Marianna Pizzolato - Elisabetta*

Marianna Pizzolato made her debut at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro with Il Viaggio a Reims, becoming a reference performer for the main Rossini roles, as well as for Baroque and eighteenth century’s repertoire; she is now considered one of the foremost voices of our time. Mrs. Pizzolato sang in the most prestigious theaters in the world under conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Antonio Pappano, Alberto Zedda, Bruno Campanella and Daniele Gatti, just to name a few. Recent engagements include her debut with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai singing Verdi’s Requiem, for the opening concert of the season; Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Naples; Rota’s Mysterium in Rome and Naples; La Donna del Lago in Santa Fe;  La Cenerentola in Sevilla; Petite Messe Solennelle in Lucerne; Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo; Verdi’sRequiem at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig.

Plans include:  L’Italiana in Algeri in Toulouse; Tancredi in Santiago de Chile; Mozart’s Requiem at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome;. After her successful return to Japan last March for a recital, she will back to Tokyo performing a solo concert in 2015, while in 2016 she will make her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Mrs Pizzolato will return to Barcelona singing Nabucco.

Maurizio Benini - conductor

After his debut at Teatro Comunale in Bologna, he started a career at the highest levels with many commitments in Bel Canto and Verdi's repertoire in such theaters as the Paris Opera, the Staatsoper in Vienna, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Liceu in Barcelona, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Metropolitan Opera, the Chicago Lyric Opera, the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, the La Fenice in Venice and in festivals such as the Glyndebourne Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy. Many are his recordings with the Opera Rara label and with Deutsche Grammophon. The Italian Maestro was the Principal Conductor at the Filarmonici del Teatro Comunale di Bologna between 1984 and 1991, at the Wexford Festival from 1995 to 1997, at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile until 2006; more recently he was principal guest conductor at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples.

M° Benini has recently conducted the Metropolitan Opera premiere of Rossini's Le Comte Ory, followed by Il Barbiere di Siviglia and L'Elisir d'Amore; Stiffelio at the Opéra in Monte Carlo; Tosca and Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London; Lucia di Lammermoor at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse; L’Elisir d’Amore at the Metropolitan in New York; Il Turco in Italia in Munich.

Plans include: productions at the Opéra de Montecarlo (Adriana Lecouvreur, La Wally); at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse (Lucia di Lammermoor); at the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest (Faust); at the Dutch National Opera (Il Trovartore); at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla (Norma and symphonic concert). In the following seasons he will return to the ROH in London conducting Nabucco and Zazà and in New York involved in important productions.

Maurizio Benini was awarded by the most important critics of Spanish musical magazines and newspapers as best conductor of the season (2012) thanks his interpretation of Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur staged at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.