Aquiles Machado - Alfredo (April 2^nd, 7^th)

After his successes gained in I Masnadieri in Naples, La Gioconda in Palermo and Rome, La Forza del Destino at the Festival Verdi in Parma, Ernani in Bilbao, Un Ballo in Maschera in Liège and Simon Boccanegra in Berlin, Aquiles Machado returns to sing Puccini’s masterpice. Among his recent engagements, it is worth mentioning: Cavaradossi in Tosca in Leipzig, as well as at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Beijing, Berlin (Deutsche Oper) and Vienna (Wiener Staatsoper); Carmen and Un Ballo in Maschera in Las Palmas; Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra in Zurich; Alfredo in La Traviata in Florence; Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly  in Torre del Lago and Vienna; Rodolfo in La Bohème in Valencia, Riccardo Chailly conducting; Norma at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna; Il Trovatore at the Sferisterio Opera Festival in Macerata; La Traviata at the Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo and at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia under Zubin Mehta; Roméo et Juliette in Liège; Don José in Carmen in Bilbao; I Due Foscari in Toulouse; La Bohème at the Terme in Caracalla (Rome) and in Dresden; Cavalleria Rusticana in Pamplona; Madama Butterfly and Carmen in St.Petersburg; Tosca in Cagliari under Gianluigi Gelmetti and at the Opera in Rome; Don Carlo and La Traviata at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Aquiles Machado performed Verdi’s Requiem in Bologna then on tour in Moscow at the Rostropovich Festival under Michele Mariotti, in Cincinnati and St. Louis under Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos, at the Gewandhaus Leipzig under Anthony Bramall.

Future plans : Carmen in Minorca; Faust, Simon Boccanegra, Werther, Don Carlo  in Las Palmas; La Bohème in Liège; Un Ballo in Maschera in Tel Aviv again under Zubin Mehta.

Paolo Gavanelli - Giorgio Germont (April 1^st, 4^th, 8^th)

One of the greatest Verdi interpreters of his generation, Paolo Gavanelli is a regular guest of prestigious theaters such as: La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan in New York , the Staatsoper in Vienna, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Arena in Verona, the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, the Carlo Felice in Genoa, the San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Opéra Bastille in Paris, the Lyric Opera in Chicago, the San Francisco Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, the Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper in Berlin, the Staatsoper in Hamburg, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Liceu in Barcelona.

Among his recent engagements it is worth mentioning: La Traviata in Tel Aviv; Roberto Devereux at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Nabucco in Montreal and for the As.Li.Co circuit in Italy; Rigoletto, La Gioconda, La favorite and I Due Foscari at the St. Gallen Theater.

Plans include Macbeth, I Due Foscari and Lucrezia Borgia in St. Gallen.

Anastasia Boldyreva - Flora Bervoix

Anastasia Boldyreva, born in 1982, started her voice training in Moscow, her native town, under the guidance of Igor Tchernov, then he moved to Italy where she specialized under the guidance of Bernadette Maca di Nissa.

Among her recent engagements it is worth mentioning: Il Viaggio a Reims (Maddalena) with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino conducted by Nir Kabaretti; Haydn’s La Canterina (Apollonia) and Donizetti’s Il Pigmalione (Galatea); Oliver Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are (Tzippy); Zarinelli’s Biancaneve (La venditrice cattiva) conducted by Michele Mariotti in Florence; Andrea Chénier (Bersi) in Genoa; Madama Butterfly (Kate Pinkerton) in Rome; Carmen (Mercedes) at the Arena di Verona; and Parsifal (Blumenmädchen) at the Teatro Regio in Turin; Maddalena in Rigoletto in Tel Aviv; La Traviata in Cagliari.