Winner of the 2016 Premio Abbiati prize, Alaimo performs regularly in prestigious theatres and festival around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala in Milan, Salzburg Festival, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Paris Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Teatro Real in Madrid, Deutsche Oper in Berlin and the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. The great success of his interpretation of the title role in Rossini’s Guillaume Tell has seen acclaimed performances in opera houses worldwide.
Recent engagements include: La Cenerentola, Il Turco in Italia and a Rossini Gala with Cecilia Bartoli directed by Gianluca Capuano; Simon Boccanegra (title role) in Antwerp; Adriana Lecouvreur in Palermo; La forza del destino at the Metropolitan Opera; La bohème in Bologna; Il trovatore in Monte Carlo; Falstaff in Budapest; La cena delle beffe, Le comte Ory and Il pirata at La Scala; and Messa di Gloria by Puccini in Madrid. He has collaborated with conductors including Maurizio Benini, Bruno Campanella, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Daniele Gatti, James Levine, Michele Mariotti, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Evelino Pidò and Jean-Christophe Spinosi.
Future engagements include Falstaff in Venice and Tokyo; La forza del destino in Paris; Il barbiere di Siviglia in Monte Carlo; L’Italiana in Algeri and La Cenerentola in Zürich; Nabucco and Roberto Devereux in Geneva; Simon Boccanegra in Florence; I due Foscari in Chicago; La Cenerentola and Adriana Lecouvreur in Toulouse and Guillaume Tell in Liège.
Paul Daniel was Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Galicia from 2012 to 2022 and Music Director of the Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine from 2013 to 2021. He has held several permanent positions: at the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Perth (2009-2013), English National Opera (1997-2005), Opera North (1990-1997), English Northern Philharmonia (1990-1997) and Opera Factory (1987-1990). Operatic guest engagements have included invitations from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; the Opéra de Paris; La Monnaie in Brussels; the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich; the Semperoper Dresden; and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Paul Daniel’s orchestral engagements have included performances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (with whom he recorded Mendelssohn’s Elijah for Decca), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
His many recordings include a hugely successful album of Elgar’s Symphony No. 3 on Naxos and his discography with the Orchestra National de Bordeaux Aquitaine includes recordings of Wagner, Mahler and Tchaikovsky. His performance of Alban Berg’s Lulu for La Monnaie with Barbara Hannigan has been released as an award-winning DVD.
In 1998 he received an Olivier Award for outstanding achievement in opera and was awarded the CBE in the 2000 New Year Honours list.
French mezzo-soprano Virginie Verrez is a graduate of New York’s Juilliard School. She won the 2016 Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition and was a winner of the 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She was a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program from 2015 to 2017.
Recent concert engagements include Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette and Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding; La Damoiselle élue with the Orchestre National de France and Bertrand de Billy; Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Karina Canellakis; Erika in Barber’s Vanessa with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and David Zinman; Haydn’s Nelson Mass with the Orchestre National de Lyon and Omer Meir Wellber; Shéhérazade with the Minnesota Orchestra; a Mozart Gala with Le Concert d’Astrée featuring performances in Paris and Bahrain; and Duruflé’s Requiem with the Netherlands Radio Choir.
Recent operatic highlights include Stéphano (Roméo et Juliette) and Enrichetta (I puritani) for the Metropolitan Opera; the title role in Carmen for Welsh National Opera; Erika (Vanessa) at the Glyndebourne Festival; Suzuki (Madama Butterfly) for the Opéra National de Bordeaux and Iphigénie (Iphigénie en Tauride) for the Opéra National de Lorraine.
Verrez is a former member of the ensemble of the Wiener Staatsoper, where her roles included Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Lola (Cavalleria rusticana), Idamante (Idomeneo), Tisbe (La Cenerentola) and Meg Page (Falstaff).
Born in Paris, Katia Ledoux later moved to Austria, where in 2008 she won First Prize in the Prima La Musica competition. In 2009, she was admitted to the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, later studying at the Kunstuniversität Graz. In 2018, she won the Press Prize in the International Vocal Competition ’s-Hertogenbosch, and, in 2019, she was a prizewinner at the 38th Belvedere Competition and the Nordfriesische Liedpreis at Husumer Liedkunst Wettbewerb.
Following her debut in 2019 as Geneviève in Pelléas et Mélisande conducted by Stéphane Denève and staged by Olivier Py, she returned to the Dutch National Opera to sing the alto solo in Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle under Andrea Battistoni.
