Stefano Montanari - conductor

One of the most outstanding baroque violinists of his generation, Stefano Montanari is now much in demand as a conductor both with modern and period orchestras. Stefano Montanari was nominated for a Grammy Award for his recording of Purcell’s O Solitude with Andreas Scholl for Decca. His recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas has just been published for the Italian music magazine Amadeus. He recently wrote a Baroque Violin method, published by Carisch. He is regularly present in the seasons of Teatro La Fenice both in opera and in concert. He just made his theatre debut at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow conducting Così Fan Tutte.

Future plans: Don Giovanni, L’Inganno Felice and series of concerts at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice; several new projects at the Opéra de Lyon, where he is regularly reinvited; a new production of Il Viaggio a Reims at the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam (company debut); Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Caracalla Bath in Rome and at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona; Dido and Aeneas at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, where he will also conduct Bach’s Mass in B Minor and a series of baroque concerts; Orfeo ed Euridice at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples; Agrippina in Antwerp; concerts in Milan with the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali and in Montréal with the Arion Baroque Orchestra. He will also play in several concerts with his own ensemble L’Estravagante in Italy and Europe.

Giulia Semenzato - Eritrea/Iride

Giulia Semenzato graduated in singing at the Conservatorio “Benedetto Marcello” in Venice and is currently furthering her studies in Baroque music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel with Rosa Dominguez. She also attended master classes with Christopher Robson, Cinzia Forte, Vivica Genaux, Gemma Bertagnolli and Maria Cristina Kiehr. A winner of the “Concorso Città di Bologna” (Premio Farinelli) and of the “Toti dal Monte” Competition in 2012, she made her debut in Treviso as Elisetta in Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto, taking also part in the revivals of the production in Ferrara, Rovigo, Lucca and Ravenna. In 2013 she was admitted to the Académie européenne de musique of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and subsequently selected for the title role of Elena by Cavalli, which she will sing in Lille, Lisbon, Rennes, Angers, Nantes and Sablé-sur-Sarthe with Cappella Mediterranea under Leonardo García Alarcón. Among his past engagements, it is worth mentioning: Sandrina in Piccinni’s La Cecchina in Venice and Bergamo; Maria in Rota’s I due timidi and Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Venice. In May 2014 she sang a program with cantatas by Stradella with René Jacobs at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice.

Francesca Aspromonte - Nisa/Lesbo/Laodicea

Francesca Aspromonte was born in 1991. After her studies in piano and harpsichord, she entered the singing class of Maria Pia Piscitelli. She attended several master classes with Barbara Bonney, Luciana Serra, Victor Torrez, Gloria Banditelli and she has just completed her studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg under the guidance of Boris Bakow. Since 2012 she is a student of Renata Scotto’s Opera Studio at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. In 2009 she won the 1st prize at the “Città di Paola” Singing Competition (Italy). He already sang in such venues as Opéra de Vichy, Parco della Musica (Rome), Bozar de Bruxelles, Opéra National de Montpellier, Opéra Royal de Versailles and appeared in renowned festivals such as Ambronay Festival, Frescobaldi Festival, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Musikfest Bremen. She collaborates with several ensembles specialized in the Baroque repertoire such as Leonardo García Alarcón’s Cappella Mediterranea and Alessandro Quarta’s Concerto Romano. Under Garcia Alarcón she performed the roles of La Musica in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Rad in Falvetti’s Il Diluvio Universale and Erginda, Giunone and Castore in Cavalli’s Elena. Recently she sang Maria Vergine in Pasquini’s La sete di Christo, under the baton of Alessandro Quarta. She will be engaged in several important projects with the Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner.