Italian Opera Gala

Founder of OperaWebinar and Music Director at Teatr Wielki in Warsaw from 2011 to 2014, Italian conductor Carlo Montanaro was discovered by Zubin Mehta, who recommanded him to the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, where he improved his skills under Leopold Hager, Erwin Acél and Yugi Yuasa for three years.

Since 2001, Montanaro has conducted opera and concerts in major venues including Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Fondazione Arena in Verona, Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Teatro Comunale in Florence, Fondazione Arturo Toscanini in Parma and Teatro Verdi in Trieste (a collaboration which led to a Japanese tour with the Orchestra). Titles included Lucia di Lammermoor, Nabucco, Aida, Tosca, La Sonnambula, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Madama Butterfly and La Bohème.

He conducted two works in the 2004-2005 season at Teatro Comunale in Florence, as well as various symphonic concerts with Fondazione Arena Verona, Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, Teatro Cilea in Reggio Calabria and Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. He conducted Il Trovatore and Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the State Opera of Stuttgart, as well as Il Barbiere di  Siviglia with Fondazione Arturo Toscanini.

Highlights between 2006 and 2008 include a great public and critical success conducting Un Ballo in Maschera with the Israeli Opera of Tel Aviv (new production), his American debut in Colorado with Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore, I Dialoghi delle Carmelitane in Bilbao to great critical acclaim, and Madama Butterfly at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

In 2008 he made his debut at La Scala with La Traviata, and he opened the Macerata Summer Festival with Carmen directed by Dante Ferretti. He conducted Il Corsaro at Festival Verdi in Parma and made his debut at Hercules Halle in Munich in a concert with the Weimar Staatskapelle and Erwin Schrott.

His 2009 opened with Madama Butterfly at the New National Theatre in Tokyo, followed by his return to Opera Colorado in Denver for Così fan tutte and a highly praised new production of Simone Boccanegra at Megaron in Athens, where he was then invited again to conduct Aida. He opened the 2009/10 Season at Canadian Opera conducting a new production of Madama Butterfly, and he conducted Mefistofele in Frankfurt, Verdi’s Requiem at Musikverein in Graz, Roméo et Juliette in Verona, La Traviata in Munich and Aida in Hamburg with great reviews from public and critics.

In 2011 he debuted with Carmen at Semperoper Dresden to great success, and he was reinvited to conduct Il Barbiere di Siviglia and a new production of Un Ballo in Maschera. Further highlights: Don Quichotte and Attila at Seattle Opera, a new production of Turandot in Warsaw, Lucia di Lammermoor in Bilbao, Aida, Manon Lescaut, Turandot and Macbeth in Hamburg, La Bohème at Teatro Comunale di Firenze, L’Amico Fritz and a new production of Adriana Lecouvreur in Frankfurt, La Traviata in Warsaw and in Cincinnati.

In September 2012 he returned to Musikverein in Graz to conduct a concert version of Verdi’s Giovanna D’Arco, and since then he conducted Falstaff in Hamburg, Tosca and L’Elisir d’Amore in Munich, Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Tokyo, Don Carlo, Verdi’s Requiem and Turandot in Warsaw, La Bohème in Seattle, Don Carlo in Frankfurt, Il Corsaro in Budapest, Norma at the Festival in Peralada. In season 2013/14, Madama Butterfly in Nagoya and Hamburg, La Traviata in Oviedo, La Bohème in Budapest, The Consul in Seattle, a concert version of Attila in Warsaw, Carmen, L’Elisir d’Amore and Tosca in Munich, Tosca and Il Trovatore at the Mariinsky in St. Petersburg, as well as concerts with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra del Santa Cecilia in Rome.

In season 14/15 he successfully debuted at Opéra Bastille in Paris with Il Barbiere di Siviglia. After that, he was on the podiums of the Hungarian National Philharmonic (Verdi’s Requiem) and Seattle Symphony for a series of concerts. He then conducted a new production of La Fanciulla del West in Hamburg, Rigoletto and La Traviata in Warsaw, Mefistofele in Budapest, Simon Boccanegra in Frankfurt, Rossini’s Stabat Mater in Budapest and Pécs, Nabucco in Seattle.

