Marco Ciaponi - Lord Arturo Bucklaw*

Winner of important lyric international contests as Voci Verdiane Competition in Busseto (first prize, 2015), Flaviano Labò (first prize, 2015) in Piacenza, “Ottavio Ziino” and “Beniamino Gigli jr” (third prize) in Rome, Marco Ciaponi recently gained huge successes as Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore in Lucca, Piacenza, Ravenna and Bari, as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at the Teatro Comunale in Modena, as Alfredo in La Traviata in Cremona, as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni in Tirana and at Teatro Verdi in Trieste where he returned singing Haydn’s Die Schöpfung under the baton of Gianlugi Gelmetti. Other recent engagements include Macbeth in Piacenza; La Fanciulla del West at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Riccardo Chailly conducting; a Gala concert at the Teatro Regio in Parma; Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari.

Amongst his future plans it is worth mentioning Falstaff at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, Daniele Abbado directing; Tamino in Die Zauberflöte in Trieste; Nemorino in L’Elisir d’Amore in Beirut; Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony with I Pomeriggi Musicali at Teatro Dal Verme in Milan.

*Role debut

Simone Alberghini - Lord Enrico Ashton

Italian baritone Simone Alberghini, 1994 Operalia Grand Prize winner, has appeared in opera houses at the highest level worldwide since the beginning of his career, singing at the Royal Opera House in London, Metropolitan Opera in New York, Washington National Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Teatro Regio in Turin, Glyndebourne Festival, Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Mr. Alberghini regularly collaborates with internationally renowned conductors such as Maurizio Benini, Bruno Campanella, Riccardo Chailly, Teodor Currentzis, Andrew Davis, Vladimir Jurowski, Nicola Luisotti, Michele Mariotti, Zubin Mehta, Gianandrea Noseda, Seiji Ozawa, Emmanuel Villaume, Alberto Zedda.

Plans include: Le Nozze di Figaro (Conte d’Almaviva) at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples; La Gazza Ladra at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari; La fille du régiment (Sulpice) at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona; Don Giovanni (title role) with Opéra de Lyon on tour in Oman; Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna.

Sebastiano Rolli - conductor

After his studies at the conservatoires in Parma and Milan, Sebastiano Rolli started to collaborate with important orchestras and ensembles, such as: Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi in Parma, Orchestra Stabile dell’Emilia Romagna Arturo Toscanini, Orchestra Sinfonica in Sanremo, Orchestra Gianandrea Gavazzeni in Brescia, Orchestra Gioacchino Rossini in Pesaro. Among his recent engagements: Maria Stuarda at the Teatro Sociale in Rovigo and Bergamo, where he also opened 2013-2014 season conducting Maria di Rudenz and where he returned conducting Torquato Tasso; Falstaff in Busseto and Maria Stuarda at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona with Mariella Devia; Bel Canto concerts with Mariella Devia in Genoa and with Juan Diego Florez in Dublin; I Puritani at the Slovak National Opera in Bratislava; Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica in Tirana; Anna Bolena in Tenerife; Faure’s Requiem in Tirana and Cagliari, where he also conducted The merry widow while he returned to the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona conducting La Cenerentola. Sebastiano Rolli recently conducted Lucia di Lammermoor at Teatro Regio in Parma and La Sonnambula at the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania

Active also on the concert side, Sebastiano Rolli can boast a vast repertoire that includes works by Bach, Pergolesi, Händel, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, Mozart, Haydn, Britten, Ravel, Dvorák, Strauss, Sibelius, Ravel, Gershwin, just to name a few.

Future plans include: Rosmonda d’Inghilterra at the Maggio Musicale/Opera in Florence and at Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo; Norma at the Auditorium de Tenerife; Verdi’s Requiem with the Teatro Regio in Parma.