Marianna Pizzolato - Isabella

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. Ms. Pizzolato regularly sings in the most prestigious theaters and festivals in the world as Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, Opéra National de Paris, Nikikai Opera Theatre in Tokyo, Sante Fè Opera Festival, Belcanto Opera Festival in Wildbad, Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Teatro Massimo in Palermo working with conductors such as Bruno Campanella, Daniele Gatti, Riccardo Muti, Antonio Pappano, Alberto Zedda just to name a few. Plans include: Tancredi (title role) in Santiago de Chile and in Bremen (concert version) with Accademia Bizantina and Ottavio Dantone conducting; Il Viaggio a Reims at Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow; Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome) in Edinburgh under the baton of Antonio Pappano and at the Tanglewood Festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit; Verdi’s Requiem in Bolzano with the Haydn Orchestra; Chausson’s Poème de l'amour et de la mer with the Bremen Philharmoniker in Bremen; Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony at the Festival de St. Denis with the Orchestre National de France, Michele Mariotti conducting and at the Menuhin Festival Gstaad (concert and recording) and in Wroclaw under the baton of Giovanni Antonini. Ms. Pizzolato will make her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York singing Hedwige in Guillaume Tell.

Victoria Yarovaya - Zulma

Young Russian singer, winner of Francisco Viñas international competition, Victoria Yarovaya, specialized at the Accademia Rossiniana in Pesaro under the guidance of Alberto Zedda, making her debut as Marchesa Melibea in Il Viaggio a Reims at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Recent engagements include: Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Moscow Novaya Opera Theatre; La Cenerentola (title role) at Scottish Opera (Glasgow); Suzuki in Madama Butterfly at Opéra in Lille and at the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg; Falliero in Rossini’s Bianca e Falliero at the Rossini Festival in Wildbad; L’Italiana in Algeri (Isabella) at Opera in Florence, Bruno Campanella conducting; Rossini’s Messa di Gloria at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Donato Renzetti conducting. Plans include: L’Italiana in Algeri as Isabella at the Opéra in Rennes (then on tour in France); Demetrio e Polibio at the Rossini Festival in Wildbad; Così fan tutte for Opera Lombardia circuit in Italy (Como, Pavia, Brescia, Cremona); Rimskij-Korsakov’s Sadko (Ljubava) in Antwerp; Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Finnish National Opera in Helsinki and in Moscow.

Laura Scozzi - director

Laura Scozzi lives in France. She studied at the Accademia d'Arte Drammatica in Rome and later at Ecole de Mimodrame Marcel Marceau de Paris while studying also Sociology and, her great passion, Photography. In 1994, she founded the company “Opinioni in Movimento”, directing several productions combining dance, text and singing. As a guest choreographer, she created The 7 Deadly Sins for the ballet of the Opera de Paris and My Relationships With Men Were Never Very Clear for the Junior Ballet de Cannes. In 1999, she started using Hip-Hop style in Étant donné la conjoncture actuelle and continued in 2000 in the musical A Chacun son Serpent by Boris Vian. Other creations include: Sol à sol avec poids, Quelque part par là and her latest creation Barbe Neige et les 7 petits cochons au bois dormant, which is still on tour and is currently having great success both in public and press. In opera, theater and film, she created choreographies for directors such as Jean-Louis Grinda, Emmanuelle Bastet, Coline Serreau, Jean-Michel Ribes, Matthieu Poirot-Delpech. She works regularly with Laurent Pelly. In 2008, Laura Scozzi directed her first opera Benvenuto Cellini at Staatstheater Nürnberg. The following year, in 2009, she directed The Magic Flute (Staatstheater Nürnberg and Opera de Bordeaux) and in 2011 Il viaggio a Reims (Staatstheater Nürnberg). This production was nominated for Der Faust Preis as "best opera direction". Other productions as director include Orpheus in der Unterwelt (Opera Bern, Opera de Bordeaux, Staatstheater Nürnberg and Opera de Marseille) and Les Indes Galantes (Théâtre du Capitole, Opera de Bordeaux, Staatstheater Nürnberg). Plans include : Akhnaten at Theater Bonn; Barbe – Neige et les sept petits cochons au bois dormant in tournée. Revivals of L’Italiana in Algeri at Staatstheater Nürnberg.

Tal Shacham - costume designer

Born in Tel Aviv, studied design at the Vital University of Applied Sciences Tel Aviv and worked for several years as Production Designer in film and television in Israel. In 2001 she went to Berlin to visit the Master's program for stage and costume design at Peter Sykora at TU. After graduating, she assisted for two years in the opera productions of Nigel Lowery before starting as a freelance set and costume designer (2004). During her studies she began her collaboration with the director and choreographer Constanza Macras for which she regularly designed the set (Open for Everything, Here/After, Hell on Earth, Scratch Neukölln). Moreover Tal Shacham collaborated with the directors Rene Brown, Itay Tiran and Thierry Bruehl, the choreographer Christoph Winkler and the video artist Phil Collins. She worked in theaters such as the Schaubühne Berlin, Hebbel am Ufer, Ballhaus Naunynstraße and the Sophiensälen in Berlin, the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv and the Opera House in Wuppertal. In 2012 she directed and curated the stage and set department for the Production Infinite Jest, the final project of artistic director Matthias Lilienthal at HAU. This production was a 24-hour theatrical adaptation of the novel by David Foster Wallace with nine outdoor venues in the city area of ​​ Berlin and directors such as Bianchi/Macras, Gob Squad, Peter Kastenmüller, Jan Klata, Chris Kondek, Anna-Sophie Mahler, Richard Maxwell, Mariano Pensotti, Philippe Quesne, She She Pop, Anna Viebrock and Jeremy Wade. In 2014 she designed the set for the theatre production of August, Osage County (director Ilan Ronen). In 2015 with director Yael Ronen, she collaborated on the new production The Situation at Gorki Theater, furthermore at Wiener Volkstheater a production called Lost and Found. In addition to her work in theatre and ​​ dance Tal Shacham has continued her work in opera. Recent work include in 2014 set design for the contemporary opera Der Universums Stulp by Thierry Bruehl in Wuppertaler Buehnen. In 2015 for the Israeli Opera she designed set and costumes for Le Nozze di Figaro at the Akko open-air festival (director Itay Tiran) and costumes for Tosca at Theater Trier. Plans include: Julie at Theater Magdeburg and revivals of L’Italiana in Algeri at Staatstheater Nürnberg.