At the Opernhaus Zürich, she was Gertrude in Ted Huffman’s production of Roméo et Juliette and Junon in Rameau’s Platée; she sang Ježibaba in Rusalka at the Oper Stuttgart. As a member of the International Opera Studio of Zurich, she sang the role of the Innkeeper in Barrie Kosky’s production of Boris Godunov. As a soloist of Volksoper Wien, she notably performed Venus in Orphée aux enfers and the third lady in Die Zauberflöte.
Ledoux created the role of Proserpine in the world premiere of Manfred Trojahn’s Eurydice – Die Liebenden, blind directed by Pierre Audi at the Opera Forward Festival and Makuba in Neo Muyanga’s How Anansi Freed the Stories of the World for Dutch National Opera.
Canadian tenor Josh Lovell, whose voice has been described by the Chicago Classical Review as ‘a consistent cause for joy’, is the winner of the 39th Belvedere Singing Competition and an ensemble member of the Wiener Staatsoper. In 2022/23, he made house debuts at the
Teatro alla Scala as Ferdinand in Thomas Adès’s The Tempest, at the Oper Leipzig as Don Ottavio in a new production of Don Giovanni and with Deutsche Oper Berlin as Gérald in Lakmé at the Philharmonie. He also returned to the Wiener Staatsoper for guest performances as Telemachus in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Lukas in Die Jahreszeiten and Ernesto in Don Pasquale. Recently he stepped in for an unwell colleague as the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier at the Bayerische Staatsoper.
An avid and experienced concert artist, Lovell has given numerous performances of the works of Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Britten, Vaughan Williams and Bach. Most notably, he sang opposite Susan Graham and Nathan Gunn as part of the Jazz Trio in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti during a ‘Celebrating 100 Years of Bernstein’ concert at Lyric Opera of Chicago. He has
also appeared with Music of the Baroque, performing Bach’s Coffee Cantata conducted by Jane Glover; and Messiah with The International Music Foundation, as well as the Apollo Chorus of Chicago. He debuted as the Evangelist in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Victoria Philharmonic Choir in Canada and sang a selection of Bach cantatas as well as his Magnificat with the baroque ensemble I Musici de Montréal. Upcoming engagements include debuts at the Canadian Opera Company and the Opéra National de Paris.
French tenor Christophe Mortagne is in demand for character tenor roles at major houses around the world including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, the Dutch National Opera, Teatro Real in Madrid and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He has worked with conductors including Fabio Luisi, Marc Minkowski and Antonio Pappano, as well as directors such as Stefan Herheim, Kasper Holten and Laurent Pelly.
His broad repertoire includes Don Curzio (Le nozze di Figaro), Monsieur Triquet (Eugene Onegin), Schmidt (Werther), Spalanzani (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), le Roi Bobèche (Offenbach’s Barbe-Bleue), the title role in Offenbach’s Le Roi Carotte, Dr Caïus (Falstaff); Goro (Madama Butterfly) and Aegisth (Elektra).
Mortagne studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and is a former member of La Comédie Française. His recordings include Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Royal Opera House/Sony DVD; Bregenz Festival/Unitel Classica DVD) and La Vie Parisienne (Opéra de Lyon/Virgin DVD); L’Étoile (Dutch National Opera/Naxos DVD); and Eugene Onegin (Royal Opera House/Opus Arte).
After his debut in 2003 at the Opéra de Nancy in Luigi Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero, Christophe Gay quickly made a name for himself on the main French and international stages: Opéra Comique in Paris, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the opera houses of Lyon, Lille, Nantes, Rouen, Toulon, Avignon and Strasbourg, and also in Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Brussels and at the Glyndebourne Festival.
His broad repertoire includes numerous roles in baroque operas such as Iphigénie en Tauride, L’Orfeo, Platée, Castor et Pollux, Dido and Aeneas, as well as many Mozart operas (Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte). Gay is in demand for 19th and 20th century repertoire including Carmen, Rigoletto, Lakmé, Madama Butterfly, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Wozzeck, Candide, L’Étoile and Les Mamelles de Tirésias.
He appeared recently in La traviata, Yvonne, Princesse de Bourgogne and Iphigénie en Tauride at the Opéra National de Paris, Madame Butterfly in Orange and at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Offenbach’s Barbe-Bleue in Lyon, Carmen at the Opéra National du Rhin, Ariadne auf Naxos in Limoges, Les Mamelles de Tirésias at the Glyndebourne Festival, L’Heure espagnole in Tel Aviv and Roméo et Juliette in Québec.
