Gianluca Buratto - Sparafucile

A noble and round voice, Gianluca Buratto is rapidly establishing himself as one of his most versatile basses of his generation, being equally at home with baroque, classical, belcanto, romantic and XXth century music. He had just starred in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Vespers on US tour with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists, under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Plans include : a series of concerts with the Monteverdi Choir and John Eliot Gardiner in London (BBC Proms) and Versailles;  Rigoletto  at the Sferisterio Opera Festival in Macerata; Die Zauberflöte at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège under Paolo Arrivabeni; Le Duc d’Albe in London for Opera Rara; La Bohème in Palermo; Guglielmo Ratcliff at the Wexford Festival Opera; Turandot in Montpellier; I Due Foscari in Amsterdam; Rota’s Mysterium at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari; I Due Foscari in Amsterdam. In 2016 he will have his first solo recital at the Wigmore Hall in London.

Nino Surguladze - Maddalena

Georgian born Nino Surguladze is one of the most interesting artists of her generation. After attending the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala, she sang in world’s premier opera stages such as Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, Metropolitan Opera in New York, Arena in Verona, Gran Teatre de Liceu in Barcelona, Glyndebourne Festival, Salzburg Festival, Teatro Real in Madrid, Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Teatro Regio in Turin and in Parma, collaborating with such conductors as Muti, Plasson, Harding, Gergiev. Ms. Surguladze sang Sinaïde in Moïse et Pharaon (cond. Muti) at the Salzburg Festival and in Rome; Dorabella in Così fan Tutte and Carmen (title role) in Tokyo role she also sang in San Diego, St. Petersburg and at the Sugi Opera in Seoul; Olga in Evgenij Onegin in Chicago and in Turin. Ms. Surguladze starred as Maddalena in Rigoletto in Cologne, in Genoa under Fabio Luisi and in the opera movie besides Placido Domingo in the title role; Fenena in Nabucco at La Scala in Milan; Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette at the Arena in Verona; Norma in Beirut; Luisa Miller (Federica) in Naples and in Budapest. After her successful debut as Amneris in Aida in Liège, Nino Surguladze made her debut in the verismo repertoire singing Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana in Avignon.

Plans include : Nabucco and Roméo et Juliette at the Arena in Verona; Rigoletto at the Sferisterio Opera Festival in Macerata; La Damnation de Faust at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège; La Traviata at the Chorégies d'Orange; Don Carlo in São Paulo.

Patrick Fournillier - conductor

Invited by the major opera houses as an expert in Italian and French operatic repertoire, he performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Dresden Semperoper, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, the Washington National Opera, often collaborating with Placido Domingo. M° Fournillier received the Grand Prix du Disque for his recording of French opera arias with Natalie Dessay and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte Carlo. During his tenure as Music Director of the Orchestra Sinfonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma, he linked his name to the Verdi celebrations in 2001. Patrick Fournillier conducted: Don Pasquale at the Norske Opera in Oslo; Carmen, Les pêcheurs de perles at the Zurich Opernhaus and Manon Lescaut at the Semperoper in Dresden. As returning guest at the San Francisco Opera Patrick Fournillier gained great success conducting Alfano’s Cyrano and Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffman, while more recently he conducted Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Palm Beach, Les Pêcheures de perles at the Teatro Regio in Parma, then on tour in Modena; Thaïs and a symphonic concert in Los Angeles; L’Etoile in Amsterdam; Giselle at La Scala in Milan;

Future plans: Aida in Warsaw; Thaïs in Helsinki; Manon in Bilbao.