Nicola Alaimo - Belcore

“In that first scene, where Falstaff plots his seduction of the two wealthy Windsor wives, Alice Ford and Meg Page, his clean, refined baritone and elegant Italian phrasing effectively conveyed the subtle cunning of his character. There was something Mozartean about the gracefully placed notes, and fine dramatic judgment in the way he wove in falsetto and spoken words for comic effect”- New York Times, December 20^th

After his success as Falstaff , Nicola Alaimo returns to the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in Donizetti’s masterpiece as Belcore.

Future plans include: Guillaume Tell at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels Evelino Pidò conducting and in Monte Carlo; Falstaff  in Marseille, Ravenna (and on tour in Italy); Luisa Miller in Liège; Le Nozze di Figaro in Los Angeles; Simon Boccanegra (Paolo) at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona opposite Placido Domingo in the title role; L'Elisir d'Amore as Dottor Dulcamara in Berlin; La Cenerentola under the baton of Jean-Christophe Spinosi at the Salzburg Festival; Le Comte Ory (Raimbaud) and Falstaff at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan; Don Quichotte at the Lyric Opera in Chicago, Yannis Kokkos directing; Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Paris; Il Trovatore in Monte Carlo. Mr. Alaimo will also star in other important future productions at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Maurizio Benini - conductor

Regular guest at the Metropolitan Opera where he conducted more than 100 plays and where in 2011 opened the season conducting the new production of Le Comte Ory, Maurizio Benini future plans include important returning to the Royal Opera House in London (Faust, Rigoletto, Nabucco, Zazà), to the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (Maria Stuarda), to the Opéra de Montecarlo (Adriana Lecouvreur, and series of concert), Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse (Lucia di Lammermoor). Mr Benini will do his debut at the the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich conducting Il Turco in Italia, while in the following seasons he will return to New York conducting important productions.

Maurizio Benini was recently 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.