Project Category: Singer

Italian soprano Patrizia Biccirè was born in Porto San Giorgio and received her diploma in singing from the Conservatorio Rossini in Pesaro. She was also a member of the Accademia Rossiniana in this same town and made her debut in 1992 at the Rossini Opera Festival as Giulia in Rossini’s La Scala di Seta. She has worked in some of the world’s most prestigious opera houses (Glyndebourne, Bologna, Lisbon, Bruxelles, Rome, London, Oslo, Madrid, Monaco, Vienna and Geneva), where she appeared under the direction of conductors such as Muti, Herreweghe, Gatti, Pappano, Zedda, Gardiner, Mackerras, Benini, Alessandrini, Biondi, Jones and Kuijken. Engagements include: La pietra del paragone in Pesaro, Madrid and Monte Carlo, Oscar in Un Ballo in maschera in Santiago and – under Mackerras – at Covent Garden, where she returned for Mozart’s La finta giardiniera; Don Giovanni (Zerlina) under Pappano at Santa Cecilia in Rome, Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo directed by Pizzi in Seoul and her debut as Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust in Lisbon.

Bulent graduated from the Music Academy of Gazi University in Ankara. He started his voice studies with Polish Tenor Roman Werlinski. He made his debut at the Mersin State Opera as Alfredo in the Verdi’s La Traviata. In 1997 he was invited to further his studies at the European Opera Centre in Manchester and made his European debut in the title role of Mozart´s opera Lucio Silla on tour in the UK, Ireland and Denmark. In 1999 he won the second prize in the Concours International de Chant de Paris during his studies in the Centre National d’Insertion Professionnelle d’Artistes Lyriques (CNIPAL) in Marseille. He has performed with conductors include Sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Chailly, Enrique Mazzola, David Parry, Pietro Rizzo, Vladimir Jurowsky, and orchestras including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, London Philharmonic Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra. He appears on Opera Rara’s recording of Rossini’s Ermione (ORC42).

Yann Beuron is one of the leading French artists of his generation. He studied singing at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, with Anna Maria Bondi, and was unanimously awarded first prize in 1996. In 1995, he made his debut at the Opéra du Rhin as Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, under the baton of William Christie. A regular guest of the Opera Bastille in Paris, he has also begun an important career outside France: Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, Théâtre de la Monnaie and the Grand Théâtre de Genève, among others. A frequent guest soloist on the concert podium, Yann Beuron also records for EMI France, Virgin Classics and Erato and appears on Opera Rara’s La Laitière de Trianon (ORR245).

Clive Bayley sings regularly with the major opera companies in a repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Verdi, Puccini, Berg, Britten and Birtwistle. He made his debut with Frankfurt Opera as Claggart in Richard Jones’s new production of Billy Budd, Hunding in the new production of Die Walkure in Strasbourg, Raimondo/Lucia di Lammermoor with English National Opera, and Water Sprite/Rusalka at Grange Park. He also made his debut with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, in the world-premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s Gawain and subsequently appeared as Colline La Bohème, Hans Foltz Die Meistersinger, Castro Fanciulla del West, Carbon Cyrano de Bergerac, Thoas Iphigenie en Tauride and Hunding Die Walkure. He has had notable successes with Opera North, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera and at the Glyndebourne Festival, and abroad he has appeared in San Francisco, Seattle, Munich, Toulouse, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Lausanne.

Born in Dublin, her operatic repertory ranges from Monteverdi, Handel and Glück to Rossini, Bizet and Verdi. Her many operatic performances include Tancredi and Arsace (Semiramide) for La Fenice, Venice; La Cenerentola for La Monnaie, Brussels and in Lausanne; Andronico in Amsterdam, Madrid and Washington DC; Carmen (title role) for WNO, Hamburg State Opera and Scottish Opera; Anna (Les Troyens) in Florence; Penelope (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria) in Florence, Athens and at the Berlin State Opera; Edwige (Guillaume Tell) and Marta (Mefistofele) for The Royal Opera House, London, and Smeaton (Anna Bolena) for San Francisco Opera. In 2007, Patricia created the title role in Saariaho’s Adriana Mater for Opéra-Bastille and sang the Adriana Mater Suite with the New York PO. Performances include Cornelia (Giulio Cesare) for the Metropolitan Opera New York, Chicago Lyric Opera, Munich Staatsoper and Glyndebourne, and Tamerlano in Madrid and Washington with Domingo. For Opera Rara she has recorded Rossini’s La donna del lago (ORC34) and Ermione (ORC42).

Daniela Barcellona was born in Trieste, Italy, where she completed her musical and vocal studies under the direction of M° Alessandro Vitiello. After winning awards in several international competitions, including the Aldo Belli in Spoleto, the Iris Adami Corradetti in Padua and the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition in Philadelphia, in the summer of 1999 she went on to perform Tancredi at Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Since then she has been considered one of the most important and sought-after interpreters at the international level. She has collaborated with such eminent conductors as Riccardo Muti, James Levine, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Claudio Abbado, Sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Chailly, George Pretre, Bruno Campanella, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Myun-wun Chung and Alberto Zedda. Among her most significant awards are the Abbiati Award (the Italian critics’ prize), the Lucia Valentini-Terrani and the Aureliano Pertile awards, the 2002 Opera Award, the CD Classica Award and the Rossini d’oro (awarded for a third time to a mezzo soprano, after Marilyn Horne and Lucia Valentini-Terrani). She appears on Opera Rara’s recording of Ginevra di Scozia (ORC23).

A graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music, Barry Banks has established himself as one of today’s finest interpreters of the bel canto repertoire. He is much in demand on the international opera platform performing at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, The Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de Paris, English National Opera, Châtelet, Salzburg Festival, La Monnaie, The Santa Fe Opera, Teatro Communale di Bologna and Oper Frankfurt amongst others. His roles include: Lindoro (L’Italiana in Algeri); Nemorino (L’Elisir d’amore); Don Ramiro (La cenerentola); Oreste (Ermione); Tom Rakewell; Tamino (Die Zauberflöte); Don Narciso (Il turco in Italia); Belfiore & Libenskof (Il viaggio a Reims); Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor); L’Astrologue (Le coq d’or) and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni). Barry has made a number of recordings for Opera Rara including Rossini’s Bianca e Falliero and Mercadante’s I normanni a Parigi.

Simon Bailey was born in Lincoln and read music at Clare College, Cambridge University, where he was a choral scholar. In 1997 he commenced postgraduate study at the Royal Northern College of Music, where Neil Howlett taught him. Simon has performed as a guest artist as Don Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia at La Scala, as Enrico for Prolirica´s production of Lucia di Lammermoor in Lima, Peru, as Don Basilio in Beijing, in the title role in Händel´s Herculesfor the Athens festival, and in Vienna as Publio in La clemenza di Tito. His repertoire includes Händel´s Messiah, Haydn´s Creation, the Mozart, Faure and Duruflé Requiems, Rossini´s Petite Messe Solonelle, Beethoven´s Missa Solemnis and many others, works he has performed throughout Europe and South America. He appears on Opera Rara’s Il diluvio universale (ORC31) and Adelaide di Borgogna (ORC32).

After studying with the baritone Sesto Bruscantini, Alfonso Antoniozzi made his debut in 1986 at Genoa in Il barbiere di Siviglia. He performs most frequently in comic opera roles and has been acclaimed for his interpretations of Dr Bartolo, Don Magnifico and Taddeo in Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola and L’Italiani in Algeri; Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore; and Leporello in Don Giovanni. Recording credits include La Boheme (EMI) and Le nozze di Figaro (Telarc), he made his Opera Rara recording debut in Donizetti’s one-act opera buffa La romanzesca e l’uomo nero (ORC19) and also appears on Donizetti’s Francesca di Foix (ORC28).

Anna Caterina Antonacci is acknowledged as a major artist, and her extraordinary vocal timbre and acting skills have enabled her to perform a vast and varied repertoire in the world’s most important theatres. She has scored notable personal success as Cassandre in Les Troyens with John Eliot Gardiner at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Incoronazione di Poppea at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysees, the title role in Medea in Toulouse, at the Epidaurus Amphitheatre, at the Teatro Regio, Turin and at the Châtelet. Anna Caterina made her debut in a new production of Carmen at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Antonio Pappano and also at the Opéra Comique conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. She has sung La Mort de Cleopatrewith the Rotterdam PO conducted by Yannick Nézét-Seguin, with the Hong Kong PO conducted by John Nelson and with the LPO conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin. For Opera Rara she appears on the recording Pauline Viardot and Friends(ORR240).