The Rossini Festival celebrates its 40th anniversary and its prominent name-giver with a top-class gala concert. The quality of singing is unmatched, bringing together renowned and frequent artists of the Festival with a new generation of promising Rossini voices. With the passionate direction of Carlo Rizzi and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI one can enjoy a firework of scenes and arias, starring star tenor Juan Diego Flórez, American tenor Lawrence Brownlee, Italian baritone Nicola Alaimo, Russian mezzo-soprano Anna Goryachova or American soprano Angela Meade, to name only a few. The reviews were full of praise for this All Star Game: Viva Rossini!
Rossini Opera Festival 2022: Le Comte Ory
“French soprano Julie Fuchs was a superb Adèle […] a terrific soprano, light yet incisive, and the pinpoint accuracy of her coloratura was staggering.” (Bachtrack.com) Le comte Ory is a comedic opera by Gioachino Rossini set in medieval France. The opera, Rossini’s only French comedy, is known for its sparkling music, including well-known arias such as Adèle’s aria “En proie à la tristesse”, Comte Ory’s aria “Que les destins prospères” and the duet Ory-Isolier “Voyez donc, voyez donc le traître”. Rossini’s score is characterized by its elaborate vocal lines, quick-witted humour, and beautiful ensemble pieces. Le comte Ory is a delightful and light-hearted comedy that showcases Rossini’s skill at blending humour and music.
Rossini Opera Festival 2016: La Donna del lago
Ricciardo e Zoraide
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the premiere of the Rossini rarity, the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro stages “Ricciardo e Zoraide” with an all-star cast. Juan Diego Flórez makes his debut as the crusader Ricciardo, giving a “masterclass in bel canto” (Bachtrack). Pretty Yende – “radiant and richly expressive” (Financial Times) as Zoraide – proves that she is “a virtuosa in Rossini singing” (Neue Musikzeitung).
Rossini Festival Pesaro: Guillaume Tell
“The Rossini Festival supplied brilliant solutions” to the challenges of Rossini’s rarely performed work composed in the style of French “grand” opera. On the rostrum Gianfranco Mariotti, graduate of Pesaro’s Rossini Conservatory and one of the the world’s most sought after conductors for this repertoire, and “may be the only one person more appreciated in Pesaro than Juan Diego Flórez,” who performs the role of Arnold Melchtal in this production. (Opera Today)
Matilde Di Shabran
“There truly is a Rossini miracle!” (Deutschlandradio). Acclaiming the mastery of tenorissimo Juan Diego Flórez and the breathtaking young soprano Olga Peretyatko in the lead roles, the press hailed the premiere of Rossini’s Matilde di Shabran at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro as the “high point of the festival” (the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel).
Zelmira
The Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Rossini’s birthplace, is internationally renowned for its innovative stagings and musically impeccable productions of Rossini’s works. In this staging of the dramma per musica ‘Zelmira’, the Festival once again lays claim to this reputation. Stage director Giorgio Barberio Corsetti ‘delivers a production of great visual fascination and dramaturgical intelligence’ (Corriere della Sera). This rediscovery should help ‘Zelmira’ return to theaters everywhere.
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra -Opening Gala 2010/2011 with Gustavo Dudamel and Juan Diego Flórez
The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra started its season with a great Gala Concert conducted by music director Gustavo Dudamel. As special guest: star tenor Juan Diego Flórez. The programme includes popular arias by Rossini as well as famous songs by Latin-American composers. Programme: Rossini, Overture to ‘La gazza ladra’, Overture to ‘Semiramide’, ‘La Speranza piu soave’ from Semiramide, Overture to Guillaume Tell, ‘Asil ereditaire’ from Guillaume Tell; Granada (arr. Florez),’ La flor de la canela’; Mancayo,’ Huapango’; Grever (arr. Guinovart), ‘Jurame’; Gutierrez (arr. Pena), ‘Alma Ilanera’; Marquez, Danzon No. 2; Encores: Verdi, ‘La donna e mobile’ from Rigoletto; Gounod: ‘Ah, leve toi soleil’ from Romeo and Juliette.
Werther
Goethe’s Sturm und Drang drama is echoed in Massenet’s score by emotionally wide-ranging vocal parts written on a grand scale. The world star Juan Diego Flórez, who “iscurrently the best representative of his rare field” (NZZ), sings one of the most poetic and expressive tenor roles of the French repertoire. At his side, Anna Stéphany sang her critically acclaimed role début as Charlotte. Tatjana Gürbaca, known for her great narrative imagination, directed Zurich’s new production of Massenet’s drame lyrique: the one-room staging cleverly renders the social stranglehold of oppression. “This is how musical theater should be (..).” Neue Zürcher Zeitung