Biographie de Gianluca Capuano

Winner of the 42nd Abbiati Award for Best Conductor 2022, Gianluca Capuano has been principal conductor of Les Musiciens du Prince- Monaco since 2019. He studied organ, composition and conducting at the Conservatory in his hometown in Milan and went on to specialize in early music at the Scuola Civica. He also studied theoretical philosophy at the University of Milan.

In 2006 he founded “Il canto di Orfeo”, an instrumental and vocal ensemble with which he performs a wide-ranging Baroque repertoire, working with some of the finest musicians and singers active in the field of historically- informed performance practice.
Gianluca Capuano came to international attention in August 2016, when he stepped in at short notice to conduct Normawith Cecilia Bartoli on the opening night of the Edinburgh Festival. Bartoli then invited him to conduct further performances of Norma at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and in Baden-Baden as well as a European tour of La Cenerentola with Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco.

Since then he’s considered to be a reference expert for opera repertoire from early baroque to Belcanto. He’s regularly invited to conduct in theaters like Staatsoper Wien, Bayerische Staatsoper München, Opera Zürich, Opéra Montecarlo, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro del Maggio fiorentino and others. Since 2017 he conducts every year at Salzburger Festspiele. In september 2025 he will debut at Teatro alla Scala di Milano.

Since more than 20 years he devotes himself to the rediscovering of the music by Giacomo Carissimi, being considered one of the greatest experts of the composer.

For the third time he’s guest at Festival Bach Lausanne.

 

Biographie de Il canto di Orfeo

The vocal and instrumental ensemble Il canto di Orfeo, founded in 2005 and directed by Gianluca Capuano, intends to refine the experience gained by him and his collaborators during the years of intense concert activity. One of the strengths of the group is the music of Carissimi (of which Capuano is one of the greatest scholars), his students and composers active in Rome during the same years, not disdaining the masterpieces of the Italian ‘600 (Monteverdi in the first place) and the best of European production between 1600 and 1750 as well as incursions into the late-Renaissance and contemporary repertoire.

With the English mezzo-soprano Catherine King Il canto di Orfeo has released for the label Avie (2006) a CD entirely dedicated to arias by Galuppi (« Editor’s choice » of « Gramophone ») and in 2012 published for the Italian magazine « Classic Voice » a CD dedicated to the madrigalistic production of Mantova and Ferrara in the 16th century. In 2017 ICO published for Deutsch Harmonia mundi, in collaboration with the organist Kei Koito, a CD dedicated to music of Northern Germany in the 17th century.

The ensemble has been a reference point for the interpretation of Italian baroque vocal music, taking part in important specialized festivals such as the glorious « Music and poetry at San Maurizio » in Milan Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland and Germany.
The ensemble combines ancient music with a passionate commitment to contemporary vocal music. In 2007 the ensemble of male voices took part into the production of Teneke by F. Vacchi, directed by E. Olmi and conducted by R. Abbado. In 2013, Capuano and Il canto di Orfeo continue their collaboration with la Scala singing in A. Raskatov’s Cuore di cane, a succesful production that was revived in 2014 at the Lyon Opera Theatre.. In 2015, la Scala again asked the group to participate in the colossal Die Soldaten by Zimmermann.

Il canto di Orfeo is also active on the operatic side, notably in a celebrated production of Poppea’s Coronation directed by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier at the Nantes Opera.

The ensemble participated for the first time at the Salzburg Festival in 2019 singing the oratorio of Caldara La morte di Abel. In autumn 2022 it took part in a European tour with Clemenza di Tito, starring among others Cecilia Bartoli and directed by Gianluca Capuano

In 2023 Il canto di Orfeo performed at the Opera di Montecarlo in Monteverdi’s Orfeo (in a project in collaboration with the puppet company « Colla »),  at the Salzburg Festival with a new production of Orfeo by Gluck (with Cecilia Bartoli, directed by Christof Loy, conducted by Gianluca Capuano), and in a replica of Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Haydn’s L’Anima del filosofo.

In 2024 the ensemble was back at the Salzburg Festival taking part in a new production of Clemenza di Tito (directed by Robert Carsen, conducted by Gianluca Capuano) and Mozart’s Mass in C minor.

