Giulio Zappa studied with Oleg Marshev, graduating in piano with the highest distinction at the Conservatory of Novara. At the same time he graduated with honours in Foreign Languages and Literatures at the State University of Milan, with a thesis on Russian opera. He started his career as a piano accompanist in the class of Bianca Maria Casoni in Milan, continuing with Aldo Ciccolini and Irwin Gage. Since 1996, he has performed all around the world.
Specializing in the bel canto repertoire, he has been senior vocal coach at the Rossini Opera Festival since 2002, also teaching singers and accompanists at the Scuola dell’Opera (Bologna), Accademia del Maggio Fiorentino, Accademia Verdiana (Parma), Accademia Teatro Carlo Felice (Genova), Accademia del Belcanto di Martina Franca, Teatro Real (Madrid), Escuela Superior de Canto de Madrid, University of Jaén, Opera Studio of Tel Aviv, Wexford Factory, Glyndebourne, Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Bolshoi Theatre Young Artists Opera Program, and Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO).
Giulio Zappa was artistic director of the Opera (e)Studio Young Artist Programme at the Ópera de Tenerife from 2013 to 2021 and since 2022 has served as the Artistic Secretary of the festival Donizetti Opera (Bergamo) and leader of its young artist programme, Bottega Donizetti.
It is no wonder that Marie-Nicole Lemieux shines today in the world of singing: the singer like the woman radiates an aura that belongs only to the greatest.
Her powerful voice, her superb sense of line and a faultless virtuosity, as well as her sense of nuance and drama, allow her to triumph in various repertoires. The beginning of her career was marked by Baroque music (Orphée by Gluck, Giulio Cesare, Orlando Furioso…). The evolution of her voice soon allowed her to take on the French repertoire of the 19th century (Les Troyens, Samson et Dalila, Carmen, Werther…), Rossini (Guillaume Tell, Tancredi, L’italiana in Algeri…) and also Verdi (Falstaff, Il trovatore, Un ballo in maschera…) as well as Wagner (Der Ring des Nibelungen).
Marie-Nicole Lemieux pursues an international career that takes her to the world’s great operatic venues (New York, Milan, London, Paris, Salzburg, Zurich, Vienna, Madrid, Brussels…), and alongside her stage career, she is invited to sing the great symphonic repertoire with prestigious orchestras and under the direction of renowned conductors.
She is acclaimed as a peerless recital artist with an exceptional vocal palette, having a special talent for French and Russian songs, as well as German lieder.
Marie-Nicole Lemieux is a Knight of the French Order of Arts and Letters, Knight of the National Order of Quebec, a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of La Pleiade. She also holds a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the Universite du Quebec at Chicoutimi.
A graduate of the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, British bass William Thomas is fast making a name for himself as one of today’s most promising young singers. He is the recipient of a number of major awards, most notably the 2018 Kathleen Ferrier Competition, the 2018 John Christie Award and the 2019 Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition.
He has appeared at Wigmore Hall as part of Graham Johnson’s Songmakers’ Almanac and in concert with the London Symphony Orchestra under François-Xavier Roth, the Orchestre national de Lyon under Alan Gilbert and with the Monteverdi Choir conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Highlights on the concert platform include Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Hallé under Sir Mark Elder and Verdi’s Requiem with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ryan Wigglesworth.
He made his debuts at La Scala Milan as Hobson in a new production of Peter Grimes and at the Bayerische Staatsoper as Colline in La bohème. Other opera engagements include Nicholas in the UK premiere of Barber’s Vanessa at the Glyndebourne Festival, Snug in a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Vienna State Opera and Sparafucile in Rigoletto at the English National Opera.
Argentine baritone Germán Enrique Alcántara is a graduate of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and made his company debut in the 2018/19 season as Dancaïre in Carmen, going on to appear in La traviata, Andrea Chénier and Faust (the latter also on tour to Japan) as well as, in 2021/22, singing Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro under Sir Antonio Pappano and Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor.
Among his many successes in international singing competitions are First Prize in the José Carreras Grand Prix in 2021, the Gold Medal at the Manhattan International Competition in 2020 and First Prize in the Concours Lyrique International ad Alta Voce in Paris in 2016.
Previous roles include Marcello in La bohème and the title role in Rigoletto at Welsh National Opera, the title role in Don Giovanni at New Israeli Opera, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore and Zurga in Les Pêcheurs de perles at Teatro Colón Buenos Aires. His concert repertory includes Mozart’s Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in G, Handel’s Messiah, Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri and Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle. He has recorded Misa Palatina with the Chamber Choir of the National University of Misiones.
