Maurizio Benini - conductor

Maurizio Benini returns to London after his successes in Don Pasquale and Roberto Devereux at Metropolitan Opera in New York; Il Trovatore at the Dutsch National Opera in Amsterdam, new production directed by La Fura dels Baus and the concert and recording of Leoncavallo’s Zazà with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Hall in London. Plans include: productions at the Opéra de Monte Carlo (Adriana Lecouvreur); at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (Il barbiere di Siviglia, I Puritani and other important productions); at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse (Lucia di Lammermoor); at the Teatro Real in Madrid and at the Opéra de Paris (Il Trovatore); at the Opernhaus in Zurich (I Capuleti e I Montecchi); at Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla (Anna Bolena); . In the following seasons he will return to the Royal Opera House in London conductingLa Traviata and Les Vêpres siciliennes. Maurizio Benini has been awarded “best conductor of the season” (2012) by the most important critics of Spanish musical magazines and newspapers thanks to his interpretation of Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur staged at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

Daniele Abbado - director

Daniele Abbado began his career as a theatre director in 1988, extending progressively his interest in stage dramaturgy, TV direction, multimedia shows and lyric opera productions. His work in opera repertoire include different masterpieces by Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Verdi, Boito, Puccini, Weber, Beethoven, Schumann, Wagner, and at the same time he directed productions of 20th century authors such as Berg, Weill, Ravel, Stravinskij, Honegger, Britten, Dalla Piccola. His production of Il prigioniero and Il volo di notte by Dalla Piccola, produced by Maggio Musicale (Florence) was awarded the Premio Abbiati as best Italian performance in 2004 and in 2012 he received the Premio Oscar della Lirica as Best Director. Daniele Abbado was Artistic Director of Teatro “R. Valli” in Reggio Emilia (2002-2012). After the great success of his Debussy production Pelléas et Mélisande at the Maggio Musicale in Florence, in Nabucco at the Liceu in Barcelona, Daniele Abbado directed Verdi’s Attila for the opening night of the season at Comunale in Bologna then revived at the Massimo in Palermo and in autumn 2016 at La Fenice in Venice. Further plans include: Falstaff and Pelléas et Mélisande at the Teatro Regio in Turin; Trovatore at the Wiener Staatsoper in Vienna; Nabucco at La Scala in Milan; Falstaff at Teatro Lirico in Cagliari; Tosca at Teatro Comunale in Bologna and at the National Opera of Korea in Seoul.

Alessandro Carletti - lighting designer

Born in Rome, he studied photography and painting and in the late 90s he started working at the Rossini Opera Festival where he consolidated his experience in opera productions. With director Damiano Michieletto he started collaborating in 2008 in Lugo for Jackie’O. He worked with the same director at Teatro San Carlo in Naples for Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and at Rossini Opera Festival he created lighting design for La Scala di Seta and in 2010 Sigismondo. Furthermore, in 2011 he continued with the same director in Valencia on Elisir d’amore, at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo Greek Passion and Così fan tutte at the New National Theatre Tokyo. Since then Alessandro collaborates regularly with Damiano Michieletto. He worked with directors such as Daniele Abbado, Francesco Micheli, Henning Brockhaus, Pippo Delbono, Franco Ripa di Meana, Yannis Kokkos and others. Recent productions worth mentioning include: Il Trittico (Theater an der Wien), Don Carlo (Wiener Staatsoper), Cavalleria Rusticana(Teatro San Carlo, Naples), Nabucco (Royal Opera House Covent Garden), Ballo in Maschera (Teatro La Scala), Die Zauberflöte (Teatro la Fenice), Otello (Theater an der Wien) Il Trittico (Teatro dell'Opera in Rome), Dreigroschenoper (Opera da tre soldi) at Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Lucia di Lammermoor at Teatro Regio in Turin, Cendrillon (Komische Oper Berlin), and many others. For the 2014/15 season he created the lighting design for Il Viaggio A Reims (De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam), Divine parole (by Ramón del Valle Inclan, Piccolo Teatro di Milano) and Guillaume Tell at Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Knight of Illumination Award 2015) all three productions with director Damiano Michieletto. During the season 2015/16 and for the second time at Royal Opera House in London he created the lighting design for the new production of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci which has been awarded as Best Opera Production at the Laurence Olivier Awards 2016. Further productions include: Nabucco (at Terme in Caracalla with the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Federico Grazzini directing), La donna del Lago (Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro), Samson et Dalila (Opéra de Paris and Metropolitan Opera in New York), Aqua Granda (La Fenice), Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci and Il Viaggio a Reims (Opera Australia, Sydney), Falstaff (La Scala, Milan), Il Trovatore (Wiener Staatsoper) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theater an der Wien), Il Viaggio a Reims (Royal Opera Copenhagen), Rigoletto (Dutch National Opera Amsterdam).

Luca Scarzella - video maker

Luca Scarzella graduated in Philosophy. Between 1987 and 1997 he collaborated with Studio Azzurro, in 1998 he opened StalkerVideo an independent video production laboratory in which he alternated activity as a director and as video maker for music theatre and in 2009 he creates Vertov. Luca Scarzella worked in the most prestigious theaters and opera houses in Italy, Europe, Unites States, Australia and Japan. In 1993 he started a collaboration with Daniele Abbado (Tosca in Turin and Osaka, Der Freischütz and Tannhäuser in Rome, Laborinthus II in Genoa, The Rape of Lucretia in Genoa, Florence, Reggio Emilia, Sevilla and Madrid, Lohengrin in Bologna and Bilbao, Volo di notte in Florence, Jr. Butterfly in Tokio, Così fan tutte and Don Giovanni in Verona, Reggio Emilia, Thessaloniki and Saint Paul-USA, Oberon in Toulouse, Nabucco at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and Royal Opera House in London). Further in opera he has worked with Lukas Hemleb, Denis Krief, Egisto Marcucci, Franco Ripa di Meana, Francesco Micheli and Damiano Michieletto and conductors such as Carlo Maria Giulini, Claudio Abbado, Myung-Wung Chung and Jeffrey Tate. He created the videos for Der Fliegende Holländer produced by As.Li.Co with the director Federico Grazzini, with whom in 2014 he created the video for Turandot at Opéra de Nice. For the opening concert season at Teatro Massimo di Palermo and together with Roberto Andò he created the video event for the new commission Il quadro nero (by Marco Betta). Other recent engagements in opera theatre include: Tosca (director Daniele Abbado) at the Teatro Regio in Turin and Tosca (director Lukas Hemleb) at the Theater in Kiel. He designed multimedia exhibitions and installations for the Museum of Teatro alla Scala, la Triennale and Museo del '900 in Milan, la Biennale Musica in Venice, Résau Varèse and l’Ircam in Paris. As advisor of Studio Arco and Scape-Architettura he won the International Design Competition for MEIS (Museo dell'Ebraismo Italiano e della Shoa) in Ferrara, where he will be director of its multimedia project. In 2010 he took part at the 5° Rome International Film Festival with his documentary film Inge Film, a portrait of the international publisher Inge Feltrinelli. Plans include: Nabucco in Caracalla at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Federico Grazzini directing; Tosca at the National Opera of Korea in Seoul and at Teatro Comunale in Bologna with Daniele Abbado, Lohengrin at National Opera of Korea in Seoul.

Royal Opera House Covent Garden London - June 6^th, 9^th,13^th,15^th, 8^th, 21^st, 23^rd, 25^th - 2016