Ambrogio Maestri
Artistic Director - Master Artistic
Ambrogio Maestri was born in Pavia where he studied singing and piano.
His sensational debut in 2001 coincided with the most important musical event of the Verdi Centennial, Falstaff, conducted by Riccardo Muti and directed by Giorgio Strehler, which saw him in the leading part at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the historic Teatro Verdi in Bussetto.
This interpretation earned him enthusiastic reviews from the international press and opened the doors of the most important opera houses of the world. The collaboration with Riccardo Muti leads him over the next three years to debut at the Teatro alla Scala in some of the most emblematic Verdi roles such as Jago in Otello, Renato in Un Ballo in maschera, Don Carlo di Vargas in La forza del destino and Giorgio Germont in Traviata, thus strengthening the foundations of a constantly growing career.
Guest of the most prestigious opera companies world-wide (Metropolitan Opera, Opera de Paris, Covent Garden, Staatsoper di Vienna,
Deutsche Oper di Berlino) Maestri continues his Verdian journey performing as the Conte di Luna in Trovatore, Amonasro in Aida, Rolando in La battaglia di Legnano, and in the leading roles of Simon Boccanegra, Rigoletto and Nabucco.
In these years of intense activity Maestri is directed by the best international conductors including Zubin Mehta, Daniele Gatti, Daniel Oren, Fabio Luisi, Antonio Pappano, Jeffrey Tate, Nello Santi, Marcello Viotti, Marco Armiliato, Gianandrea Noseda, Renato Palumbo,Daniel Harding…and by directors such as Franco Zeffirelli, Robert Carsen, Graham Vick, Peter Stein, Bob Wilson, Larent Pelly, Mario Martone, Hugo De Ana, Bartlett Sher…
In 2013 during the celebration of Verdi bicentennial Maestri was recognized as the best Falstaff of the last years. He was Sir John at La Scala, at the Opèra National de Paris, at Zurich’s Opernhaus, at Salzburg’s Festival, in Munich, in Tokyo, and at the Met in New York.
Ecouter Ambrogio Maestri
Anna Pirozzi
Guest master
Anna Pirozzi is a famous Italian opera singer.
She performs most of the great female characters of Italian opera and her voice type is a dramatic coloratura soprano.
After the debut at the Salzburg Festival in the summer of 2013 under the musical direction of Riccardo Muti in the part of Abigaille in Nabucco, her career grew rapidly and she performed on the most important stages : Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin , Arena di Verona, Vienna Staatsoper, La Scala in Milan …
Anna Pirozzi regularly performs with internationally renowned conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Nello Santi, Nicola Luisotti, Daniel Oren, Donato Renzetti, Gianandrea Noseda, Michele Mariotti, Renato Palumbo and Marco Armiliato.
She regularly collaborates with Placido Domingo.
Her recent performances include Macbeth in Bologna, Turin and Madrid, Nabucco at La Scala in Milan, Arena in Verona, Tel Aviv, Valencia, I due foscari at La Scala in Milan, Il Trovatore in Covent Garden (London), Aida in Turin and Madrid, Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci in Macerata and Covent Garden and Andrea Chénier in San Francisco and Bilbao.
She will soon sing Norma in Bilbao, Nabucco and Turandot at the Bavarian Staatsoper, Un ballo in maschera in Oviedo and Madrid.
Ecouter Anna Pirozzi
Marco Berti
Guest master
Born in Como, Marco Berti studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory.
After winning the International Giacomantonio Competition, he made his debut in 1990 as Pinkerton from Madame Butterfly in Cosenza.
He was soon invited by the world’s major opera houses ( La Scala in Milan, L’Arena in Verona, Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, Liceu in Barcelona, Metropolitan Opera in New York, Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Opera in Zurich, Opera in Rome, Chorégies Orange, Paris Opera etc). He performs under the direction of such renowned conductors as Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Antonio Pappano, Daniel Oren, James Conlon, Nicola Luisotti and directors such as Franco Zeffirelli, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Pier’Alli, Liliana Cavani, Luc Bondy, Ferzan Ozpetek.
His repertoire includes the great Verdian and Puccinian parts: Radamès (Aida), Riccardo (A masked ball), Gabriele Adorno (Simon Boccanegra), Manrico (Le Trouvère), Ernani, Calaf (Turandot), Des Grieux (Manon Lescaut), Pinkerton (Madame Butterfly), Cavaradossi (Tosca), the leading parts of Edgar, as well as Don José (Carmen).
His first solo album, Rare Verismo, was released in 2007. In 2011, Style magazine (Corriere della Sera supplement) ranked him among the top four tenors in the world.
Ecouter Marco Berti
Galina Galkovskaya
Master in scenic art
Gallina Galkovskaya has a PhD degree in art history and is also an associate professor of directing and opera creation. Currently, she teaches at the Belarusian State Academy of Arts and the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts.
In 1996, she began her collaboration with the Bolshoi Theater in Minsk and became its permanent director.
In her shows and for the preparation of roles, she puts forward the Stanislavski method. During her career, she directed operas from the great repertoire, such as Carmen, Le Prince Igor, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, La Bohème.
Along with a classical repertoire, she participated in the world premiere:City of Masters by Gladkov (2003), La Barbe Bleue and his Women by V. Kopitsko (opéra bouffe – 2006), The Bear by S. Kortess (2009).
She is also the author and director of more than twenty original and experimental projects: Modern Opera, the Evening of Waltzes, Grand Concert on the Occasion of the Visit of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill.
She created the first multimedia project in the history of the Bolshoi, that became very popular in Belarus and beyond its borders. She collaborated with many conductors: A. Anisimov, L. Lyakh, A. Galanov, V. Volich, O. Lesun, I. Kostyakhin (Belarus); conductors Felix Korobov (Russia, Moscow), M. Sinkevich (Russia, Saint Petersburg), …
As a director, she participated in various international opera festivals: Open Air (Switzerland 2002), Open Air (Germany), New European Festival MbH (Germany), Monschau Klassik Musik & SAAR (Germany 2008), BrücknerHaus (Austria 2017). She directed Turandot (Puccini), Nabucco (Verdi), Madame Butterfly (Puccini), Iolanta (Tchaikovsky).
In 2016 for her talent and her creative work she was awarded with Francysk Skaryna medal.