José Fardilha - Don Pasquale

Since embracing in recent years the buffo repertoire, José Fardilha is quickly becoming one of its most sought after interpreters.

Born in Portugal, he won the "Toti dal Monte" Prize, that led him to make his debut in Don Giovanni (Leporello) in Treviso, Rovigo, Strasbourg and Trieste.

After that he began a carrer that brought him in the world's greatest opera houses and festivals, including: Wiener Staatsoper; Salzburger Festspiele; Barbican Center in London; Opéra de Paris; Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin; Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich; Zurich Opernhaus; Teatro alla Scala in Milan; Teatro Regio in Turin; Teatro La Fenice in Venice; Teatro del Maggio Musicale in Florence; Arena Sferisterio in Macerata; Martina Franca Festival; Teatro São Carlos in Lisbon and New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv.

Plans include: Don Pasquale in Leipzig and at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Le Nozze di Figaro in Toulouse; La Damnation de Faust in Berlin; Il Barbiere di Siviglia in London and Stuttgart.

Corrado Rovaris - conductor*

Music Director of the Philadelphia Opera Company
Principal Guest Conductor of I Virtuosi Italiani
Music Director at the Artosphere Festival Orchestra.

After his debut with Galuppi’s Il filosofo di campagna for the AsLiCo circuit in Italy, he initially devoted himself to the baroque repertoire, getting later close to composers such as Mozart, Haydn, Paisiello, Rossini, Donizetti, Bizet, Verdi, Puccini. Corrado Rovaris has conducted at the Santa Fe Opera Festival, the Japan Opera Foundation, the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca and the Festival Pergolesi Spontini in Jesi. Mr. Rovaris also collaborated with the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, the Orchestra del Maggio Fiorentino in Florence, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi in Milan. Mr. Rovaris participated in two significant developments in the past seasons. M° Rovaris instigated and conducted the Spanish premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s one-act masterpiece Ainadamar; the production by Mexican director Luis de Tavira was presented at the Alhambra Palace for the Granada Festival and was then revived at the Santander Festival. Mr. Rovaris recently conducted Powder her face by Adès and Nabucco in Philadelphia; the first modern performance of Spontini’s cantata Gott segne den König at the Pergolesi Spontini Festival in Jesi; Mozart’s La Betulia Liberata in Wroclaw; Don Pasquale in Santa Fe; Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Opera Company in Philadelphia; Roberto Devereux in Toronto; symphonic concerts at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari.

With the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai he recorded Nino Rota’s cello concertos and the recording of Pizzetti’s cello concerto will be soon released for Sony Classical.

Future plans include: Don Carlo, L’Elisir d’amore, Turandot, Tancredi as well as Schynder’s Charlie Parker’s Yardbird and Higdon’s Cold mountain at the Philadelphia Opera Company; La Traviata at Opéra de Lausanne; Lucia di Lammermoor at the Opéra national de Lorraine in Nancy; Garcia’s Don Quichotte and a Symphonic concert in Oviedo and a series of concerts at the Artosphere Festival.

*Company debut