The Venice Biennale refers to an arts organization based in Venice and the name of the original and principal biennial exhibition the organization presents. The organization changed its name to the Biennale Foundation in 2009, while the exhibition is now called the Art Biennale to distinguish it from the organisation and other exhibitions the Foundation organizes.
Natalina "Lina" Cavalieri was an Italian operatic soprano, actress, and monologist.
Patrizia Ciofi is an Italian operatic coloratura soprano.
Sumi Jo, OSI is a Grammy Award-winning South Korean lyric coloratura soprano known for her interpretations of the bel canto repertoire.
Ferruccio Tagliavini was an Italian operatic tenor mainly active in the 1940s and 1950s. Tagliavini was hailed as the heir apparent to Tito Schipa and Beniamino Gigli in the lyric-opera repertory due to the exceptional beauty of his voice, but he did not sustain his great early promise across the full span of his career.
Adelaide di Borgogna, ossia Ottone, re d'Italia is a two-act opera composed by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Giovanni Schmidt. It was premièred at the Teatro Argentina in Rome on 27 December 1817.
Emmanuel Villaume is a French orchestra conductor. He is music director of the Dallas Opera and chief conductor of the Prague Philharmonia.
Michael Maniaci is an American opera singer. Possessing a male soprano voice, Maniaci is noted for his claim to be able to sing into the upper soprano range without resorting to falsetto, an otherwise common phonation for men who sing in high registers, such as countertenors. Although this was possible for castrati because of the hormonal imbalance following castration, Maniaci claims that, for some unknown reason, his larynx did not develop and lengthen completely during puberty, causing his voice not to "break" in the usual manner. Maniaci claims that this physical particularity has given him the ability to sing in the soprano register without sounding like a typical countertenor or a female singer. There are, however, critics who claim that Maniaci actually sings in falsetto.
Franco Capuana was an Italian conductor.
Ippolito ed Aricia is a "reform opera" in five acts by Tommaso Traetta with an Italian libretto by Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni. The opera is based upon abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin's libretto for Rameau's earlier opera Hippolyte et Aricie, which was in turn based on Racine's tragedy Phèdre. The opera premiered at the Teatro Ducale in Parma on May 9, 1759 and is still occasionally performed by opera companies today.
Salvatore Fisichella is an Italian operatic tenor known for his roles in bel canto operas, especially those of Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini. He has been recognized for the ease and vocal brilliance of his singing, and for having sung more of the leading roles in Bellini's operas than any other 20th century tenor.
Francesco Meli is an Italian operatic tenor particularly associated with the bel canto repertoire. He began his vocal studies at age 17 with Norma Palacios at the Conservatorio di Musica "Niccolò Paganini" in Genoa. He later became a pupil of mezzo-soprano Franca Mattiucci. In 2002 he debuted in Verdi's Macbeth and as the tenor soloist in Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle and Puccini's Messa di Gloria, broadcast by RAI from the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. He has gone on to sing leading roles in La Scala, The Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Regio di Torino, London's Royal Opera House, Opéra National de Lyon, Zurich Opera, and the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. In 2017, he will make his debut as Verdi's Don Carlo at La Scala and as Radames in Salzburg next to Anna Netrebko's Aida.
Il re is a novella or opera in one act and three scenes by composer Umberto Giordano to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. The opera premiered at La Scala in Milan on 12 January 1929.
Mese mariano is an opera in one act by Umberto Giordano. Its Italian libretto by Salvatore Di Giacomo was adapted from his play 'O Mese Mariano, which was in turn adapted from his novella, Senza vederlo. It premiered at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo on 17 March 1910. The opera is described as a bozzetto lirico and has a running time of 35 minutes. It tells the story of a woman who visits an orphanage to see her child. Racked with guilt at having abandoned him, she is unaware that he had died the night before.
Birgit Nordin is a Swedish opera soprano.
Anna Bonitatibus is an Italian mezzo-soprano. She comes from the Basilicata region and debuted at La Scala in 1999.
The Victoires de la musique classique are an annual French classical music award event founded in 1986. The awards are the classical equivalent of the popular music awards Victoires de la Musique and the Victoires du Jazz. Most of the awards are for actual performers, orchestras, composers, etc. as opposed to the Diapason d'Or given to recordings - though there is an Enregistrement français de musique classique de l'année.
Jessica Pratt is an operatic soprano. Born in Bristol, England, she has lived in Australia since 1991 and is the daughter of a tenor. She began by studying the trumpet for ten years before concentrating her studies on singing.
Elena Moșuc is a Romanian operatic soprano.