Highlights in the recent seasons include the debut at Opéra de Monte-Carlo (Tosca), at Korean National Opera (Tosca and La Bohème), at Sydney Opera House (La Bohème, Lucia di Lammermoor and Werther) and at San Francisco Opera (Carmen and La Bohème), as well as Rigoletto and Madama Butterfly at Warsaw Opera, Maria Stuarda, Madama Butterfly, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto and L’Elisir d’Amore in Seattle, a new production of Rigoletto in Frankfurt, La Traviata at Dallas Opera, La Traviata and Ernani in Melbourne, Lucia di Lammermoor at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Rigoletto at Opéra de Montréal, Un Ballo in Maschera at the Hungarian State Opera, La Traviata, Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Tosca at Opéra de Paris, La Bohème at Hamburgische Staatsoper, La Traviata and Nabucco at the Deutsche Oper, Il turco in Italia at Teatro di San Carlo, Les contes d’Hoffmann at ABAO Olbe Bilbao.

In concert, he appeared with Cincinnati Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Hungarian National Philharmonic, Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and he conducted Mozart’s Requiem at Teatro Regio di Parma.

Most recently he conducted Tosca at Oper Frankfurt, Lucia di Lammermoor at Teatro di San Carlo, La Juive and Madama Butterfly in Sydney, Nabucco at the Deutsche Oper, Madama Butterfly at Palm Beach Opera, La traviata at Seattle Opera. Moreover, made his debut with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

Future engagements include Fedora at Oper Frankfurt, Nabucco, Aida and Lucia di Lammermoor at the Deutsche Oper.

Born in Lebanon and raised in Canada, soprano Joyce El-Khoury has performed over 30 leading roles in major opera houses around the world. She has an acclaimed reputation for bringing rarely performed operatic works to life, most recently with Donizetti’s L’Ange de Nisida at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, recorded and released internationally.

Ms. El-Khoury’s 2023/2024 season begins with the Hungarian premiere of Liszt’s Sardanapalo at LisztFest in Budapest. Joyce makes two exciting Veridian role debuts this season, including Elisabetta in Verdi’s Don Carlo in a new production at Opéra de Monte-Carlo followed by her role debut as Amelia in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra at The Finnish National Opera & Ballet. Further on the opera stage this season, Joyce returns to Canada for performances of La Reine Garçon at Opéra de Montréal, as well as to Tokyo for performances of Tosca with The New National Theatre Tokyo. On the concert stage, she will join tenor Jonathan Tetelmann for an Italian Opera Gala with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester in Berlin and will reunite with Serouj Kradijian for a recital in Toronto, inspired by Joyce’s Lebanese heritage. Future seasons include international operatic & concert engagements in Genève, Dallas, Rouen, Paris and Montpellier, among others.

Jonathan Tetelman is considered one of the most exciting young stars of our time and is praised for his “vocally magnificent, radiant and unmistakable tenor voice” (Opera Aktuell). The tenor, who was born in Chile and grew up in New Jersey, performs on the stages of renowned houses with world-famous orchestras and demonstrates his skills in a “dark-coloured tenor timbre” (SZ) and with “balmy verve” (Der Tagesspiegel).

On the opera stage, Jonathan Tetelman begins the 2023-24 season at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with two Puccini operas: in Pınar Karabulut’s new production of Il trittico (Il tabarro) as Luigi and in Madama Butterfly as Pinkerton. This will be followed by the role of Werther in Robert Carsen’s new production of Massenet’s Werther at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, as well as Rodolfo in La bohème at the Dortmund Theatre. The tenor will make his eagerly awaited house and role debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera in Puccini’s La Rondine (Ruggero) and can be seen immediately afterwards as Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. At the Aix-en-Provence Festival, he also takes on the role of Pinkerton and ends the season there on the opera stage. On the concert stage, he opens the Shenzhen Belt Road Music Festival at the Shenzhen Concert Hall in China together with soprano Angela Gheorghiu and other artists such as pianist Krzysztof Jablonski, violinist Tedi Papavrami and Azerbaijani tar player Sahib Pashazade. Back in Europe, he performs at the Berlin Konzerthaus together with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, gives a recital with Daniel Heide in Gstaad, Switzerland, and sings gala concerts with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon. Further concerts will take him to the Borusan Festival in Istanbul for a New Year’s concert, to the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden and to the Rudolfinum in Prague.

