Carlo Montanaro (born in Cecina) is an Italian violinist and conductor. He concentrates on Italian operas from Bel canto to verismo and also conducts selected works from the French repertoire.
Montanaro completed his violin studies at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Florence and began his musical career with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 1991. He was discovered and promoted by Zubin Mehta, came to the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where he studied conducting with Leopold Hager, Ervin Acél and Takuo Yuasa for three years.
Since 2001 he has been a guest at numerous opera houses worldwide:
From 2011 to 2014 he worked as music director at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw. [1]
He also regularly undertakes concert engagements, again focusing on works from the Italian repertoire, such as Verdi's Requiem. He gave guest performances at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, at the Herkulessaal in Munich and at the Musikverein für Steiermark in Graz.
José Luis Victor Cura Gómez is an Argentine operatic tenor, conductor, director, scenographer and photographer known for intense and original interpretations of opera characters, notably Otello in Verdi’s Otello, Samson in Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila, Canio in Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Stiffelio in Giuseppe Verdi's Stiffelio and many others.
Keri-Lynn Wilson is a Canadian conductor of operatic and symphonic repertoire. She is the founder and music director of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra.
Andrea Gruber is an American dramatic soprano particularly admired for her interpretations of the works of Puccini, Verdi, and Wagner.
Roberto Abbado is an Italian opera and symphonic music conductor. Currently he is an Artistic Partner of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In 2015 he has been appointed music director of Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. From 2018 he's Music Director of the Festival Verdi in Parma. Previously he held the position of Chief Conductor of Münchner Rundfunkorchester.
Alan Donald Woodrow is a Canadian operatic tenor.
Joan Pons Álvarez is a Spanish operatic baritone, known internationally as Juan Pons. He is most famous for his Verdi roles.
Arturo Chacón Cruz is a Mexican American operatic tenor. A winner of the Operalia competition in 2005, he went on to sing leading roles at many North American opera theatres, including Los Angeles Opera, Washington National Opera, San Francisco Opera, Carnegie Hall, and Houston Grand Opera. He has also appeared in many European opera houses, including the Teatro Real in Madrid, La Fenice in Venice, Bolshoi Theatre, Arena di Verona, Teatro alla Scala, the Theater an der Wien in Vienna and the Berlin State Opera.
Rolando Panerai was an Italian baritone, particularly associated with the Italian repertoire. He performed at La Scala in Milan, often alongside Maria Callas and Giuseppe Di Stefano. He was known for musical understanding, excellent diction and versatile acting in both drama and comic opera. Among his signature roles were Ford in Verdi's Falstaff and the title role of Puccini's Gianni Schicchi.
Alessandro Siciliani is an Italian conductor of opera and symphonic music. He is also a composer of symphonic music. Siciliani was born in Florence, Italy, the son of Ambra and Francesco Siciliani, the celebrated opera impresario. Siciliani currently resides in Columbus, Ohio, where he was the music director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra from 1992 to 2004.
Juan Francisco Gatell (born November 28, 1978, in La Plata, Argentina Juan Francisco Gatell is an Argentinian operatic tenor who specialises in the bel canto repertoire.
Luca Canonici is an Italian opera singer who has had an active career singing leading tenor roles both in Europe and his native Italy.
Andrzej Dobber is a Polish baritone, honored with the title of Kammersänger by the Senate of the City of Hamburg and awarded the silver medal for Merit to Culture - Gloria Artis by the Polish Minister of Culture.
Ștefan Pop is a Romanian operatic tenor. He is considered among today's leading lyric tenors and he is best known for bel canto repertoire. He has won several prizes including, in 2010, Plácido Domingo's Operalia competition and the Seoul International Music Competition.
Michele Mariotti, born in 1979 in Urbino, near Pesaro, is an Italian conductor, the direttore musicale since 2014 of Teatro Comunale di Bologna. A graduate in composition of Pesaro's Conservatorio Rossini, where he also studied orchestral conducting, he made his professional opera debut with Il barbiere di Siviglia in Salerno on Oct. 12, 2005. As of April 2017, his repertory included nine Rossini and eight Verdi operas, an extraordinary achievement, as well as symphonies of Beethoven, Bruckner and Schubert, the Rossini Stabat mater, the Mozart Requiem and the Verdi Requiem.
Giacomo Sagripanti is an Italian conductor, born January 28, 1982, in Giulianova, Abruzzo. He specializes in opera and symphonic music.
Rafał Siwek is a Polish opera singer (bass).
Svetla Vassileva is a Bulgarian opera singer (soprano).
Liane Synek was an Austrian operatic soprano. She made a career based in Germany, at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, the Staatsoper Berlin and the Cologne Opera, and appeared at international major opera houses and festivals, such as the Bayreuth Festival. She appeared mostly in dramatic roles such as Beethoven's Fidelio, and Wagner's Sieglinde, Brünnhilde and Isolde. She also performed in contemporary operas, creating the role of Countess de la Roche in Zimmermann's Die Soldaten in Cologne in 1965, conducted by Michael Gielen.
Heinz Imdahl was a German operatic baritone. A member of the Bavarian State Opera, he performed many leading roles at the Vienna State Opera, and appeared as Beethoven's Pizarro at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and Wagner's Hans Sachs at the Philadelphia Opera.
Fabio Sartori is an Italian operatic tenor. He is particularly known for his interpretations of Italian roles by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini and of the Verismo.