Iván Fischer

con­duc­tor, Music Direc­tor

His focus is always the music, and to this end, he has devel­oped sev­er­al new con­cert for­mats and reformed the struc­ture and work­ing method of the sym­pho­ny orches­tra. In the mid-1980s he found­ed the Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra, where he has since intro­duced and estab­lished numer­ous inno­va­tions. He envi­sions a pool of musi­cians serv­ing the com­mu­ni­ty in var­i­ous com­bi­na­tions and musi­cal styles.

His work as Music Direc­tor of the Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra has devel­oped into one of the great­est musi­cal suc­cess sto­ries of the last 30 years. With inter­na­tion­al tours and a series of record­ings for Philips Clas­sics and Chan­nel Clas­sics, he has earned a rep­u­ta­tion as one of the world’s most cel­e­brat­ed orches­tral con­duc­tors, for whom tra­di­tion and inno­va­tion go hand in hand.

He has found­ed a num­ber of fes­ti­vals, includ­ing the Budapest Mahler­fest, the Bridg­ing Europe fes­ti­val and the Vicen­za Opera Fes­ti­val. The World Eco­nom­ic Forum pre­sent­ed him with the Crys­tal Award for his achieve­ments in fos­ter­ing inter­na­tion­al cul­tur­al rela­tions.

He was prin­ci­pal con­duc­tor of the Nation­al Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra in Wash­ing­ton, the Opéra Nation­al de Lyon and the Konz­erthau­sor­ch­ester Berlin, the lat­ter appoint­ing him Con­duc­tor Lau­re­ate. The Roy­al Con­cert­ge­bouw Orches­tra named him Hon­orary Guest Con­duc­tor fol­low­ing many decades of work­ing togeth­er. He is a fre­quent guest con­duc­tor of the Berlin Phil­har­mon­ic, the Bavar­i­an Radio Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra and New York Phil­har­mon­ic Orches­tra.

Iván Fis­ch­er stud­ied the piano, vio­lin and cel­lo in Budapest, before join­ing the leg­endary con­duct­ing class of Hans Swarowsky in Vien­na. Hav­ing spent two years as assis­tant to Niko­laus Harnon­court, he then launched his inter­na­tion­al career as win­ner of the Rupert Foun­da­tion con­duct­ing com­pe­ti­tion in Lon­don.

After var­i­ous guest appear­ances at inter­na­tion­al opera hous­es, he found­ed the Ivan Fis­ch­er Opera Com­pa­ny. His stag­ing always sets as its goal an organ­ic uni­ty between music and the­atre. IFOC pro­duc­tions, which often spa­tial­ly con­nect the instru­men­tal­ists and singers, have been received with great acclaim in recent years in New York, Edin­burgh, Abu Dhabi, Berlin, Gene­va and Budapest.

Iván Fis­ch­er has been active as a com­pos­er since 2004, writ­ing most­ly vocal music with instru­men­tal ensem­bles. His opera The Red Heifer made head­lines across the world; the children’s opera The Gruffa­lo enjoyed numer­ous revivals in Berlin; his most fre­quent­ly per­formed work, “Eine Deutsch-Jid­dis­che Kan­tate” has been per­formed and record­ed in sev­er­al coun­tries.

Iván Fis­ch­er is founder of the Hun­gar­i­an Mahler Soci­ety and patron of the British Kodá­ly Acad­e­my. The pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Hun­gary award­ed him the Gold Medal, and the French gov­ern­ment hon­ored him as Cheva­lier des Arts et des Let­tres. In 2006 he was dec­o­rat­ed with the Hun­gar­i­an Kos­suth Prize, in 2011 with the Roy­al Phil­har­mon­ic Soci­ety Music Award and the Dutch Ovatie Prize, and in 2013 he was named an hon­orary mem­ber of the Roy­al Acad­e­my of Music in Lon­don.
Iván Fis­ch­er is hon­orary cit­i­zen of Budapest.