Born in Strasbourg, Antoinette Dennefeld studied at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne.
Winner of several international prizes, she sings at the opera and in concert in major houses and festivals including Opéra National de Paris, Opéra Comique in Paris, Opéra National de Lyon, Opéra de Marseille, Opéra de Dijon, Opéra national du Rhin, Opéra National de Lorraine, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Maggio musicale fiorentino in Italy, Opéra de Lausanne, Ópera de Tenerife and Festival d’Aix-en- Provence.
She excels across a wide range of repertoire: Mozart (Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni); bel canto (Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Isolier in Le Comte Ory, Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi); French repertoire (Charlotte in Werther, the title role in Carmen and La Périchole, Concepciòn in L’Heure espagnole, Le Prince in Cendrillon, Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande, Giulietta in Les Contes d’Hoffmann); and contemporary music (Yvonne, Princesse de Bourgogne by Philippe Boesmans).
Dennefeld made her debut in Falstaff (Meg) at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and in Lyon, Carmen (title role) in Strasbourg and Mulhouse, Werther (Charlotte) in Marseille, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hermia) in Lille and La Périchole at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, in Dijon and in Toulon, Pelléas et Mélisande (Mélisande) with the Orchestra National de France.
Born in Belgium, Anne-Catherine Gillet began her career at a very young age in the Ensemble of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège.
She sang her first principal roles at the Capitole de Toulouse, then at the most prestigious international houses including Opéra de Lausanne, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Opernhaus Zurich, La Monnaie in Brussels, Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Opéra National de Paris and Opéra National de Bordeaux.
Recently she was Hero (Béatrice et Bénédict) in Brussels and at the Glyndebourne Festival; Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Blanche (Les Dialogues des Carmélites) and Norina (Don Pasquale) in Brussels and Québec; Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande) in Oviedo and in Strasbourg; Angèle (Le Domino noir) in Liège and at the Opéra Comique in Paris; Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) in Marseille; Suzanne (Madame Favart) and Jacqueline (Fortunio) at the Opéra Comique and in Nancy; Marguerite (Faust) in Liège, Cologne and Québec; Servilia (La clemenza di Tito) in Barcelona; Clairette (La Fille de Madame Angot) at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris; Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) in Toulouse; Micaëla (Carmen) in Luxembourg; Blanche (Les Dialogues des Carmélites), Point d’Orgue and La Voix humaine in Bordeaux; and Gabrielle (La Vie Parisienne) in Liège and Toulouse.
Awarded a 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Associate Artist of The Mozartists and a former member of the BBC’s New Generation Artists Scheme, Alessandro Fisher won First Prize at the 2016 Kathleen Ferrier Awards. He read Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge, where he was a Choral Scholar at Clare College, furthering his studies at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
He made his Salzburg Festival debut as Lucano L’Incoronazione di Poppea and his operatic engagements have further included Delmiro / Alindo Hipermestra for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Fabio Berenice for the Royal Opera, London, Bastien Bastien und Bastienne,Don Polidoro La finta semplice and Christian Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebotes for The Mozartists, Bellecourt Vert Vert for Garsington Opera, the title role in Dardanus for English Touring Opera and FentonFalstaff for The Grange Festival.
His recordings include L’Incoronazione di Poppea with Les Arts Florissants on Harmonia Mundi CD, Bastien und Bastienne with The Mozartists on Signum CD (nominated for a 2019 International Classical Music Award), Roussel’s Évocations with the BBC Philharmonic on Chandos CD and Dame Ethel Smyth’s Fête Galante on Retrospect Opera CD.
Engagements in 2021 / 2022 include the B Minor Mass with the New London Orchestra, Britten Les Illuminations with the Ulster Orchestra, Mendelssohn Elias at the Badisches Staatstheater Klagenfurt, Monteverdi Vesperae della beate Vergine with La Nuova Musica at London’s Wigmore Hall, Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 3 and On Wenlock Edge with the BBC Philharmonic, First Brother The Seven Deadly Sins on tour with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle (London, Cologne, Essen) and a New Generation Artist Recital at Stoller Hall. At the Wigmore Hall, he also appears in A Home for All Seasons and, with The Mozartists, The Swinging Sixties.
Mercadante’s Il proscritto is his debut with Opera Rara.
