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.
Carlo Rizzi holds a long-standing reputation as one of the world’s foremost operatic conductors, in demand as a guest artist at the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals. Equally at home in the opera house and the concert hall, his vast repertoire spans everything from the foundation works of the operatic and symphonic canon to rarities by Bellini, Cimarosa and Donizetti to Giordano, Pizzetti and Montemezzi. Combining a deep expertise in the vocal art with theatrical flair and the practical collaborative skills honed over decades of experience in the world’s finest theatres, he is acclaimed by singers and audiences alike as a master of the operatic craft.
Born in Milan, Rizzi studied at the city’s conservatoire, and following his graduation was employed as a repetiteur at the legendary Teatro alla Scala. He launched his conducting career in 1982 with a production of Donizetti’s L’ajo nell’imbarazzo, and has now performed over a hundred operas, with a broad repertoire that is rich in Italian works in addition to the major titles of Mozart, Wagner, Strauss, Britten, Mussorgsky, Martinů and Janáček.
He was appointed Music Director of Opera Rara in September 2019. Since 2015, Rizzi has been Conductor Laureate of the Welsh National Opera, following his tenure as Music Director (1992-2001 and 2004-8) during which he was widely credited with overseeing a dramatic increase in the company’s artistic standards and international profile. He also has held long-standing relationships with the Teatro alla Scala, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and his career has seen him leading numerous productions at the most distinguished operatic addresses including the Opera National de Paris, Teatro Real Madrid, the Rossini Opera Festival of Pesaro, the Netherlands Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the New National Theatre Tokyo, Opernhaus Zürich, Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie, Brussels.
Rizzi is also critically acclaimed as a symphonic conductor with distinguished orchestras around the world including Halle, the London Philharmonic, the Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Netherlands Philharmonic, Orchestra i Pomeriggi Musicali, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Hungarian National Philharmonic, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and the orchestra of the National Arts Centre, Ottawa.
Rizzi opens the Canadian Opera Company’s 19/20 season with a new production of Turandot, and the season also sees his returns to Teatro alla Scala with a new production of Montemezzi’s L’Amore di Tre Re, concert performances with the Halle and the Antwerp Symphony, and his debut at the Norwegian Opera in Oslo in a new production of Rigoletto. He also returns to the Metropolitan Opera with productions of Turandot and Simon Boccanegra; to Welsh National Opera with productions of Les vêpres siciliennes and Le Nozze di Figaro; and to Lyric Opera of Chicago with the double bill of Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci.
Carlo Rizzi’s extensive discography includes complete recordings of Gounod’s Faust, Janáček’s Katya Kabanova (in English) and Verdi’s Rigoletto and Un ballo in maschera, all with Welsh National Opera; a Deutsche Grammophon DVD and CD of Verdi’s La Traviata recorded live at the Salzburg Festival with Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazon and the Vienna Philharmonic; numerous recital albums with renowned opera singers including Joseph Calleja, Juan Diego Florez, Edita Gruberova, Jennifer Larmore, Ernesto Palacio, Olga Borodina and Thomas Hampson, and most recently a pair of Gramophone Award-nominated discs for Opera Rara with Joyce El-Khoury and Michael Spyres. He has also made recordings of symphonic works by Bizet, de Falla, Ravel, Respighi and Schubert with orchestras including the London and Netherlands Philharmonics.
Stuart Stratford read music at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, studying conducting with David Parry and later in Russia, at the Saint Petersburg State Conservatoire, Symphonic and Operatic Conducting Faculty, for three years. He was the Junior Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester in 1999 and 2000.
He made his debut for English National Opera in 2004 and returned there in February 2010 with Philip Glass’s Satyagraha. For Opera North he has conducted Pagliacci, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the new Jonathan Dove opera, Swanhunter.
He is a regular conductor at Opera Holland Park and has staged performances of Eugene Onegin,The Queen of Spades, Jenufa, Iolanta, Katya Kabanova, La Forza del Destino, L’amico Fritz and Rigoletto.
He has worked at the Almeida Opera Festival and has given many first performances of major new works: Tobias and the Angel (Dove), Ion (Param Vir), Kantan (Goehr), L’altra Euridice (Dove), Ariadne (Langer) and The Embalmer (Batistelli). He has staged The Turn of the Screw, Falstaff and Pagliacci for English Touring Opera, and Francesca Zambello’s La Boheme with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the Albert Hall.
For Opera Rara he made his debut recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra of Mercadante’s I Normanni a Parigi.
Studied at Cambridge. He joined Opera North as a resident conductor, and from 1983 to 1987 was music director of Opera 80. In 1992 he became music director of Almeida Opera. He made his debut at Glyndebourne with Cosi fan tutte in 1996 and the same year conducted Rossini’s Ricciardo e Zoraide at the Pesaro festival. He has guested at English National Opera and has made regular appearances at opera houses and concert halls throughout Europe, particularly in Spain where he has conducted the Spanish National Orchestra. His UK engagements include concerts with the Philharmonia, the Ulster Orchestra and Bournemouth Sinfonietta. As well as work for the Chandos label, he has made many recordings with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for Opera Rara.
Born of Australian parents in the USA, Sir Charles studied in Sydney and Prague. He was Conductor Laureate of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Conductor Emeritus of the Welsh National Opera, Principal Guest Conductor Emeritus of the San Francisco Opera, Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra and from 1997-2003, Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, following his life-long association with both the orchestra and many aspects of Czech musical life. He has undertaken much research into performance practice of the 18th and 19th centuries and has conducted his own performing editions of the works of Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms with the world’s leading orchestras and opera houses.
