Angelo Villari - Maurizio Conte di Sassonia*

Angelo Villari won the first prize at the International Contest “Simone Alaimo, il Bel Canto” (2010)  and he was finalist at the Lyric Contest Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago and he won the role of Il Duca of Mantua in Rigoletto in the Contest “Il Bel canto nella Valle dei Templi” in Agrigento (Sicily). Amongst the roles he sang, it is worth mentioning: Canio in Pagliacci, Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana, Cavaradossi in Tosca and Alfredo in Traviata.  Angelo Villari recently performed: Cavalleria Rusticana in Lecce, Pagliacci in Malta, Attila(Foresto) in Rovereto. Among his most important successes in the past season, it is worth mentioning: Il Trovatore at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo, Madama Butterfly in Lübeck, LaTraviata in Malta, the main role in Ennio Porrino’s I Shardana at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, conducted by Anthony Bramall in a new production by Davide Livermore (also filmed in DVD by Dynamic). Mr Villari recently performed the main tenor role in Casella’s La donna serpente under Fabio Luisi for the opening of the Martina Franca Festival. In the next months he will sing Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari.

Plans include: Aida in Bergen; Rigoletto at the Festival Internacional de musica de Bogotà; Luisa Miller at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples; La Traviata at the Chorégies d'Orange; La Damnation de Faust at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège.

Matteo Macchioni - L’Abate di Chazeuil

Young and promising artist, he made his debut at the Teatro Verdi in Salerno as Nemorino in L’Elisir d’Amore under the baton of Daniel Oren; he then performed Il Conte d’Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Festival Internazionale in Stresa. Mr  Macchioni was a finalist at the “Pavarotti international voice competition” (2008) and at the Toti Dal Monte Contest in Treviso (2012). He recorded for the label Sugar. A member of the Opera Studio in Genoa, he performed such operas as Le Nozze di Figaro (Don Basilio), Madama Butterfly (Goro) and Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Almaviva) at the Teatro Carlo Felice. Last summer he starred in Il Viaggio a Reims (Libenskof) at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro and recently sang Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Almaviva) in Padua.

Francesco Vultaggio - Michonnet

Young and up and coming baritone Francesco Vultaggio attended the Accademia Rossiniana in Pesaro with Alberto Zedda and he is furthering his studies under the guidance of Simone Alaimo. Among his recent engagements, it is worth mentioning: Viaggio a Reims (Don Profondo) at the Rossini Opera Festival; Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali (W. Humburg conducting) and Le nozze di Figaro (Conte d’Almaviva) at the Teatro Bellini in Catania, L’elisir d’amore (Belcore and Dulcamara) in the AsLiCo circuit and in Trento, Il barbiere di Siviglia (Figaro) for the AsLiCo; Così fan tutte (Don Alfonso) in Liverpool; Il cappello di paglia di Firenze at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari. Plans include: La Bohème (Schaunard) at the Teatro Lirico in Verona.