Cristina Melis - Carmen

Winner of the International Lyric Contest “Giacomo Lauri Volpi” and of 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; Carmen, Traviata, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and in a series of concerts at the Arena in Verona; Cenerentola(title role) and as Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri at the Teatro Regio in Turin; Azucena in Il Trovatore and Amneris in Aida in Parma; El Amor Brujo in Cagliari; Eugene Onegin, Petite messe solennelle and Bruckner’s Te Deum in Bologna; Rossini’s Stabat Mater in Reggio Emilia; Cavalleria Rusticana at the Opera di Firenze; Luisa Miller in Liège; Verdi’s Requiem under the baton of Gianluigi Gelmetti in Rome and Taranto; Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater at the Festival Anima Mundi in Pisa. Her fruitful collaboration with the Opernhaus in Kiel led her to be acclaimed in such productions as Il Trovatore, Madama Butterfly, Eugene Onegin, Nabucco, Rienzi and Das Rheingold.

Plans include: Madama Butterfly in Naples; Carmen (title role) and Rigoletto (Maddalena) at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna; revivals of Das Rheingold and Carmen in Kiel, where she also perform Die Walküre.

Rani Calderon - conductor*

Music Director at the Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy.

M° Calderon has gained international acclaim both in operatic and symphonic repertoire performing in the dual capacity of conductor and pianist. Rani Calderon collaborates, among others, with the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège, the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp, and the Monte Carlo Opera. M° Calderon conducted Meyerbeer's Semiramide at the Festival della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca, Italy edited in DVD by Dynamic. From season 2009 to 2012 one M° Calderon was Principal Conductor at Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile where he conducted amongst the others: Don Giovanni, Un Ballo in Maschera, Tannhäuser, Elektra, L'Italiana in Algeri, Aida and Lucrezia Borgia. Amongst his successful engagements it is worth mentioning: Andrea Chénier at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo; Gounod's Faust in Bilbao and Dresden; Euryanthe and Oberon at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse; Aida and Eugene Onegin at the Théâtre Municipal d'Avignon; Simon Boccanegra in Strasbourg; Der Fliegende Hollaender in Warsaw; Puccini’s Il Trittico at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna; Rossini’s Semiramide in Copenhagen; Symphony No. 2 (Mahler) in Santiago de Chile; Don Giovanni and Ariadne auf Naxos in Toulon; La Bohème in Dresden. In Nancy M° Calderon conducted Turandot, Nabucco, Aleko and Francesca da Rimini and a series of concerts.

Future plans include: Un Ballo in Maschera in Toulon; Tabarro and Royal Palace in Montpellier; series of concerts in Vienna and Bloomington. At the Opéra National de Lorraine M° Calderon will conduct Orphée et Eurydice, Les Pécheurs de perles, Le coq d’or (Rimskij-Korsakov) and a series of concerts.