Bach Christmas Oratorio

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. He is artistic director of the festival “Musica negli horti” in Val d’Orcia. He has been active as conductor, organist and continuist in Europe, the United States, Russia and Japan. 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. 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, Giulio Cesare, A German Requiem and Their Master’s Voice 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 in Vienna; L’italiana in Algeri in Zurich; a series of concerts in the most important squares in 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; Pigmalione/Che originali! at the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo; Le metamorfosi di Pasquale at La Fenice in Venice; La finta giardiniera in Winterthur, Zurich and Amsterdam; Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine in Cremona; L’elisir d’amore and the Weinachtsoratorium in Hamburg; 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; Il maestro di cappella and Il segreto di Susanna in Genoa; Ariodante and Le nozze di Figaro in Moscow; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in Lucerne; Il turco in Italia in Munich; L’elisir d’amore in Vienna. He also collaborates with I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano, the orchestra of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Philarmonisches Orchester Kiel and Concerto Köln.

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 Polyphonic 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 choirs 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 choirs for the Chorégies d’Orange festival.

Swiss soprano Regula Mühlemann has established herself as one of her generation’s most important voices. Equally at home on the operatic and concert stages, she is acclaimed by audiences and critics alike for her exceptionally beautiful timbre and sensitive performances. For her shows in the Salzburg Festival’s 2022 production of The Magic Flute, The Telegraph hailed: “Regula Mühlemann is outstanding as a radiant Pamina.” Mühlemann opens the 2024/25 season with Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony in Aarau. She performs this work with Roberto González-Monjas and the Belgian National Orchestra, with the Marseille Philharmonic under the baton of Michele Spotti, as well as on tour with Theodor Currentzis and the Utopia Orchestra. She will also be heard as Mater Gloriosa in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony “Symphony of a Thousand” at the Vienna Konzerthaus. The soprano will be touring with the Basel Chamber Orchestra to present a Bel canto program. She will debut with the Balthasar Neumann Orchestra in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, with concerts in Hamburg, Madrid, Barcelona and Luxembourg. She will star in a Christmas gala at the Stadtcasino Basel, join the Lucerne Festival with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and perform Bach’s Cantata No. 51 “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen”. Her enchanting recitals can be heard at the Zürich Opera House and in Bern. The 2024/25 operatic season includes Adina in L’elisir d’amore at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier at the Berlin Staatsoper and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Anglo-French Anna Stéphany was born in the northeast of England and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and the National Opera Studio (London). She represented England at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and is a Kathleen Ferrier Award winner, as well as a former member of the Zurich Opera ensemble (2012-15). One of her most coveted roles is Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, which she sang at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the Royal Swedish Opera, and for which made her house debut at the Royal Opera House (London). Notable appearances elsewhere have included Prince Charmant (Cendrillon) for the Opéra national de Paris, Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) for Semperoper Dresden and the Royal Opera House, and Sesto (Giulio Cesare) for the Glyndebourne Festival and the Opéra de Rouen. She has sung in concert with some of the world’s finest orchestras and period instrument ensembles, in repertory ranging from Bach to Judith Weir, and recorded for CD and DVD. In the 2023-24 season Anna sang Idamante (Idomeneo) in her Berlin Staatsoper debut, returned to the Royal Opera House as Hänsel (Hänsel and Gretel) conducted by Mark Wigglesworth, and reprised the role of Cherubino at the Semperoper Dresden. In concert she sang Bruckner’s Te Deum with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann, Mendelssohn’s Elijah conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev and Masses by Haydn with RIAS Kammerchor and the Freiburger Barockorchester conducted by Justin Doyle.

The singer and composer Daniel Behle was honoured as Singer of the Year in 2020 for his MoZart recording with Opus Klassik. He is equally successful in concert, lieder and opera and made his highly praised and much-acclaimed debut as Lohengrin at the beginning of 2020. His repertoire ranges from baroque masterpieces to classical and romantic repertoire to compositions of the 20th and 21st centuries. In 2024, the tenor received the German Record Critics’ Honour Award in the Classical category for his life’s work. His 2023/24 season had several highlights in store, including Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, Schoenberg’s Die Jakobsleiter with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Kirill Petrenko, the Missa Solemnis at the Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival and at the Paris Philharmonie as well as his baroque aria concert Kings of Bravura at the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival. Opera engagements took him to the Salzburg Festival in the title role of La clemenza di Tito, to the Amsterdam Opera (Lohengrin), La Scala in Milan and the Vienna State Opera as Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) as well as to the Royal Opera House in London as Ferrando (Così fan tutte). Important opera engagements in recent years have taken him to the Royal Opera House (Don Giovanni), the Stuttgart State Theatre (Der Freischütz, Lohengrin), the Zurich Opera House (Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Arabella), the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (Arabella, Giuditta) and the Bayreuth Festival (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tannhäuser). Behle is also increasingly making a name for himself as a composer.

With his strong baritone voice, exuberant stage presence, and charismatic personality, Turkish baritone Kartal Karagedik captivates audiences both on the opera stage and in concerts. He has achieved success in over 40 leading roles throughout Europe. Known for his artistic versatility, he has garnered acclaim in a wide range of roles, including Conte Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Renato (Un ballo in maschera), Lescaut (Manon Lescaut), Marcello (La bohème), Dandini (La Cenerentola), Chorèbe (Les Troyens), and the title role in Eugene Onegin. In the 2023/24 season, he portrayed Zurga in Les Pêcheurs de perles at Opera Vlaanderen, as well as Enrico at Hamburg State Opera, where he also reprised one of his signature roles: Marquis de Posa in Don Carlos (five-act French version). Additionally, he took on the role of Frère Léon in Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Grand Théâtre in Geneva. His concert schedule for this season included a special Schubert recital with Helmut Deutsch on the piano in Antwerp and Istanbul, which provided the basis for a CD recording in May 2024. On the concert stage, he performed Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with Eliahu Inbal at the Elbphilharmonie, the Kindertotenlieder at the Mahler Festwochen in Toblach with Munich Symphony Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Brucknerhaus Linz. Since the 2015/16 season, Kartal Karagedik has been a resident artist at the Hamburg State Opera. In addition to his singing career, he is also a celebrated and award-winning photographer.