Bernhard Richter

tenor

Recent high­lights were Pel­léas (Pel­léas et Mélisande) in Tokyo, Don Ottavio (Don Gio­van­ni) at La Scala in Milan, his Roy­al Opera House debut as Tamino (Zauber­flöte) and a new pro­duc­tion of Ari­o­dante at the Bol­shoi in Moscow, where he could be heard as Lur­ciano.

Fur­ther impor­tant engage­ment were Gri­moal­do (Rodelin­da) at De Nationale Opera Ams­ter­dam, Belfiore (La fin­ta Gia­r­diniera), Don Ottavio (Don Gio­van­ni) and the title roles of Idome­neo and Schu­berts Fierrabras at La Scala. He has also been invit­ed to sing Idome­neo at the Vien­na State Opera and made his debut at the eatro Real Madrid in the title role of La clemen­za di Tito.

One of the most impor­tant roles in his reper­toire is Pel­léas. Bernard Richter has per­formed this role at the Vien­na State Opera, the Teatr Wiel­ki War­saw, the Opéra de Lyon and with the Orchestre sym­phonique de Mon­tréal. He has sung Bel­monte (Die Ent­führung aus dem Serail), Hylas (Les Troyens), Don Ottavio, Tamino (Die Zauber­flöte) and Froh (Das Rhein­gold) at the Opéra Nation­al de Paris, Tamino at the Salzburg Fes­ti­val, Jaquino (Fide­lio) at the Ver­bier Fes­ti­val, Don Ottavio and Cheva­lier de la Force (Dia­logues des car­mélites) at the Bavar­i­an State Opera in Munich, Cas­tor (Cas­tor et Pol­lux) with the Pyg­malion Ensem­ble, Des Grieux (Manon) and Camille de Rossil­lon (The Mer­ry Wid­ow) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Titus at the Opéra nation­al de Lor­raine in Nan­cy, Orphée (Orphée aux Enfers) at the Opéra de Lau­sanne as well as Alphonse de Mon­za in Fer­di­nand Hérold’s Zam­pa and in the title role in Lully’s Atys with Les Arts Floris­sants at the Paris Opéra-Comique. Bernard Richter is also a reg­u­lar guest at the The­ater an der Wien, where he has appeared in roles such as Erik (Der fliegende Hol­län­der, released on DVD), Béné­dict (Béa­trice et Béné­dict), Don Ottavio, Medoro (Orlan­do Pal­adi­no) and Eccliti­co (Il mon­do del­la luna, released on DVD). At the Théâtre du Châtelet he took on the roles of Paris (La Belle Hélène) and Fritz (La Grande Duchesse de Gérol­stein), Don Ottavio and the title role in Johann Chris­t­ian Bach’s Lucio Sil­la he sang at the Zurich Opera House, Fer­ran­do (Così fan tutte) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the title roles in Mozart’s Idome­neo, Lucio Sil­la and Mitri­date at the Freiburg The­atre.

In addi­tion to his work on the opera stages, Bernard Richter is also a sought-after con­cert singer. Most recent­ly he was heard in Haydn’s Die Schöp­fung under the baton of Zubin Mehta at the Teatro del Mag­gio Musi­cale in Flo­rence, in Madrid he sang Beethoven’s Mass in C major under the baton of William Christie and with Beethoven’s 9th Sym­pho­ny he was heard in St. Peters­burg under the baton of Teodor Cur­rentzis. Oth­er impor­tant con­cert engage­ments from the past include Beethoven’s 9th Sym­pho­ny with the Vien­na Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra under Philippe Jor­dan, Die Schöp­fung at the Ver­bier Fes­ti­val and Don Ottavio with the NHK Orches­tra under Paa­vo Järvi in Tokyo, as well as appear­ances with the Musi­ciens du Lou­vre at the Salzburg Fes­ti­val Whit­sun.

He works reg­u­lar­ly with lead­ing orches­tras such as the Berlin Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra, the MDR Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra, the Orchestre Phil­har­monique de Stras­bourg, the Orches­tra Sin­fon­i­ca Nazionale Rai and the Sev­eriges Radios Sym­fo­niorkester in Stock­holm, and has appeared on major con­cert stages such as the Salle Gaveau de Paris, the Ton­halle Zurich, the styr­i­arte Graz, the Gewand­haus Leipzig, the Accad­e­mia di San­ta Cecil­ia and the Konz­erthaus Vien­na. With the Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra he has appeared as Tamino and in Mozart’s Requiem in Lon­don, Berlin, Ams­ter­dam, Bruges and Baden-Baden.

In both his opera and con­cert engage­ments, Bernard Richter reg­u­lar­ly works with the most impor­tant con­duc­tors of our time, includ­ing Philippe Jor­dan, Daniel Hard­ing, William Christie, Adam Fis­ch­er, Kent Nagano, Marc Minkows­ki, Jef­frey Tate, Ivor Bolton, Niko­laus Harnon­court, Fabio Luisi, Sir Neville Mar­riner, Syl­vain Cam­brel­ing, Peter Schnei­der, Iván Fis­ch­er and Raphaël Pichon, as well as with direc­tors such as Lau­rent Pel­ly, Christof Loy, Niko­laus Lehn­hoff, Kei­th Warn­er, Pierre-Emmanuel Rousseau, Jean-Marie Vil­légi­er, Christophe Hon­oré, Zabou Bre­it­man and Kasper Holten.

The 2022/23 sea­son sees him in a new pro­duc­tion of Dia­logues des Carmelites at the Vien­na State Opera and in var­i­ous con­certs under the baton of Daniele Gat­ti in Rome and Turin.

Patricia Petibon

sopra­no

The artist remains faith­ful to the Baroque reper­toire, under­lin­ing this with per­for­mances by Rameau’s Les indes galantes (Phani & Zima) with William Christie at the Paris Opéra and Ari­o­dante (Dalin­da) under the baton of Marc Minkows­ki, the reopen­ing of the Théâtre du Châtelet with Gluck’s Orphée et Eury­dice under John Eliot Gar­diner, as well as Ari­o­dante (Ginevra) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Alci­na (Mor­gana) at La Scala. The artist received with spe­cial acclaim as Giu­nia (Lucio Sil­la) at the The­ater an der Wien, led by Niko­laus Harnon­court with whom she enjoyed a very close col­lab­o­ra­tion.

High­lights of recent years include her role debut as Lulu in Gene­va, at the Salzburg Fes­ti­val and at the Liceu in Barcelona (also released on DVD at DGG). In addi­tion, Patri­cia Peti­bon per­formed Mitri­date on stage in Vien­na and Munich. With her role debut as Don­na Anna (Don Gio­van­ni), she enjoyed great suc­cess at the Opéra Bastille in Paris. Most recent­ly, she was cel­e­brat­ed for her Susan­na (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Fes­ti­val in Aix-en-Provence and her role debut as Gil­da in a new pro­duc­tion of Rigo­let­to in Munich. In 2013, she sang Giu­nia (Lucio Sil­la) in Barcelona and cel­e­brat­ed a great per­son­al tri­umph as Blanche in a new pro­duc­tion of Les Dia­logues des Car­mélites at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris — as pre­vi­ous­ly in Vien­na. Both the world pre­miere of Philippe Boesman’s Au Monde at La Mon­naie in Brus­sels and the revival at the Opéra Comique in Paris was met with great suc­cess.

Patri­cia Peti­bon con­tin­ued with Ginevra in Handel’s Ari­o­dante at the Fes­ti­val of Aix-en-Provence, made an acclaimed return to the Vien­na State Opera with Massenet’s Manon and the title role of Handel’s Alci­na at the Aix-en-Provence fes­ti­val for which she was high­ly praised by both audi­ence and the press. Anoth­er high­light in her career was a new pro­duc­tion of Mozart’s Mitri­date at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées where she was on stage as Aste­r­ia.

In autumn 2016, she was cel­e­brat­ed in the title-role of Massenet’s Manon in a new pro­duc­tion at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and in May 2017 as Mélisande in a new pro­duc­tion of Debussy’s Pél­leas et Mélisande at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées. High­lights of the 2017/2018 sea­son includ­ed Mozart’s Lucio Sil­la at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Blanche at Les Dia­logues des Car­mélites at La Mon­naie in Brus­sels, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and Euridice in Orfeo et Euridice at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris.

In the sea­son 2018/2019, Patri­cia Peti­bon appeared for the first time as Vio­let­ta in Verdi’s La Travi­a­ta at the Malmö Opera. Anoth­er high­light was the title role of Massenet’s Manon at the Opéra Comique in Paris. In autumn 2019 she was high­ly acclaimed for all three female roles in Offenbach’s Les con­tes d’Hoffmann at the Mon­naie in Brus­sels. In spring 2021 she made a mag­nif­i­cent role debut with Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine and Thier­ry Escaich’s Point d’Orgue direct­ed by Olivi­er Py at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées.

In addi­tion to numer­ous recitals, Patri­cia Peti­bon can be heard in 2022 with her new pro­gramme La Tra­ver­sée with La Cetra and Andrea Mar­con at the Paris Phil­har­monie, at the Fes­ti­val in Epau, at the Music Fes­ti­val in Dres­den and in Lis­bon. With the French baroque ensem­ble Amar­il­lis she presents the pro­gramme Flammes de Magi­ci­ennes in Froville, Bor­deaux, Ghent and Massy. She also per­forms Ravel’s Shéhérazade with Les Siè­cles and François-Xavier Roth and with the Orchestre Phil­har­monique du Lux­em­bourg and Jérémie Rohrer, and presents French operetta with the Orchestre Nation­al de France con­duct­ed by Enrique Maz­zo­la. Future opera projects for the 2022–2023 sea­son include a new pro­duc­tion of Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine direct­ed by Katie Mitchell at the Opéra Nation­al du Rhin in Stras­bourg, and Pel­léas et Mélisande con­duct­ed by Iván Fis­ch­er.

Patri­cia Peti­bon enter­tains close musi­cal ties to Alain Altinoglu, Gio­van­ni Antoni­ni and Il Gia­rdi­no Armon­i­co, Bertrand de Bil­ly, Ivor Bolton, Frédéric Chaslin, Myung Whun Chung, Héloïse Gail­lard und Amar­il­lis, Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Con­cert d’Astrée, Daniel Hard­ing, Bernard Haitink, Krist­jan Järvi, Louis Lan­gré, Andrea Mar­con and La Cetra, as well as Venice Baroque, Josep Pons, François-Xavier Roth and Les Siè­cles, Christophe Rous­set, Jérémie Rohrer, Paa­vo Järvi and many more.

Being equal­ly at home on the great recital stages, she per­forms fre­quent­ly in Paris, Lyon, Lille, Stras­bourg, Vienna’s Musikvere­in and Konz­erthaus, at the Salzburg Fes­ti­val, in Graz, Gene­va, Dort­mund, Ham­burg, London’s Wig­more Hall, Edin­burgh, Aix-en-Provence, Lux­em­bourg, Ams­ter­dam, Copen­hagen, Barcelona, Madrid, Grana­da and Bil­bao.

Patri­cia Petibon’s record­ings include titles like Les Fan­taisies de Patri­cia Peti­bon with a wide­spread excerpt of her vast reper­toire, French Touch, an album fea­tur­ing French Arias, a solo album with French Baroque Arias, Orlan­do Pal­adi­no with Niko­laus Harnon­court and La pas­sione di Gesù with Fabio Bion­di. Oth­er notable record­ings include duets from Han­del operas with Emmanuelle Haïm, Werther and Die Ent­führung aus dem Serail. She was an exclu­sive artist for Deutsche Gram­mophon from 2008 — 2016. Dur­ing this time, she record­ed arias by Gluck, Mozart and Haydn with Con­cer­to Köln and Daniel Hard­ing, the CD Rosso includ­ing Ital­ian Baroque arias with La Cetra and Andrea Mar­con and Melan­co­l­ia with the Orques­ta Nacional de España under Josep Pons, fea­tur­ing Span­ish reper­toire. In 2012, she record­ed her solo album Nou­veau Monde, includ­ing Baroque arias and songs with La Cetra and Andrea Mar­con. This was fol­lowed by La Belle Excen­trique in 2014, a record­ing of Mélodies Français­es, which has received numer­ous awards. Patri­cia Peti­bon has signed a new record­ing con­tract with Sony Music Mas­ter­works. Her first album under the label of Sony Clas­si­cal with the title „L’amour, la mort, la mer“ will be released in Feb­ru­ary 2020.

Tassis Christoyannis

bari­tone

As a guest he sings in New York (Carnegie Hall, Elec­tra), Glyn­de­bourne Fes­ti­val and Gene­va (Fal­staff), Brus­sels (La Travi­a­ta), Ams­ter­dam (Lucia di Lamer­moor), Berlin (Il bar­bi­ere di Siviglia), Frank­furt (Don Car­lo, Il Trova­tore), Nantes (Fal­staff), Budapest (Così fan tutte, Don Gio­van­ni, Fal­staff with Ivan Fis­ch­er), Faust, Il bar­bi­ere di Siviglia, I Pagli­ac­ci and Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria in Paris, Il Bar­bi­ere di Siviglia in Vien­na, La Travi­a­ta in Covent Gar­den, Mac­beth and Simon Boc­cane­gra in Bor­deaux etc.

Par­tic­u­lar­ly note­wor­thy in his inter­pre­ta­tion of Wozzeck in Athens in ear­ly 2020, Sharp­less (Madame But­ter­fly) at the Opéra nation­al du Rhin… Recent­ly, he sang Idoménée by Cam­pra in Lille and at the Staat­sop­er Berlin, Abra­mane (Zoroas­tre) with Les Ambas­sadeurs in Namur, Anvers and Tour­co­ing, Don Andrès de Rebeira (La Péri­c­hole) at the Opéra Comique- Paris, Cin­na (La Vestale) at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Otel­lo (Iago) and La Tosca (Scarpia) in Athens.

His projects for the 2022–2023 sea­son and the fol­low­ing ones : Fal­staff (title role) in Lille and Lux­em­bourg, Coe­lenus (Atys) in tournee, Golaud (Pel­léas et Mélisande) in Toulouse, Ger­mont (La Travi­a­ta) in Gene­va…

His record­ing of Handel’s Tamer­lano was award­ed and praised inter­na­tion­al­ly, as well as Handel’s Julius Cae­sar, Gretry’s Andro­maque and Verdi’s Fal­staff under Vladimir Jurows­ki on DVD, Rey­nal­do Hahn and Charles Goun­od melodies.

Nicolas Testé

bas­so

The French bass Nico­las Testé stud­ied piano, bas­soon and music his­to­ry in Paris before embark­ing on a career as a singer. He stud­ied at the Opéra Nation­al de Paris and Cen­tre de For­ma­tion Lyrique. In 1998 he was award­ed the Sec­ond Prize at the “Voix Nou­velles” com­pe­ti­tion.

Nico­las Testé reg­u­lar­ly per­forms in many renowned opera hous­es such as the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Opera of New York, Munich Staat­sop­er, Los Ange­les Opera, San Fran­cis­co Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opéra Nation­al de Paris, Teatro San Car­lo Naples, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Teatro La Fenice as well as at the Glyn­de­bourne Fes­ti­val and Choré­gies d’Orange.

His exten­sive reper­toire com­pris­es title roles in Iphigénie en Aulide (Agamem­non), Roméo et Juli­ette (Frère Lau­rent), Manon (Des Grieux), Ham­let (Claudius), Il Trova­tore (Fer­ran­do), Die Zauber­flöte (Saras­tro), Cas­tor et Pol­lux (Jupiter), Faust (Mephis­to), Les Con­tes d’Hoffmann (The Four Vil­lains) and Il Bar­bi­ere di Siviglia (Basilio).

In pre­vi­ous sea­sons he per­formed at the Bay­erische Staat­sop­er in La Bohème (Colline) at the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Opera in Car­men (Zuni­ga), at the Opéra de Paris in Sam­son et Dalila (Abim­elech) as well as at the Los Ange­les Opera in the role of the Four Vil­lains in Les Con­tes d’Hoffmann.

Yvonne Naef

alto

High­lights of the past sea­sons include Quickly/FALSTAFF in Zurich, Milan and Astana, Ulrica/UN BALLO IN MASCHERA and Kundry/PARSIFAL, Fricka/DIE WALKÜRE, Ravel’s L’ENFANT ET LES SORTILÈGES under Sei­ji Oza­wa, Mahler’s 8th Sym­pho­ny in Salzburg under Gus­ta­vo Dudamel and Wagner’s WESENDONCK LIEDER in Paris.

The cur­rent sea­son sees amongst oth­ers Ravel’s L’ENFANT ET LES SORTILEGES with the Berlin Phil­har­mon­ic and Mikko Franck and Verdi’s FALSTAFF with the Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra under the baton of Iván Fis­ch­er.

Yvnonne Naef has made numer­ous record­ings, some of which have received cov­et­ed inter­na­tion­al clas­si­cal music awards.

Peter Harvey

bari­tone

Peter has made close to 150 record­ings in reper­toire span­ning eight cen­turies, with an empha­sis on the High Baroque. Along with works by Han­del and Pur­cell he has record­ed all the major vocal works of J.S. Bach and many of the can­tatas with con­duc­tors includ­ing Sir John Eliot Gar­diner, Philippe Her­reweghe and Paul McCreesh. A flu­ent French speak­er, Peter has record­ed a great many sacred works of the French Baroque and per­forms reg­u­lar­ly with Michel Cor­boz. Of his two record­ings of the Fau­ré Requiem with Michel Cor­boz, the lat­est ver­sion won the “Choc de l’année” in Le Monde de la Musique. The Gabrieli Consort’s record­ing of Haydn’s Cre­ation, for Deutsche Gram­mophon, on which Peter sings “Adam”, won the ‘Gram­my Award’ for the best choral record­ing of 2008. His Win­ter­reise with Gary Coop­er on Linn gar­nered out­stand­ing reviews in the nation­al and inter­na­tion­al press.

Recent and upcom­ing high­lights include his debut at Roy­al Dan­ish Opera as well as per­for­mances with Con­cer­to Copen­hagen, Mon­tever­di Choir and Orches­tra, Orches­tra of the Age of Enlight­en­ment, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Gaechinger Can­torey, Freiburg­er Barock­o­rch­ester, Mahler Cham­ber Orches­tra, Tafel­musik Toron­to, Ensem­ble Pyg­malion, Gul­benkian Orches­tra, Orques­ta Sin­fon­i­ca de Bil­bao, Oslo Phil­har­mon­ic , Bavar­i­an Radio Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra, Rot­ter­dam Phil­har­mon­ic, Ned­er­lands Kamerork­est and Orchestre sym­phonique de Mon­tréal.

Oliver Michael

Marco Gandini

Mar­co Gan­di­ni is senior pro­fes­sor at Showa Uni­ver­si­ty of Music in Tokyo Japan, prin­ci­pal teacher at Teatro alla Scala Acad­e­my for Singers in Milan Italy, and holds mas­ter class­es for Opera Stu­dio at Tici­no Musi­ca in Lugano Switzer­land.

www.marcogandini.it