Cinzia Forte - Soprano

Lyric coloratura soprano, Cinzia Forte is praised by international critics for the uncommon elegance of her phrasing and remarkable stage presence. Mrs. Forte is present on the billboards of the main Italian and European theaters such as the Teatro alla Scala, the San Carlo in Naples, The Fenice in Venice, Teatro Comunale in Bologna, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Opera in Rome, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, the ROH Covent Garden, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Liceu in Barcelona, the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, the Zurich Opera House, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysees in Paris, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Teatro Real in Madrid. Cinzia Forte has lately added important roles to her repertoire: La contessa d’Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro (Liège), Anna Bolena (title role, in Trieste), and Desdemona in Otello (Pisa, Cagliari). Mrs Forte has recently opened the Teatro San Carlo Season singing La Traviata, Michele Mariotti conducting and Ferzan Ozpetek directing.

Future plans include: Donizetti’s Il Furioso all'Isola di Santo Domingo at the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo and on tour in Italy; La Gazzetta and Fidelio in Liège.

Francesco Cilluffo - conductor

Conductor and composer, he graduated from the Turin Conservatoire, the Guildhall School of Music and King’s College in London. He has worked as assistant conductor at the Chicago Lyric Opera, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Copenhagen Opera, the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg and the Teatro la Fenice in Venice. Among his most notable appearances as conductor: a gala concert at the Scottish Opera in Glasgow, Le Nozze di Figaro at the Byblos Festival, The Servant by Tutino at the Teatro Rossini in Lugo, Mozart’s Requiem with the Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde at the Festival della Valle d’Itria, concerts with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Santiago de Chile, Zemlinsky’s Der König Kandaules at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. Among his compositions: the opera Il caso Mortara, premiered in New York in 2010, the choral cantata Voci di tenebra azzurra (Festival della Valle d’Itria, 2011) and the song cycle for soprano and string orchestra The Land to Life Again (Festival Incontri in Terre di Siena and UCLA Los Angeles, 2012). Mr. Cilluffo recently conducted a new production of Il Trovatore for the AsLiCo on tour in Northern Italy’s historical theaters; a concert tour with the Orchestra del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari (music by Mozart and Rossini) in several towns in Sardinia.

He will open the 2013-2014 season of the Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi with Cilea’s L’Arlesiana. He will then conduct Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana at the Nuovo Teatro Comunale in Sassari and a new production of Rossini’s Tancredi for the Circuito Lirico Lombardo (touring in the theaters of Pavia, Cremona, Como and Brescia), featuring the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali. As part of a 3-year project dedicated to the voice and the orchestra with the Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino, he will conduct Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony in Turin.