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.
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.
