Mario Cassi - Don Alvaro

Already well-established as one of the most appreciated baritones of his generation, Mr. Cassi regularly collaborates with conductors as Riccardo Muti, Bruno Campanella, Roberto Abbado, in the most prestigious theaters in Italy and abroad.

Mr Cassi recently reported a great success as Dottor Malatesta in Don Pasquale for the season’s opening night at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona, Antonio Albanese directing, as Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Naples, Florence and Tel Aviv, as Belcore in L’Elisir d’amore at the Staatsoper in Vienna, as Silvio in Pagliacci in Toulouse, as Danilo in The Merry Widow at the Teatro Regio in Turin.

Plans: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Figaro) in Monte-Carlo, Arena in Verona; L’Elisir d’amore (Belcore) at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich; Die Zauberflöte (Papageno), La Traviata, Don Giovanni (title role) in Liège; Madama Butterfly in Bari.

Biagio Pizzuti - Don Prudenzio

Young Italian baritone, he recently performed Schaunard in La Bohème and Grégorio in Roméo et Juliette under the baton of Fabio Luisi (recorded by Decca) at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. He sang Don Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia in Bologna and performed in Cléopatre at the Withsun Festival in Salzburg as a member of the Salzburg Young Singers Project under Vladimir Fedoseyev; he then appeared as Betto di Signa in Gianni Schicchi at the Theater and der Wien and was then involved in another production of the same opera at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence. He recently sang Leporello in Don Giovanni in Maribor and Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’Amore on tour in Italy for the Circuito Lirico Lombardo; Don Giovanni (Masetto) at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo; Guglielmo in Così fan tutte in Liverpool; Gianni Schicchi in Spoleto.

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 was published for the Italian music magazine Amadeus. He recently wrote a Baroque Violin method, published by Carisch. He just made his theatre debut at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow conducting Così Fan Tutte. In Venice, where he regularly appears both in opera and concert, he recently conducted Cavalli’s Eritrea (first performance in modern times) and L’Inganno Felice and Don Giovanni. He also made his debut with the Rome Opera conducting Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Baths of Caracalla. Always active as a virtuoso violinist, Stefano Montanari has just played the whole series of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas at the Opéra de Lyon. After a successful concert with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, he has been reinvited to conduct Bach's B minor mass.

Future plans: a revival of Così fan tutte at the Bolshoi in Moscow; Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona and Don Giovanni at the Arena; Orfeo ed Euridice at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples; Dido and Aeneas at the Opera di Firenze - Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Agrippina in Antwerp; concerts in Milan with the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali and in Palermo with the Orchestra of the Teatro Massimo. He will also play in several concerts with his own ensemble L’Estravagante in Italy and Europe. M° Montanari will return to the Opéra de Lyon involved in several new projects.

*Company debut

Alessandro Carletti - light designer

Born in Rome, he studied photography and painting through which he very soon discovered his passion for lighting design. In the late 90s he started working at the Rossini Opera Festival where he consolidated his experience in opera productions. With director Damiano Michieletto he started collaborating in 2008 in Lugo on Jackie’O. He worked with the same director at Teatro San Carlo in Naples for Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and at Rossini Opera Festival he created lighting design for La Scala di Seta and in 2010 Sigismondo. Furthermore, in 2011 they continued their collaboration in Valencia on Elisir d’amore, at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo Greek Passion and Cosi fan tutte at the New National Theatre Tokyo. 

He worked regularly with directors such as Daniele Abbado, Francesco Micheli, Henning Brockhaus, Pippo Delbono, Franco Ripa di Meana, Yannis Kokkos, Damiano Michsieletto and others.

Recent works include: Il Trittico (Theater an der Wien), Don Carlos (Wiener Staatsoper), Cavalleria Rusticana (Teatro San Carlo, Naples), Nabucco (Royal Opera House Covent Garden), Ballo in Maschera (Teatro La Scala) and many others while his next projects include Le Nozze di Figaro (Theater an der Wien), Guillaume Tell (Royal Opera House, London), Otello (Wiener Staatsoper) and revival of Nabucco (Liceu, Barcelona and Lyric Opera Chicago in 2016).