Sir Charles received a CBE in 1974 and was knighted in 1979. He was honoured with the Medal of Merit from the Czech Republic in 1996, made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1997 and made a Companion of Honour in the 2003 Queen’s Birthday Honours. In May 2005 he was presented with the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal and in November 2005 was the first recipient of the Queen’s Medal for Music.
A sought-after guest conductor, James Judd is music director of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra and of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. After graduating from London’s Trinity College of Music, he came to international attention as assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, a post he accepted at Lorin Maazel’s invitation. He has made guest appearances with several noted ensembles, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Prague Symphony and Orchestra National de Paris. He has worked with all the major British orchestras – the Hallé, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and with the Philharmonia whom he conducts on the Opera Rara recordings of Donizetti’s Ne M’Oubliez Pas (ORC4) and Meyerbeer’s Dinorah (ORC5).
Alun Francis has conducted more than 150 orchestras and opera ensembles in 25 countries. Since joining the Ulster Orchestra and Northern Ireland Opera Trust as conductor and artistic director in 1966, Francis has conducted most of Britain’s major orchestras, including the City of Birmingham Symphony and the Hallé. He has recorded widely, winning the Premiere Prize at the Cannes Classical Awards in January 2000 for his recording of the complete symphonies of Darius Milhaud on CPO. His opera repertoire includes over 70 works and he has recorded six discs with Opera Rara, including the world premiere of Donizetti’s Gabriella di Vergy (ORC3).
Sir Mark Elder has been Music Director of the Hallé since September 2000. He was Music Director of English National Opera between 1979 and 1993, Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1992–1995, and Music Director of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in the USA from 1989–1994. He has also held positions as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Mozart Players. He has worked with many of the world’s leading symphony orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the Chicago Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic and the London Symphony. In the UK he enjoys close associations with both the London Philharmonic and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Sir Mark Elder has appeared annually at the Proms in London for many years, including, in 1987 and 2006, the internationally televised Last Night of the Proms and from 2003 with the Hallé Orchestra. He works regularly in the most prominent international opera houses, including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Opéra National de Paris, the Lyric Opera Chicago, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, and other guest engagements have taken him to the Bayreuth Festival (where he was the first English conductor to conduct a new production), Amsterdam, Zürich, Geneva, Berlin, and Sydney. Sir Mark Elder has made many recordings with orchestras including the Hallé, London Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, and the Rochester Philharmonic, as well as with English National Opera, in repertoire ranging from Verdi, Strauss and Wagner to contemporary music. Recordings for Opera Rara include Donizetti’s Dom Sebastien (Opera Rara ORC33),Imelda de’ Lambertazzi (ORC36), Linda di Chamounix (ORC43), Maria di Rohan (ORC44), Belisario (ORC49), Rita (ORC52), Le Duc d’Albe (ORC54) and Offenbach’s Fantasio (ORC51).
Giuliano Carella studied in Milan and Padova, completing his conducting studies at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena under Franco Ferrara. Since making his debut in 1987 he has conducted in the most prestigious venues all over the world in a wide repertoire ranging from Paisiello, through the Italian belcanto, to Verdi, Puccini and the Verismo composers. He has conducted: Lucrezia Borgia, Cyrano de Bergerac with Alagna and Normain Monaco, Turandot and Norma at the Liceu in Barcelona, Andrea Chenier, Macbeth, Poliuto and Roméo et Juliette in Amsterdam, Norma, in Berlin Cenerentola in Geneve, Falstaff in Strasbourg and I Puritani at the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, La Wally and Samson et Dalila in Amsterdam (Konzertgebouw), La Traviata and Maria Stuarda in Frankfurt, La Bohème and Toscain Detroit and Copenhagen, Rigoletto in Monaco and Lisbon, Attila and Cavalleria rusticana / Pagliacci in Marseille, Nozze di Figaro, Don Pasquale, Thais, La Bohémein Toulon. Giuliano Carella’s recording’s include: Pacini’s L’Ultimo Giorno di Pompeiand Verdi’s Ernani for Nuova Era, recital discs with Jennifer Larmore and Sumi Jo for Erato. For Opera Rara he has conducted Rossini’s Elisabetta Regina d’Inghilterra(ORC22) and Adelaide di Borgogna (ORC32), Donizetti’s Il diluvio universale(ORC31) and highlights from Meyerbeer’s L’Esule di Granata (ORR234).
Roland Böer studied piano, composition and conducting. After a first engagement as Solorepetitor at the Oper Frankfurt 1996-1999, he worked from 1999-2001 at the Deutschen Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf/Duisburg and was assistant to Antonio Pappano at the Bayreuth Festival, the Theâtre de la Monnaie in Bruxelles and at the Royal Opera House in London. From 2002 until 2008 he was Kapellmeister at the Oper Frankfurt, where he conducted a wide repertoire including, La Bohème, Chowanschtschina, the new production of Die verkaufte Braut, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, La Cenerentola and Un ballo in maschera. Since then he returned as a regular guest to this company, for the new production of Lucia di Lammermoor as well as the revivals of Don Carlo and Arabella. On the concert stage he worked with the Rundfunkorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Radiosinfonieorchester Frankfurt, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Bournemouth Symphony, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Opera North Orchestra, among others. He made recordings for EMI, Opera Rara (both with the Philharmonia Orchestra London) and BBC Scotland.