Germán Alcántara studied at the School of Music in Misiones, Argentina, at the National University of Cuyo-Mendoza, at the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris (under Rosa Dominguez) and the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid (with Ryland Davies). He is currently studying for a PhD in Music and Performance at the University of Aveiro in Portugal with his project entitled ‘Cantocando: Self-accompaniment challenges’.
Japanese soprano Eri Nakamura first shot to prominence as a Royal Opera House Jette Parker Young Artist when she stepped in at short notice to replace Anna Netrebko as Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Since then she has made notable debuts in Europe, Asia and North and South America.
Highlights of her operatic career include: Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly with the Royal Swedish Opera, the New National Theatre, Tokyo, and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Gilda in Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Salzburger Landestheater; Liù in Turandot at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opera de Oviedo and Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse; Magda in La rondine at Biwako Hall; Woglinde in Götterdämmerung with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and with the National Taichung Theater; Mimì in La bohème at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile; Clorinda in La Cenerentola at the Wiener Staatsoper; Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, and Hyogo Performing Arts Centre; Juliette in Roméo et Juliette at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile; and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with the Washington National Opera.
Nakamura is an alumna of the Osaka College of Music, the Opera Studio at the New National Theatre Tokyo, the Opera Studio Nederland and the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House. After graduating from the programme, she returned to Covent Garden to sing Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro under Sir Colin Davis and Sophie in Werther under Sir Antonio Pappano, which was recorded by Deutsche Grammophon. From 2010 to 2016, she was a member of the ensemble at the Bayerische Staatsoper.
Britten Sinfonia is a different kind of orchestra. It is defined not by the traditional figurehead of a principal conductor, but by the dynamic and democratic meeting of its outstanding individual players and the broad range of their collaborators – from Steve Reich, Thomas Adès and Alison Balsom to Pagrav Dance Company, Father John Misty and Anoushka Shankar.
Rooted in the East of England, where it is the only professional orchestra working throughout the region, Britten Sinfonia also has a national and international reputation as one of today’s best ensembles. It is renowned for its adventurous programming and stunningly high-quality performances, and equally for its record of commissioning new music, nurturing new composing talent, and inspiring schoolchildren, hospital patients and communities across the East of England.
Britten Sinfonia is an Associate Ensemble at London’s Barbican, Resident Orchestra at Saffron Hall and has residencies in Norwich and Cambridge. It also performs regularly at London’s Wigmore Hall and appears at UK festivals including Aldeburgh, Brighton, Norfolk & Norwich and the BBC Proms. It is a BBC Radio 3 Broadcast Partner and has award-winning recordings on several record labels.
Its 2023-24 season includes Handel’s Messiah in Mozart’s re-orchestration and tours and performances with soprano Elizabeth Watts, saxophonist Jess Gillam, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, cellist Abel Selaocoe, tenor Nicky Spence and horn player Ben Goldscheider, The Marian Consort, and New York City Ballet.
British-born and of Mauritian and Lithuanian heritage, Kezia Bienek moved to London from Gloucestershire at the ag of 16 to study musical theatre at the BRIT School. During that time, she was drawn to opera and went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She completed her studies at the Benjamin Britten International Opera School of the Royal College of Music in 2015. She is a Solti Te Kanawa Academia di Bel Canto alumna, and worked with many wonderful singers in various masterclasses during her training, notably Brigitte Fassbaender, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Sir Richard Bonynge and Sir Thomas Allen.
Current and recent engagements include the title role in Carmen and Beppe in L’amico Fritz for Opera Holland Park, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly and Second Lady in The Magic Flute for Welsh National Opera and Silvia (The Messenger) in Orfeo at Opera North, as well as a return to Glyndebourne Festival in 2024.
In 2018, she made her Glyndebourne Festival debut as Cornelia in Giulio Cesare and later that year as Dorothée in Cendrillon (directed by Fiona Shaw) in her début for Glyndebourne on Tour. In 2019 she appeared as Second Lady in The Magic Flute for her debut with the Welsh National Opera, to which she soon returned to sing Forester’s Wife (and cover Fox) in TheCunning Little Vixen. Other opera engagements have included La Frugola in Il tabarro and Gianetta in Don Bucefalo for the Wexford Festival Opera; Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw for the Barnes Festival; Iside in Giove in Argo and Tauride in Arianna in Creta for the London Handel Festival; Concepcion in L’heure espagnole and Doralice in La gazzetta with the Royal College of Music; Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro with the British Youth Opera; and Dido in Dido and Aeneas with the Glyndebourne Youth Opera.
