Mario Cassi - Figaro

Mario Cassi won the Toti Dal Monte competition in Treviso and the Zarzuela Prize in the Operalia 2003 competition. Following commitments in the major Italian and European theaters, of particular interest it is Don Pasquale (Dottor Malatesta) under the baton of Riccardo Muti at the Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna then on tour at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and at the Musikverein in Vienna, he made his debut at Teatro alla Scala in Milan in Pagliacci (Silvio). Mr Cassi recently starred as Marcello in La Bohème at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Rossini Opera Festival (then recorded under the baton of Alberto Zedda), Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro in Liège, then he performed Dandini in La Cenerentola at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Figaro in I Due Figaro in Madrid and Buenos Aires, Riccardo Muti conducting. He has just sung L’Italiana in Algeri in Liège under Bruno Campanella.

Future plans: Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Madrid; Così fan tutte at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari; Don Pasquale and at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome; L’Elisir d’Amore in Florence and Vienna (Wiener Staatsoper); Pagliacci at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse; La Cenerentola, Die Zauberfloete and Lucia di Lammermoor at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège; L’Italiana in Algeri (Taddeo) at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Mario Cassi will star the Aids Gala in Dusseldorf and a series of concerts in Kazan with the Tatarstan Symphony Orchestra.

Paata Burchuladze - Don Basilio*

The acclaimed debut at Royal Opera House Covent Garden in Aida conducted by Zubin Mehta, alongside Katia Ricciarelli and Luciano Pavarotti, marks the beginning of a brilliant international career that saw him as a guest of top musical institutions such as: the Teatro alla Scala (Nabucco, Luisa Miller, Simon Boccanegra, Macbeth ), the Wiener Staatsoper (Luisa Miller, Boris Godunov, Khovanshcina), the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich (Boris Godunov, Don Carlos, Macbeth, Aida), Opera Bastille in Paris (Faust, Nabucco), the San Francisco Opera (Prince Igor, Aida), the Metropolitan Opera (Boris Godunov, Don Giovanni, Aida, Khovanshcina). He recorded for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI and Philips. In the next future Mr. Burtschuladze will star in Don Carlo at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence.