Gianluca Buratto - Sparafucile

A noble and round voice, Gianluca Buratto is rapidly establishing himself as one of his most versatile basses of his generation. His recent engagements include: Bach’s B minor Mass with Savall in Madrid and Barcelona, both Mozart and Jommelli’s Betulia liberata with Muti in Salzburg and Ravenna and in Wroclaw under Rovaris; Mercadante’s Virginia and La Bohème at the Wexford Opera Festival; Ambrosini’s Il Killer di Parole (world première), La Bohème and Rigoletto in Venice; Mozart’s Mass in C minor KV 427 at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Nagano and in Cagliari; Bach’s Johannes-Passion with Lopez-Banzo in Spain and Germany; 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 (with Chailly) and I Due Foscari in Valencia; Macbeth at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan; Rota’s Mysterium at the Vatican City, in Naples, Bari and in Milan (concert and recording) with La Verdi Orchestra; Rigoletto in Genoa under Luisi and in Bogota; Handel’s Rinaldo and Admeto at the Theater an der Wien; Rota’s Il cappello di paglia di Firenze at the Maggio Musicale in Florence; Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques in Nancy and Paris; La Bohème in Rome and in Amsterdam; I Puritani in Florence; Le Duc d’Albe in London for Opera Rara. 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; Die Zauberflöte in Liège under Paolo Arrivabeni; La Bohème in Palermo; Guglielmo Ratcliff at the Wexford Festival Opera; Turandot in Montpellier; I Due Foscari in Amsterdam; Faccio's Hamlet at the Bregenzer Festspiele; Semiramide in London for Opera Rara. 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, in Bogota and in the opera movie opposite Placido Domingo in the title role; Nabucco (Fenena) at La Scala in Milan and at the Arena in Verona where she also sang Roméo et Juliette; 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 also in the verismo repertoire singing Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana in Avignon.

Plans include: revivals of Nabucco and Roméo et Juliette at the Arena in Verona; La Damnation de Faust at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège; La Traviata at the Chorégies d'Orange; Aida at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples; Don Carlo in São Paulo.

Federico Grazzini - director

Born in Florence, he studied drama first as an actor and later as a director making his debut in Teatro Puccini in Florence in 2004.
After specializing in text analysis at Shukinskaja Drama Academy in Moscow, he graduates in 2008 at the Scuola d'Arte Drammatica Paolo Grassi in Milan, directing Expoi, first performed at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano.

He has been involved in educational projects as Operadomani, Operait and OperaKids: the performance, based on Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi debuted in January 2011 at Teatro Sociale di Como and in French version in December 2012 at Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liege.

He directed many productions in Italy and Europe: Orff’s Carmina Burana at Teatro Dal Verme in Milan (2008), Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel and Rigoletto at Teatro Sociale in Como (2009), Donizetti’s Gianni di Parigi at the Festival della Val d'Itria in Martina Franca (2010) and at the Wexford Opera Festival (2011), Britten’s Little Sweep at the Teatro Regio in Turin (2013) and Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer at the Teatro Ponchielli in Cremona (2013), Pagliacci and Gianni at the Regio in Parma(2014), Turandot at the Opéra de Nice (2014) and Hänsel und Gretel at the Opéra de Rouen (2014).

Amongst his future plans it is worth mentioning Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Opéra de Nice.