For ten years the association Il canto di Orfeo has been organizing « Musical Vespers in San Maurizio », a festival of ancient music at the choir of the church of San Maurizio in Milan.

The ensemble’s trainer is Jacopo Facchini.

 

Biographie des Solistes des Musiciens du Prince – Monaco

The ensemble Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco was founded in the spring of 2016 at the Monte Carlo Opera, on the initiative of Cecilia Bartoli and in collaboration with Jean-Louis Grinda, Opera Director from 2007 to 2022. The project received the immediate support of H.S.H Prince Albert II and H.R.H. Princess of Hanover. Cecilia Bartoli, performer and artistic director, has brought together the world’s finest musicians, playing on period instruments, to create an orchestra inspired by the 17^th and 18^th century music traditions in vogue at the royal, princely and tsarina Courts throughout Europe. Her artistic vision is centred on the grand masters of the Baroque period, such as Haendel, and Vivaldi, as well as on the Rossini repertoire. Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco and Cecilia Bartoli have performed in Europe’s major venues, unanimously acclaimed by audiences and the international press. They regularly perform in Salzburg (Whitsun Festival and Summer Festival). Gianluca Capuano has been appointed Principal Conductor in March 2019. Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco are in residence at the Monte Carlo Opera.

 

Biographie de Theodora Raftis

Theodora Raftis, a coloratura soprano from Cyprus, is the winner of the third prize at the prestigious International Singing Competition for Baroque Opera « Pietro Antonio Cesti », as well as having qualified among the winners of competitions such as: Otto Edelmann International Singing Competition in 2019 and József Simándy International Singing Competition in 2016.

Her repertoire includes: Atamira (L’Empio punito), Cino (Il Teuzzone), Ermione (Oreste), Ilia (Idomeneo), Blondchen (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Mademoiselle Silberklang (Der Schauspieldirektor), Tonina (Prima la musica e poi le parole), Despina (Così fan tutte), Servilia (La Clemenza di Tito), Olympia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Greta Fiorentino (Street Scene), Blanche de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites) and Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos).

Also active in the concert field, she has performed Bach’s Magnificat (BWV243), St Matthew Passion, Mass in B minor (BWV232) and several cantatas as well as Handel’s Messiah and Theodora (HWV68); Exsultate, jubilate (K165/158a), Mozart’s Coronation Mass (K317) and Requiem (K626), Haydn’s The Seasons, Mass no. 2 by Schubert (D167), Fauré’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Britten’s Les Illuminations.

Recent engagements include: Bach’s Magnificat and Weihnachtsoratorium at the Musikverein in Vienna; Bach’s Cantatas at the Müpa in Budapest with Balázs Máté; Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (Eurydice) in Cagliari with George Petrou; Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate in Milan and Turin for the Festival Mito Settembre Musica, with Jos van Veldhoven; Bononcini’s Astarto (Sidonia) in Innsbruck with Stefano Montanari; Il matrimonio segreto (Carolina) in Potsdam and a baroque concert at the Handel Festspiele in Halle with Attilio Cremonesi; the Mass in B minor and a programme of Bach Cantatas in Vienna at the Wiener Akademie and Martin Haselböck; Pugnani’s Amore e Psiche with the Accademia del Santo Spirito in Turin and Ariodante (Dalinda) at the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca under the baton of Federico Maria Sardelli.

 

Biographie de Cristina Fanelli

Cristina Fanelli was born in 1991 and graduated from the “Niccolò Piccinni” Conservatoire under the guidance of Maestro Domenico Colaianni and Maestro Lucrezia Messa.

In 2016 she joined the “Fondazione Petruzzelli” choir and took part in the production of Nabucco under the baton of Roland Böer. As a soloist, she specialized at the Accademia del Belcanto “Rodolfo Celletti” in Martina Franca and made her debut as Riciardetta in Paisiello’s Don Chisciotte della Mancia.

