- Castelnuovo-Tedesco
- Chelsea Opera Group
- Ralph Allwood: Jingle Bells
- Little Rock
- Mike Dewis
- Peter Cigleris
- Seminary Tortona
- International Federation of Choral Music
Rossini Opera Festival 2025
Details of next summer's festival, based at Pesaro in Italy, were announced in December, including two new productions and three cantatas
The programme for the forty-sixth edition of the Rossini Opera Festival (ROF) was presented on 10 December 2024 at the Sala Nassirya of the Senate of the Republic in Rome, Italy.
The festival will be held from 10 to 22 August 2025. As usual, it will take place in the Italian seaside town of Pesaro, on the Adriatic coast.
The Rossini Opera Festival was established in 1980 to make the world more aware of Rossini's neglected operas and to present all of Rossini's operas in collaboration with Casa Ricordi, which publishes critical editions of the operas.
In 2025, productions of four operas by Gioacchino Rossini are proposed.
Presentation on 10 December 2024 at Sala Nassirya, Senate of the Republic, Rome, Italy, of the Rossini Opera Festival 2025
The festival will open with a new production of Zelmira - a title missing from the ROF since 2009), directed by Giacomo Sagripanti and staged by Calixto Bieito. This will be followed by another new production, L'Italiana in Algeri, conducted by Dmitry Korchak and directed by Rosetta Cucchi.
There will be two revivals: La cambiale di matrimonio, conceived by Laurence Dale and this time directed by Christopher Franklin, already seen with great success at the ROF 2020 and on its subsequent tour in Oman, and Il viaggio a Reims in the usual version conceived by Emilio Sagi, directed by Alessandro Mazzocchetti and interpreted by the students of the Accademia Rossiniana 'Alberto Zedda'.
The concert programme includes several rarities: the three cantatas Il pianto di Armonia sulla morte di Orfeo, La morte di Didone and Il pianto delle Muse in morte di Lord Byron will be performed for the first time in the critical edition of the Fondazione Rossini.
The 2025 edition will close with the Messa per Rossini, proposed by Giuseppe Verdi shortly after the composer's death and written in 1869 by various composers, including Lauro Rossi, Carlo Pedrotti, Carlo Coccia and Verdi himself.
The festival will open on 10 August at the Auditorium Scavolini with Zelmira, directed by Calixto Bieito, who will be responsible for the sets with Barbora Horáková. The costumes will be by Ingo Krügler and the lighting by Michael Bauer. Giacomo Sagripanti will conduct the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, which returns to the ROF after thirty years as the leading company, and the Chorus of the Teatro Ventidio Basso. The cast includes Pretty Yende in the title role, Lawrence Brownlee as Ilo, Enea Scala as Antenore, Marina Viotti as Emma, Andrea Mastroni as Polidoro, Gianluca Margheri as Leucippo, Paolo Nevi as Eacide and Shi Xong as the High Priest. The three performances will take place on 13, 16 and 19 August.
Gioacchino Rossini in circa 1850
This will be followed on 11 August by the first performance of La Cambiale di matrimonio at the Teatro Rossini, in conjunction with the Soirées musicales. Christopher Franklin will conduct the Filarmonica Gioachino Rossini in a production designed by Laurence Dale, with sets and costumes by Gary McCann and lighting by Ralph Kopp. The cast includes Paola Leoci as Fanny, Pietro Spagnoli as Tobia Mill, Jack Swanson as Edoardo Milfort, Mattia Olivieri as Slook, Ramiro Maturana as Norton and Inés Lorant as Clarina. The cast of Soirées musicales, in the version orchestrated by Fabio Maestri for ROF 2019, will include Vittoriana De Amicis, Andrea Niño, Paolo Nevi and Gurgen Baveyan. There will be repeats on 15, 17 and 20 August.
The second new production, L'Italiana in Algeri, will also be performed at the Teatro Rossini on 12 August. Dmitry Korchak will conduct the orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and the choir of the Teatro Ventidio Basso. The production is by Rosetta Cucchi, with sets by Tiziano Santi, costumes by Claudia Pernigotti, video design by Nicolas Boni and lighting by Daniele Naldi. The cast includes Daniela Barcellona as Isabella, Josh Lovell as Lindoro, Giorgi Manoshvili as Mustafà, Misha Kiria as Taddeo, Gurgen Baveyan as Haly, Vittoriana De Amicis as Elvira and Andrea Niño as Zulma. There will be repeats on 14, 18 and 21 August.
The fourth opera on the programme is Il viaggio a Reims by the young singers of the Accademia Rossiniana 'Alberto Zedda', which will be performed at the Teatro Rossini on 15 and 18 August in the historical production designed by Emilio Sagi and revived by Matteo Anselmi, with costumes by Pepa Ojanguren and lighting by Fabio Rossi. The young cast will be directed by Alessandro Mazzocchetti, who will conduct the Orchestra Sinfonica G Rossini. The thirty-seventh edition of the Accademia Rossiniana 'Alberto Zedda', which opens on 7 July, will close on 21 July at the Teatro Rossini with the traditional closing concert. The singers of the Accademia Rossiniana will also take part in the Salone Rossini, concerts in the province's historic villages and concerts at the Museo Nazionale Rossini.
The concert programme is packed, with seven performances at the Teatro Rossini and the eighth at the Auditorium Scavolini. On 17 August, the three cantatas Il pianto di Armonia sulla morte di Orfeo, La morte di Didone and Il pianto delle Muse in morte di Lord Byron will be given their first performances in the Fondazione Rossini critical edition. Cesare Della Sciucca will conduct the Orchestra Sinfonica G Rossini and the Ventidio Basso Theatre Choir, with solo singers Giuliana Gianfaldoni and Dave Monaco. There will be three opera-symphony concerts: on 13 August, François López-Ferrer will conduct the Orchestra Sinfonica G Rossini with soloists Anastasia Bartoli and Vasilisa Berzhanskaya; on 19 August, Manuel López-Gómez will conduct Michele Pertusi and the Filarmonica Gioachino Rossini; and on 21 August, Asier Eguskitza will conduct Sergey Romanovsky and the Orchestra Sinfonica G Rossini. There will also be three belcanto concerts: with Cecilia Molinari (14 August), Marko Mimica (16 August) and Hasmik Torosyan (20 August).
The ROF 2025 concludes on 22 August at the Teatro Rossini with a performance of Messa per Rossini. Donato Renzetti will conduct the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and the Teatro Ventidio Basso Chorus, with a cast including Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, Caterina Piva, Dmitry Korchak, Misha Kiria and Andrea Mastroni.
Further information: rossinioperafestival.it
Posted 14 December 2024 by Keith Bramich