In the previous season, Jonathan Tetelman made his eagerly awaited operatic debut at San Francisco Opera as Alfredo in Verdi’s La Traviata and made his debut at Houston Grand Opera in one of his signature roles, Cavaradossi in Tosca. In Europe, the tenor was heard as Rodolfo at the Semperoper Dresden, as Cavaradossi and as Paolo il Bello in Zandonia’s Francesca da Rimini at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, sang performances as Loris Ipanow in Fedora at the Ópera de Las Palmas on Gran Canaria and was heard in the role of Macduff in Verdi’s Macbeth at the Salzburg Festival. On the concert stage, the tenor appeared with the Houston Symphony Orchestra as the soloist in Verdi’s Requiem, sang together with Sylvia D’Eramo at the Tivoli Festival in Copenhagen and performed together with soprano Angela Gheorghiu in Brussels and Paris, among other places.

The previous seasons brought the tenor to the Opéra national du Rhin for his role debut as Stiffelio in Verdi’s work of the same name. He also sang the role of Jacopo Foscari in I due Foscari at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino alongside Plácido Domingo, Loris Ipanow in Fedora at the Frankfurt Opera, made his house debut at the Vienna Theatre in a new production of Tosca and played the lead role of Rodolfo in Mario Martone’s operatic adaptation of La bohème, which was co-produced with Radiotelevisione Italiana (Rai) and Opera di Roma and was released in 2022. On the concert stage, Jonathan Tetelman presented a series of concerts in Austria, Spain and Latvia alongside maestro Karel Mark Chichon and superstar mezzo Elīna Garanča. He performed at the 169th birthday gala of the Tivioli Festival in Copenhagen, sang a gala concert in honour of Birgit Nilsson in Sweden and went to the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming for concert performances of Puccini’s La bohème.

After completing his studies at the New School of Music, Mannes College, and the Manhattan School of Music, Jonathan Tetelman made a series of successful house and role debuts within a very short space of time: He made his debut at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden as both Alfredo in La traviata and Rodolfo in La bohème (January/February 2020), sang the role of Canio in Pagliacci (August 2021) and Cavaradossi in Tosca at the Teatro Regio Torino, made his role debut as B. F. Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at the Opéra national de Montpellier (2019/20), sang Tosca and Madama Butterfly at the Semperoper Dresden (November 2019, September 2020) and Tosca at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (June 2019). At the Opéra de Lille, he appeared as Cavaradossi in Tosca and as Don José alongside Elīna Garanča in a concert tour of Carmen through Eastern Europe, which was broadcast by Bartók Radio. The tenor has also appeared in Werther at the Gran Teatro Nacional de Lima and at the Opera del Teatro Solis in Montevideo (Uruguay), La bohème (Rodolfo) at the Komische Oper Berlin, the English National Opera in London and the Fujian Grand Theatre in China, as well as Rigoletto (Duca) at the Berkshire Opera Festival.

On the concert stage, Jonathan Tetelman sang Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under the musical direction of Michael Tilson Thomas (September 2019) and with the Stuttgart Philharmonic under the baton of Dan Ettinger. He gave gala concerts with soprano Kristine Opolais in Moscow and with the Würth Philharmonic in Künzelsau, with the Copenhagen Philharmonic and sang Verdi’s Requiem with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons at the 2019 Tanglewood Festival. Other orchestras he has worked with include the Milan Festival Orchestra, the Greenwich Village Orchestra and Orchestra Now, with whom he performed Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius. He sang both Dvorak’s Requiem and Stabat Mater with the St George’s Choral Society and gave a concert with soprano Nadine Sierra at the 2018 Napa Valley Festival.