Bass-baritone André Henriques has a degree in Voice from the School of Music at the Conservatório Nacional (Portugal) where he studied with António Wagner Diniz. Receiving a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, he continued his studies in Opera Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where he studied with Donald Maxwell. Currently, he is a student of Lúcia Lemos.
Among the various projects in which he has featured, the highlight was the world premiere of Canção do Bandido by Nuno Côrte-Real and Pedro Mexia, directed by Ricardo Neves-Neves in a co-production between the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos and the Teatro da Trindade/Força de Produção, where he sang the role of Macaco. Other highlights include the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra conducted by Pedro Amaral; and the bass-baritone soloist in Haydn’s Die Schöpfung at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, conducted by Leonardo Garcia Alarcón.
Recently, he sang the bass in Miguel Azguime’s A Laugh to Cry in O’culto da Ajuda conducted by Pedro Neves; Bellini Belcanto in The Ring of the Unicorn, in a production by the Teatro do Eléctrico; Don Parmenione in L’occasione fa il ladro by Rossini at the Sintra Music Festival; and Don Alvaro in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims at the Centro Cultural de Belém.
Lluís Calvet i Pey was a finalist and winner of numerous prizes in the 2024 Concurs de Cant Tenor Viñas, including the Placido Domingo Prize, the Zarzuela Prize, and the Audience Prize. He was also one of the finalists in the Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition 2023 and won second prize at the Concours de Cant les Corts de Barcelona in 2020.
The Catalan baritone studied singing at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona with Maria Dolors Aldea and at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama with Adrian Thompson.
He gained his first stage experience in university productions at both institutions and in the Festival Internacional de Teatro clásico de Mérida with Paco Azorín. He also received the Eva Kleinitz scholarship from Opera Europa in 2022.
In the summer of 2023, he took part in L’Academia Rossiniana di Pesaro playing the role of Lord Sidney in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims.
From 2022 to 2024 he was a member of the International Opera Studio of the Hanover State Opera, where he played roles such as William in The Fall of the House of Usher, Sciarrone in Tosca, Ruggiero in La Juive, Fiorello in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore and Ping in Turandot. During this time he also appeared as a guest at the Ruhrtriennale Festival as the little prisoner in Janáček’s From the House of the Dead and at the Stuttgart State Opera as Chou En Lai in Adam’s Nixon in China.
In the 2024-25 season, he joins Staatsoper Hannover Ensemble where his roles will include Silvio in Pagliacci, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, Mr. Kallenbach in Satyagraha, Schaunard in La bohème and all men roles in Maria de Buenos Aires.
He debuted with Opera Rara, recording Publio from L’Esule di Roma by Donizetti and conducted by Carlo Rizzi.
Russian tenor Sergey Romanovsky has quickly established himself as one of the most interesting voices of his generation. He studied at the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory and the Academy of Choral Arts in Moscow and is the winner of numerous competitions, including the 2005 International Bella Voce Competition in Moscow.
Recent roles have included Alfredo in Verdi’s La traviata at the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Raoul in Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots at Semperoper Dresden and the title role in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux. Romanovsky has performed at opera houses around the world, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Alfredo in La traviata); Teatro alla Scala (Libenskof in Il viaggio a Reims); Opernhaus Zürich (Nadir in Les pêcheurs de perles); Bregenzer Festspiele (Duca in Rigoletto); Dutch National Opera (Rodolfo in La bohème); the Rossini Opera Festival (Leicester in Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra, Néoclès in Le siège de Corinthe, and Agorante in Ricciardo e Zoraide); and Wexford Festival Opera (Giasone in Medea) to name a few.
Recent concert engagements include Verdi’s Requiem (his debuts with Vlaanderen Opera and the Berliner Philharmoniker); Mascagni’s Messa di Gloria (Concertgebouw, Amsterdam); and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle (Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia).
Romanovsky has collaborated with conductors including Lorin Maazel, Evelino Pidò, Leo Hussain, Alberto Zedda, Christophe Rousset, Michele Mariotti, Daniele Callegari, Antonio Fogliani, Yuri Bashmet, Ottavio Dantone and stage directors Robert Carsen, Denis Krief, Stefano Mazzonis Di Pralafera and Luca Ronconi.