She has collaborated and still collaborates with important conductors from the early music and baroque World, including Antonio Greco, Fabio Missaggia, Andrea De Carlo, Stephan Kofler, Estevan Velardi, Stefano De Micheli, Ryo Terakado, Olivier Fortin, Francesco Corti, Federico Maria Sardelli and Antonio Florio. These collaborations have led her to participate in some of the most important national festivals, such as Festival della Valle d’Itria, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival, Spazio & Musica, Grandezze & Meraviglie, Festival Alessandro Stradella, Trame Sonore, Festival Anima Mea, Roma Festival Barocco, Monteverdi Festival Cremona, Milan Arte Musica, Sagra Musicale Umbra, the LanAntiqua Festival both international as theTokyo Hokutopia Festival, Utrecht Oude Muziek Festival, Festival International opéra Baroque & Romantique de Beaune and the Festival Musique et Mémoire – vosges du Sud, the Festival D’Automne de Lanvellec , the Lithuanian Festival “Baroko pavasaris” in Birzai, the german Schwetzinger Festspiele in Worms and the finnish Festival Sastamala Gregoriana.

In parallel with her solo activity, she works with numerous madrigal and instrumental ensembles, including De Labyrintho and Rosso Porpora conducted by Walter Testolin, Accademia d’Arcadia by Alessandra Rossi Lürig and with Concerto Italiano by Rinaldo Alessandrini, La Divina Armonia of M° Lorenzo Ghielmi, La Florida Capella of M° Marian Polin, Capella Lanensis by Maestro Josef Höhn and Concerto Scirocco by Giulia Genini.

 

Biographie de Francesca Cassinari

Francesca Cassinari especially devoted herself to vocal polyphony from Middle Age to Renaissance and to Baroque music, singing with the most eminent italian ensembles. She is a member of La Compagnia del Madrigale, Il Canto di Orfeo, La Fonte Musica, Cantica Symphonia and she performed with Il Pomo d’Oro, Concerto Italiano, La Divina Armonia, La Venexiana, Collegium 1704, Capella Reyal de Catalunya, Stile Galante, Pian&Forte, Club Médiéval.

With La Compagnia del Madrigale she has recorded madrigals and sacred polyphony by Gesualdo, Monteverdi, Cipriano de Rore, Orazio Vecchi, all published by Glossa Music and awarded Diapason d’Or de l’année and Gramophone Award. With La Venexiana she took part in the recording of the Monteverdi’s operas and of madrigals by Luzzaschi. With Stile Galante she recorded cantatas by Porpora and by Vinci and a solo CD dedicated to Luigi Marchesi’s Ariettas.

She regularly sings also late medieval and early renaissance music with La Fonte Musica, especially devoted to the Ars Nova repertoire. The CD ‘Enigma fortuna’ (complete works by Zacara da Teramo published by Alpha) has collected the main European critics’ awards: Diapason d’Or (Diapason), Editor’s Choice of Gramophone, Preis der Deutschen Shallplattenkritik and others.

Francesca has been a member of Il canto di Orfeo since its foundation, participating as a soloist and as part of the vocal ensemble in almost all of the group’s productions. In this role, she has taken part in the Salzburg Festival in the last two years, singing Monteverdi’s Orfeo, Mozart’s Mass in C minor and La Clemenza di Tito, always under the conduction of Gianluca Capuano.

 

Biographie de Federica Napoletani

 

Biographie de Angela Hyun Jung Oh

Angela Hyun Jung Oh earned a diploma in operatic singing from the G. Verdi Conservatoire in Milan. In 2016 she graduated with the highest marks, honours and distinction in Renaissance and Baroque Vocal Music from the G. Cantelli Conservatoire in Novara, under the guidance of R. Balconi. She pursued advanced perfomance studies with R. Alessandrini e soprano A. Mellon. Hyun Jung is highly appreciated in the field of sacred music: she performed as a soloist in Bach’s Magnificat and in Vivaldi’s Gloria at Monreale Cathedral with Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana conducted by M. Berrini, who also conducted her solo performances in Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri in Cagliari and in Mozart’s Requiem in Rome. In 2023 for the Traditional Milan Cathedral Christmas concert, she sang both as a soloist and chorister in Bach’s cantata BWV 63 Christen, ätzet diesen Tag with La Verdi Barocca under the baton of R. Jais. Again as both soloist and chorister she sang in Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Oberwalliser Vokalensemble conducted by H. Kämpfen. Recently, she was one of the four soloists in a vocal quartet  at the Festival Abbaye de Saint-Michel en Thiérache with La Risonanza conducted by F. Bonizzoni and she performed as a soloist with the ensemble Il Canto di Orfeo conducted by G.Capuano for the International Festival of Early Music MilanoArteMusica.

 

Biographie de Massimo Altieri

Born in Rovigo, he graduated in Classical Guitar in 2004 at the Bologna Conservatory.

In the same year he intensified the study of singing in urban realities and in particular in the Polyphonic Choir of the city of Rovigo.

He has been actively collaborating since 2007 with important national and international realities specialized in the practice and the research of the ancient vocal repertoire and beyond.

Among these: La Compagnia del Madrigale and Cantica Symphonia (Giuseppe Maletto), Cantarlontano (Marco Mencoboni), De Labyrintho (Walter Testolin), IDisinvolti (Massimo Lombardi), Odhecaton (Paolo da Col), Ensemble Arte Musica (Francesco Cera), Modo Antiquo (Federico Maria Sardelli), Accademia d’Arcadia (Alessandra Rossi-Lürig), La Venexiana (Davide Pozzi), Ars Cantica and FORM (Marco Berrini), LaVerdi Barocca (Ruben Jais), Il Canto di Orfeo – Les Musiciens du Prince (Gianluca Capuano), La Fonte Musica (Michele Pasotti), Concerto Italiano (Rinaldo Alessandrini), Accademia Bizantina (Ottavio Dantone), Chorus of the Swiss Radio and Television and I Barocchisti (Diego Fasolis).

He has various recordings to his credit for Arcana, Alfa, Glossa, Arkiv and other important labels. He has been engaged since 2013 as a chorister at the RSI (Radio and Television of Italian Switzerland) choir and in this formation he took part in the European tour of “Norma”. Precisely in this team and with the group I Barocchisti, led by Diego Fasolis, over the years, he had the opportunity to train on numerous occasions and in a rich choice of repertoires, both as a chorister and as a soloist.

He made his debut in September 2016 as a soloist in Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine, in the “Vicenza in Lirica” festival at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza and the Church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice.

In May 2017 he made his debut in the trilogy of Monteverdi works in the roles of: Pastore Secondo (L’Orfeo), Soldato Secondo / Famigliare di Seneca (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Giove / Eumete (Il Ritorno di Ulisse in patria) at Schwetzingen’s festival of early music with La Venexiana under the direction of Davide Pozzi. In the same year, he made his debut (under the direction of Marco Berrini) with the FORM (Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana) in the “Requiem” by W. A. Mozart. With the same group in November 2018 he made his debut in « The Messiah » by G. F. Händel at the Goldoni Theater in Livorno.

Since his knowledge and practice of the madrigal are relevant in his experience, he is among the titular members of the RossoPorpora Ensemble (directed by Walter Testolin) with which he has several recordings to his credit.

One in particular is dedicated to the figure of Luca Marenzio (L’amoroso & crudo stile – Arcana). The publication of Claudio Monteverdi’s « Sixth Book of Madrigals » is expected in the near future.

Active member of « La Fonte Musica » (Michele Pasotti), a group specialized in the rediscovery and enhancement of the medieval musical heritage, in which he made his debut with an important recording of the complete work by Zacara Da Teramo, a collection that has earned one of the greatest acclaim in the music sector (Diapason d’Or, ICMA Nomination, Gramophone Editor’s Choice).

Among the relevant occasions, with this group, he saw himself engaged as a soloist in Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine at the Wiener Konzerthaus.

At the end of 2021, at the Alighieri Theater in Ravenna and the Comunale in Ferrara, under the guidance of Ottavio Dantone, directed by Pierluigi Pizzi, he is Pastore I in Claudio Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo ».

In November 2022, at Opéra de Lausanne he makes is debut as Tempo in Haendel’s oratory “Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno” with I Barocchisti and Diego Fasolis.

In the first part of 2023 he is Nicola, a role in the new composed opera by Vanni Moretto for Opera2day: Don Quichot. This big tour traveled in many important theatres in the Netherlands.

Again in 2023he is Pastore I and Apollo in “L’Orfeo”, both for Monte Carlo Opéra and Whitsun Festival in Salzburg, under the guidance of Gianluca Capuano in an interesting version with Compagnia Marionettistica Carlo Colla e Figli.

In 2024 (and for 2025 reprise) he will be again involved in “L’Orfeo” with Ottavio Dantone in Zurich Opera House.

 

Biographie de Alessandro Ravasio