years in 2022.

Max Emanuel Cencic is one of the world’s most fascinating and versatile singing artists committed to the rediscovery and performance of 18th century music. He began his vocal training as a Viennese choirboy and began a solo career as a soprano as early as 1992, which he continued as a countertenor from 2001. With his virtuoso mezzo-soprano Max Emanuel Cencic shows how technically brilliant and at the same time modern and sensitive baroque singing can be. He has been on stage for more than 40 years, appearing worldwide at major opera houses such as the Vienna State Opera, the Musiktheater an der Wien, the Zurich Opera House, the Opéra Royal in Versailles, the Bavarian State Opera, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Barcelona’s Gran Teatro del Liceu, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Paris Opera and La Monnaie in Brussels. He has long since made a name for himself internationally as a director, for example with the live production of Hasse’s Siroe, which toured Europe and was released on CD by Decca. He has been artistic director of Bayreuth Baroque since 2020. The first editions of this new, spectacular festival were a huge success with audiences and the press. In the 2022/2023 season, the countertenor had outstanding projects in the pipeline, including his house debut at La Scala in Milan in Porpora’s Carlo il Calvo, which will also be presented in concert at the Konzerthaus Dortmund and simultaneously released as a CD (Parnassus Arts Productions).

One of today’s rare true altos, Sara Mingardo is a highly sought-after and greatly appreciated interpreter. She regularly works with conductors such as Rinaldo Alessandrini, Ivor Bolton, Riccardo Chailly, Myung Whun-Chung, Paul Daniel, Colin Davis, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Emmanuelle Haïm, Marc Minkowski, Riccardo Muti, Roger Norrington, Trevor Pinnock, Maurizio Pollini, Christophe Rousset, Jordi Savall, Peter Schreier and Jeffrey Tate and prestigious international orchestras: Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre national de France, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Monteverdi Choir & Orchestra, Concerto Italiano, Les Talens Lyriques and Academia Montis Regalis. Particularly intense and fruitful was her collaboration with Claudio Abbado, who chose and conducted her in important operas, concerts and recordings. Sara Mingardo studied with Franco Ghitti at the “Benedetto Marcello” Conservatory in Venice, her native town, and completed her studies with a scholarship at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. In 2001 she won two Grammys and in 2009, the Association of Italy’s Music Critics awarded her with the prestigious “Premio Abbiati”. Cornelia is one of her signature roles, which she portrayed at the Opéra de Paris, La Scala in Milan, and more recently at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Bozar in Brussels and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Kangmin Justin Kim was born in South Korea and grew up in Evanston, USA. He studied at the Northwestern University in Evanston and the Royal Academy of Music, London. His professional operatic debut in 2013 was quickly followed by performances as Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) for his Parisian debut at the Opéra-Comique, as Oreste (La Belle Hélène) at the Théâtre du Châtelet and as Sesto (La clemenza di Tito) in Montpellier. Highlights include the title role in the world premiere of M. Butterfly at the Santa Fe Opera, debuts at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), at the Dallas Opera as Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), at the Wiener Staatsoper (Das verratene Meer), at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Berlin) and the Opéra du Rhin as Nerone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), at the Theater an der Wien (Vienna) as Annio (La clemenza di Tito) and in Lausanne as Eustazio (Rinaldo). He also made role debuts as Witch (Hänsel und Gretel) in Wiesbaden, as Epitide (La Merope) at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Ottone (La Griselda), Hyacinthus (Apollo et Hyacinthus) and Gilade (Farnace) for Teatro La Fenice Venice and sang Nerone at the Salzburg Festival, New York Lincoln Center, Philharmonie Paris and Berlin, Edinburgh Festival and La Fenice. Performances of the 2023/24 season include Annio in a new production of La clemenza di Tito and Despina in (Così fan tutte) at the Staatsoper Hamburg; Ruggiero (Orlando furioso) for La Fenice.

A broad range of repertoire on leading international stages distinguishes Hungarian Péter Kálmán as one of the most dynamic bass-baritones today. Highly regarded for his engaging character portrayals in the Italian “buffo” tradition, he is no less accomplished in the dramatic roles of Bartók, Richard Strauss and Wagner. He has worked with the world’s most prestigious conductors including Christoph von Dohnányi, Ádám Fischer, Nello Santi, Stefan Soltész, Franz Welser-Möst, Jaap van Zweden, Marc Minkowski, Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Highlights of the recent past include La Cenerentola at the Seattle Opera, L’italiana in Algeri and Handel’s Semele at the Withsun Festival in Salzburg, Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Müpa in Budapest, Puccini’s Il trittico at La Monnaie (Brussels), Le Nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne, Schubert’s Fierrabras at the Salzburg Festspiele, Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Paris), Rossini’s Otello at the Opernhaus Zürich, Alcina at Monte Carlo Opera and Norma in a cast anchored by Cecilia Bartoli with performances in Paris, Baden-Baden and Monte Carlo. At the Hungarian State Opera (Budapest) where Péter Kálmán is a regular guest, he has performed Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, Herr von Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier, Sixtus Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, the four villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Scarpia in Tosca, and the title roles of Don Pasquale and Gianni Schicchi.