Serena Daolio - soprano

Winner of numerous international lyric contests such as Viñas in Barcelona and the Renato Bruson Contest in Parma, Serena Daolio made her debut in 2001 as Violetta in La Traviata in Cesena. One year later, she performed in Iphigénie en Aulide at the Teatro alla Scala under Riccardo Muti, thus beginning an international career that brought her to important international stages. Among her successful appearances, it is worth mentioning: Carmen (Micaëla) at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Turandot (Liù) with the Israel Philarmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv, Zubin Mehta conducting; Cordelia in Cagnoni’s Re Lear at the Martina Franca Festival (CD released by Dynamic); Suor Angelica in Il Trittico in Messina; Magda in La Rondine in Palermo with the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana; Madama Butterfly under Paolo Olmi. More recently, Serena Daolio gained great success as Mimì in La Bohème in Naples and in Lübeck; Nedda in I Pagliacci at the Teatro Regio in Parma; Liù in Turandot in Florence, Zubin Metha conducting; Desdemona in Otello in Cagliari, where she also sang Verdi’s Requiem and Mendelssohn’s Symphony n.2 “Lobgesang”. She sang Verdi’s Requiem also at the Anima Mundi Festival in Pisa, under Aldo Ceccato. She made her debut as Leonora in Il Trovatore in Como and at the Kiel Opera. Plans include revivals of La Bohème in Lübeck.

Cristina Melis - mezzo

Winner of the International Lyric Contest “Giacomo Lauri Volpi” and the International Contest “Giuseppe Verdi” in Parma, Cristina Melis debuted as Azucena in Il Trovatore in Parma. In the past seasons she performed in Ravel’s L’Enfant et Sortileges under Yves Abel in Palermo, where she also starred in Schumann’s Manfred  and in La Gioconda (La Cieca). It is worth mentioning her collaboration with the Arena in Verona, where she sang in Carmen, Traviata, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and in a series of concerts on tour in Europe (Madrid, London, Brussels, Berlin, Düsseldorf). She made her debut as Cenerentola (title role) and as Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri at the Teatro Regio in Turin, as Carmen in Bergamo, as Azucena in Il Trovatore and Amneris in Aida in Parma, Fenena in Nabucco on tour in Italy. Cristina Melis also starred in Il Trovatore and Madama Butterfly at the Opera in Kiel, El Amor Brujo in Cagliari, Evgenij Onegin and Bruckner’s Te Deum in Bologna, Rossini’s Stabat Mater in Reggio Emilia, Beethoven’s Mass in C major in Pisa, Cavalleria Rusticana in Florence, Luisa Miller in Liège. Mrs. Melis collaborated with such conductors as Armiliato, Arrivabeni, R. Abbado, Jurowski, Bartoletti, Gatti, Wilson, Dinic, Campanella, Rizzi, Carella, De Bernart, Oren, Conlon, Mariotti, Kovatchev and directors such as De Ana, Zeffirelli, Micheli, Sammaritani, Pier’Alli, Trelinski.

Plans include : Carmen (title role), Eugene Onegin (Olga), Rienzi (Adriano) and Nabucco (Fenena) at the Opernhaus in Kiel; Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater at the Festival Anima Mundi in Pisa.

Gianluca Buratto – bass

A noble and round voice, Gianluca Buratto is rapidly establishing himself as one of his most versatile basses of his generation. Amongst his past successes: Macbeth with Muti at the Salzburg Festival, Rome and Chicago; Solbiati’s La Leggenda (world première) in Turin with Noseda; Le Nozze di Figaro (Bartolo) in Barcelona with Rousset; L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Seneca) at the Innsbruck Festival; La Bohème (under the baton of Chailly) and I Due Foscari in Valencia; Macbeth at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan; Rota’s Mysterium at the Vatican City, in Naples and Milan (where the concerts were recorded by Decca); Rigoletto in Genoa under Luisi; Handel’s Rinaldo and Admeto at the Theater an der Wien; Rota’s Il cappello di paglia di Firenze and I Puritani in Florence; Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques in Nancy and Paris; La Bohème at the Terme di Caracalla in Rome and in Amsterdam.

Future plans: Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Caronte and Plutone) and Vespro della Beata Vergine with the Monteverdi Choir and John Eliot Gardiner on tour in the Unites States (New York, San Francisco, Washington, Costa Mesa, Chapel Hill) and then in London (BBC Proms) and Versailles; Rigoletto at the Festival Internacional de Musica de Bogotà and at the Sferisterio Opera Festival in Macerata; Die Zauberflöte in Liège and in Charleroi; Le Duc d’Albe in London for Opera Rara; La Bohème in Palermo; Turandot in Montpellier; I Due Foscari in Amsterdam. Gianluca Buratto will sing again Mysterium at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari.

Gianluigi Gelmetti – conductor

Music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo.

Conductor and composer, Gianluigi Gelmetti, is one of today’s most prestigious conductors. Since his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Italian conductor regularly appears on the podium of the world’s most important opera houses and festivals. M° Gelmetti was Principal Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra for ten years and Music Director of the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome from 2000 to 2009; he was Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He also regularly works at the at the Royal Opera House - Covent Garden as well as in the most important theaters in the world. In Italy he performed many works by Rossini at Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, thus receiving the Rossini d’Oro Prize for his Guillaume Tell. M° Gelmetti was honored with the title of “Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et lettres” in France and appointed “Cavaliere di Gran Croce” in Italy.

Among his past engagements, it is worth mentioning: Falstaff, Francesca da Rimini, Mefistofele, L’Amica and Das Rheingold at the Opéra in Monte Carlo; Guillaume Tell in Zurich; La Forza del Destino in Parma, where he also conducted Un Ballo in Maschera at the Verdi Festival; Les Vêpres Siciliennes in Naples; Turandot in Tokyo; Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Toulouse; La Fanciulla del West in Liège; numerous symphonic concerts in Berlin and Copenhagen. M° Gelmetti recently conducted La Traviata and Mozart’s Requiem in Trieste, where in the past seasons he conducted La Clemenza di Tito, Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Un Ballo in Maschera. He recently obtained a great success conducting Guillaume Tell in Monte Carlo and in Paris (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées).