Symphony Concert N° 6

Daniele Gatti graduated as a composer and orchestra conductor at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan. He is Chief Conductor of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Music Director of the Orchestra Mozart and Artistic Advisor of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. From 2024 he will be Chief Conductor of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden.

He was Music Director of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and he previously held prestigious roles at important musical institutions like the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Royal Opera House of London, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. The Berliner Philharmoniker, the Wiener Philharmoniker, and the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala are just a few of the renowned symphonic institutions he works with.

Some of the numerous and important new productions he has conducted include Parsifal staged by Stefan Herheim opening the 2008 Bayreuther Festspiele (one of the very few Italian conductors to have been invited to the Wagnerian festival) and four operas at the Salzburger Festspiele (Elektra, La bohème, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Il Trovatore). He opened several seasons of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma: La Damnation de Faust (2017-2018), Rigoletto (2018-2019), Les Vêpres Siciliennes (2019-2020), Il barbiere di Siviglia (2020-2021) and the world premiere of

Battistelli’s Julius Caesar (2021-2022). In 2023, as part of the 85th Festival of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, he conducted Falstaff and all the symphonies by Tchaikovsky. In summer 2025 he will return to the Bayreuth Festival for the new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

Daniele Gatti was awarded the Premio “Franco Abbiati” from Italian music critics as best conductor in 2015, in 2016 he was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur from the French Republic for his work as Music Director of the Orchestre National de France and he was also awarded the Grand Officer of Merit of the Italian Republic.

Under Sony Classical he has recorded works by Debussy and Stravinsky with the Orchestre National de France, and a DVD of Wagner's Parsifal staged at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Under the label RCO Live he has recorded Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, several of Mahler’s Symphonies, a DVD of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps together with Debussy's Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un Faune and La Mer, a DVD of Strauss's Salome performed at the Dutch National Opera, a CD of Bruckner's Symphony n. 9 together with the Prelude and the Karfreitagszauber (Good Friday Music) from Wagner's Parsifal. In November 2019 a DVD of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, staged at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, was released by C Major.

Eleonora Buratto is one of the most highly acclaimed lyric sopranos in the world. She began her career in 2009 singing as Creusa in Demofoonte conducted by Riccardo Muti, under whose baton she then sang in I Due Figaro by Mercadante, Don Pasquale, Simon Boccanegra, Falstaff, Nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte and Aida. At the start of 2015 she was Corinna at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam in Il Viaggio a Reims after which her international career continued to develop. Her current repertoire comprises signature roles such as Mimì, Liù, Micaela, Contessa di Almaviva, Donna Anna, Luisa Miller, Elettra (Idomeneo), Elvira (Ernani); she has collaborated with conductors such as Currentzis, Mehta,

Mariotti, Dudamel, Pappano, Gatti, Chailly and Nézet-Séguin. Among her most recent debuts: Fiordiligi, Anaï, Desdemona in Verdi's and Rossini's Otello, Anna Bolena, Madama Butterfly, Elisabetta in Don Carlo and Antonia in Les contes d’Hoffmann. Recent and upcoming engagements include Madama Butterfly at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Desdemona at the Bayerische Staatsoper, her debuts as Suor Angelica at the Wiener Staatsoper and Maria Stuarda at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia and the New Year Concert at La Fenice. In 2022 she was awarded the Abbiati Prize by the Italian Association of Music Critics.

The Hungarian mezzo-soprano Szilvia Vörös, born into a family of musicians, studied at Ferenc Liszt Academy in Budapest from Éva Marton. She won several important singing competitions, among (2014 – Budapest, Éva Marton International Singing Competion, 2017 – Portofino, Concorso Lirico Internazionale di Portofino 2018.
She has been a soloist of the Hungarian State Opera for four seasons where she was able to develop at that time a broad repertoire and her performances as Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Fenena (Nabucco), Waltraute (Die Walküre), Bersi (Andrea Chenier), Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Isabella (L’italiana in Algeri) won her critical acclaim.

She also performed in Péter Eötvös’ chamber opera Out at S.E.A. She appeared with this project in Milan, Brussels, Kraków and Paris. Regularly invited for recital and Lieder Szilvia has an important concert repertoire by composers ranging from Bach and Pergolesi via Mozart, Rossini and Liszt, to Arvo Pärt.

As participant of the Young Singers’ Project in 2016, Szilvia Vörös sang Albine in Thaïs by Massenet

at the 2016 Salzburg Festival with Placido Domingo and in Manon Lescaut by Puccini alongside Anna Netrebko.
In the season 2018/2019 she has joined the ensemble of Vienna State Opera where she made her debut as Anna in Les Troyens with Joyce DiDonato, in Rusalka, Fenena  in Nabucco,  Flowermaid in Parsifal as well Hippolyta (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Ottavia (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Mercedes (Carmen), Smeton (Anna Bolena), Waltraute (Goettermaemmerung) Messaggera-Prosepina ( Orfeo Monteverdi).

In 2019 made her debut in Brussels La Monnaie as Laura in La Gioconda and a year after she sang Judit from Bluebeard’s castle by Bartók with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, under Susana Mälkki. That concert was recorded by BIS records and the album was nominated for the Best Opera Recording on Grammy in 2022. In 2023 at the Rome Opera Theater she was a highly acclaimed Judith in Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle, under the direction of Michele Mariotti.

Francesco Meli was born in Genoa in 1980 and began his singing studies at 17, continuing with Vittorio Terranova and winning immediately several Competitions. In 2002 he made his operatic debuts at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, beginning a career that, in the main Belcanto and Rossini roles, brought him immediately in the main Italian and European Houses : since 2005 he has opened new productions for Rossini Opera Festival,  Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, then Genova, Turin, Bologna, Venice, and making debuts in Zurich, Vienna, Covent Garden, Lyon, as well as on record with Virgin.

In 2003 he made his La Scala debut in Les Dialogues des Carmelites conducted by Maestro Riccardo Muti and has returned there over the years to perform in Otello, Idomeneo, Don Giovanni, Maria Stuarda, Der Rosenkavalier, Carmen, Giovanna d’Arco, I due Foscari, Don Carlo, La traviata, Ernani, Tosca, Il Trovatore, Aida, L’elisir d’amore, Macbeth, Un ballo in Maschera and Don Carlo, opening for 6 times the Season of the House.

Since 2009 he has gradually turned his attention from Bel canto roles towards dramatic opera, singing I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata, Simon Boccanegra, Werther, Un ballo in maschera in Houses like Parma, Rome, the Arena in Verona, La Fenice, Amsterdam, Los Angeles : after his debut in Il Trovatore at La Fenice he sang it in new productions in Salzburg, Covent Garden, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Monte Carlo. He then sang notably I due Foscari in Covent Garden and at La Scala, Giovanna d’Arco in Salzburg and at La Scala :

since 2013, the 200th anniversary of Verdi’s birth, he sang in Simon Boccanegra, I due Foscari, Ernani and in Nabucco at the Rome Opera and in Salzburg under Riccardo Muti, Ernani at the MET, Macbeth, Aida and Un ballo in Maschera conducted by Riccardo Muti with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Simon Boccanegra in Vienna and at La Fenice, Aida at the Salzburg Festival conducted by Riccardo Muti and in new productions in Dresden and Covent Garden. Francesco Meli has a repertoire of over fifty roles and has performed under the world’s most eminent conductors, working regularly with Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Whun Chung, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Gianandrea Noseda, Antonio Pappano, Daniele Rustioni, Christian Thielemann and Yuri Temirkanov. He has performed in solo recitals at La Scala and in London, Tokyo and St. Petersburg and in the Verdi Requiem with Riccardo Chailly, Daniele Gatti, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Gianandrea Noseda and Yuri Temirkanov at La Scala and in Baden-Baden, London, Dresden, Munich, Paris, Florence, Zurich, Moscow, Salzburg, St. Petersburg, Tokyo and Vienna.

In November 2021 he realeased “Prima Verdi”, his first album devoted to a single composer, by Warner. His recordings are available on a range of DVDs released by Deutsche Grammophon, Unitel and Opus Arte.

He is artistic director and one of the tutors at the Academy of Advanced Professional Training for opera singers at Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice.

Acclaimed as one of the greatest singers in the present world lyric scene, Michele Pertusi was born in Parma, where he studied piano and singing at the Conservatory “A. Boito”. Then he continued his studies with Arrigo Pola, Carlo Bergonzi and Rodolfo Celletti.

In February 2005 he won the Grammy Award for the Best Opera Recording in the title role of Verdi’s Falstaff, with the London Symphony conducted by Sir Colin Davis (LSO LIVE). In 1995 he was awarded the “Abbiati International Prize”. His recording of Il turco in Italia conducted by Riccardo Chailly for Decca was awarded the Gramophone Award. He has also been the recipient of the Golden Medal as Cultural Benemeritus by the President of the Italian Republic. In 2018 he was awarded the prestigious “Rodolfo Celletti” prize at Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca.

He collaborated with most of the world leading conductors, including Riccardo Muti, Carlo Maria Giulini, Zubin Metha, Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim, James Levine, Kazushi Ono, Myung-Whun Chung and Antonio Pappano and he has appeared at the most important opera houses, concert houses and festivals all over the world.

In recent years Michele Pertusi has established himself as a outstanding interpreter of Verdi’s roles such as Filippo II in Don Carlo (Vienna State Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, Festival Verdi, La Scala), Attila (La Scala, La Fenice Venice, Festival Verdi, Opéra de Liege), Pagano in I Lombardi alla prima crociata (Parma, Monte-Carlo), Sparafucile in Rigoletto (Festival Verdi, Vienna), Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra (Vienna, Turin, Parma), Padre Guardiano in La forza del destino (Opéra Royal de Wallonie de Liège), Conte Walter in Luisa Miller (Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Opera di Roma), Da Silva in Ernani (La Scala), Massimiliano in I masnadieri (La Scala, Valencia), Zaccaria in Nabucco (Festival Verdi, Arena di Verona), Banco in Macbeth (Festival Verdi), Procida in Les vêpres siciliennes (Opera di Roma), Ramfis in Aida (Arena di Verona), and Messa da Requiem under the baton, among others, of Riccardo Chailly, Zubin

Metha, Myung-Whun Chung, Daniele Gatti.

Refined and outstanding interpreter of Rossini’s roles, Michele Pertusi is a regular guest of Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, where he made his debut in 1992 as Assur in Semiramide, followed by Moïse et Pharaon, Maometto II, Guillaume Tell, Il viaggio a Reims, Le siège de Corinthe, Torvaldo e Dorliska, La gazza ladra and Il barbiere di Siviglia. For his achievements at ROF, he was awarded the “Rossini d’oro” Prize.

His discography includes, among others, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Stabat Mater, Cantata per Pio IX and La Cenerentola conducted by Riccardo Chailly (Decca), Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte conducted by Georg Solti (Decca), Le nozze di Figaro under Zubin Mehta’s baton (Sony), Semiramide and Maometto II (Ricordi), Don Giovanni conducted by Daniel Barenboim (Erato), La damnation de Faust and Falstaff conducted by Colin Davis (LSO live).

Recent highlights are I Lombardi alla prima crociata and Messa da Requiem at Festival Verdi Parma I Capuleti e i Montecchi at Salzburg Festival; Aida and Il barbiere di Siviglia at Arena di Verona; I vespri siciliani at Teatro Regio in Turin; Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at Opéra de Lyon; Don Pasquale at Vienna State Opera; Lucia di Lammermoor at La Scala Milan; Ernani at Teatro La Fenice in Venice; Don Pasquale in Palermo; Don Carlo at Teatro San Carlo in Naples; Medea at Metropolitan New York; Nabucco and Aida at Arena di Verona; Moïse et Pharaon in Aix-en-Provence; Turandot at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Antonio Pappano; Luisa Miller at Opera di Roma.

Among the Next projects for season 2023/24 are Don Carlo in Modena, Piacenza and Reggio Emilia; Don Pasquale in Tokyo and in Hamburg; Guglielmo Tell at Teatro alla Scala Milan; Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at Salzburg Easter Festival with Antonio Pappano and Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia; Turandot at La Monnaie Brussels and at Teatro La Fenice Venice.

Had it not been for Carl Maria von Weber, Dresden’s opera chorus would not have been founded, or at least not on October 8, 1817. It was Weber who obtained royal approval for this initiative; after all, it was his artistic mission (and personal ambition) to establish a German opera company alongside the tradition-steeped Italian opera. Besides suggesting other reforms for the staging of opera, he argued that it was now essential to have a regular choir. The choir started to participate in the traditional Palm Sunday concerts as early as 1827. Major landmarks in its history include the performances in 1846, 1847 and 1849 of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under the later Kapellmeister Richard Wagner, who was forced to flee Dresden shortly after the last-mentioned performance.

Currently comprising 89 singers, the Dresden State Opera Chorus has now become one of Europe’s finest opera choruses and has been acclaimed as such in virtually every premiere review in recent years. This preservation of tradition, coupled with a growing awareness of quality, is indebted to such artists as Joseph Metzner, Wilhelm Fischer, Karl Maria Pembaur, Ernst Hintze, Gerhart Wüstner, Franz Peter Müller-Sybel, Hans-Dieter Pflüger, Matthias Brauer and Pablo Assante, who have led the choir through difficult times to the present day. The Dresden State Opera Chorus is currently directed by Jörn Hinnerk Andresen, who since assuming his post in 2014 has maintained and developed such qualities as tonal coherence, refinement and reliably consistent precision.

The State Opera Chorus of today has to a significant degree been shaped by its collaboration with the conductor Giuseppe Sinopoli, who died far too early and dedicated much time and effort to developing the choir’s artistic potential. Nowadays, the choir frequently demonstrates its qualities in operatic productions and concert performances. Radio, television and CD recordings bear further testimony to the immense prowess on account of which the State Opera Chorus is much sought after in many places besides Dresden: the choir receives invitations to perform at festivals, on tours and in concerts and has since 2013 worked together with the Staatskapelle Dresden at the Salzburg Easter Festival, which has been directed by Christian Thielemann ever since. October 8, 2017 marks the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Dresden State Opera Chorus.