Jonathan Tetelman is an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist and recorded Verdi and Versimo arias, a selection from the lyrical French repertoire and duets with the Lithuanian soprano Vida Miknevičiûtė for his debut album “Arias” (August 2022) together with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria and its chief conductor Karel Mark Chichon. His second album “The Great Puccini” will be released on 29 September 2023 and contains famous arias from nine Puccini operas, including “Nessun dorma”, “Che gelida manina” and “E lucevan le stelle”. For his album “Arias”, released in 2022, Jonathan Tetelman receives the Opus Klassik in the category Young Artist of the Year 2023.

Baritone Artur Ruciński belongs to a selected group of Polish opera singers who have risen to international fame in recent years.

Born in Warsaw, he studied at the Academy of Music and started building his repertoire in performances with the Warsaw Chamber Opera and at the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera in Warsaw, where he made his debut in 2002 singing the title role in Eugene Onegin, of which Polish Music Journal reported: “… Artur Ruciński’s beautiful singing and lyric quality was the highlight of the evening”. Soon followed invitations to sing with Valery Gerghiev Prinz Jelecky in The Queen of Spades, title role in Onegin and Valentin in a new Robert Wilson production of Faust.

However, the turning point of his career came when M° Daniel Barenboim heard him and invited him on the spot to sing Eugene Onegin under his baton and alongside Rolando Villazon at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin in March/April 2010.

The years that followed brought performances in many of the world’s most important opera houses and concert halls. The late music journalist Karl Löbl wrote of his Carmina Burana: “Baritone Discovery at Vienna Musikverein – take note of the name Artur Ruciński and go to every opera in which you can hear this singer…”.

He appeared at Bregenz Festival (Tadeusz in Weinberg’s The Passenger), Teatro Liceu Barcelona (Krol Roger), Hamburg State Oper (Lord Ashton in Lucia di Lammermoor), Valencia (Lescaut in Manon with Lorin Maazel conducting and Eugene Onegin, conducted by Maestro Wellber and recorded on DVD). He returned to Berlin to sing again under M° Barenboim, this time Conte Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro. In summer 2011, Artur Ruciński made his debut at the Arena di Verona with Roméo et Juliette (Mercutio) to much acclaim by press and public. He went on to sing I Masnadieri (Francesco di Moor), Messa di Gloria and Kindertotenlieder in Naples with M° Luisotti conducting.

January 2012 saw his UK debut, giving a solo Rosenblatt recital of opera arias and Tadeusz Baird’s Four Love Sonnets, settings of Polish translations from Shakespeare, at London’s St. John’s Smith Square in London. In May 2012 he made his American debut as Marcello in La Bohème with Los Angeles Opera, and in 2013 he debuted at the Opéra Bastille in Paris as Ford in Falstaff, and returned to Arena di Verona where he sang Il Trovatore (Conte di Luna) and La Traviata (Germont Padre).

Highlights in his career include I Masnadieri at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and Festival Verdi in Parma, Il Trovatore at the Vienna Festwochen, and in January 2014 his first collaboration with M° Kirill Petrenko at the Munich State Opera (Eugene Onegin), followed by a new production of Falstaff at the Opera of Frankfurt am Main conducted by Bertrand de Billy, Attila (Ezio) in Warsaw and Eugene Onegin in Bologna. He debuted at the Royal Opera House in London as Giorgio Germont and at the prestigious Salzburg Festival as Conte di Luna, and then he sang the same role at La Fenice in Venezia. This was followed by another important debut: at La Scala with Simon Boccanegra (Paolo Albiani).

In the following years he sang La Traviata at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Eugene Onegin in Warsaw, Don Pasquale in Valencia, Lucia di Lammermoor in Hamburg and Zurich, Il Trovatore at Salzburg Festival, La Traviata and Il Trovatore at Arena di Verona, as well as the popular “Christmas in Vienna” concert at Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater with the RSO under Ingo Metzmacher at Wiener Muzikverein. Moreover, he debuted the title role in Don Giovanni at Opéra Bastille in Paris, where he subsequently sang also Lucia di Lammermoor. He made his first appearance at the Metropolitan in New York in Madama Butterfly (Sharpless) and at the New National Theatre in Tokyo as Lord Ashton in Lucia di Lammermoor, and he returned to the Royal Opera House in London as Eugene Onegin, Lord Ashton and Germont, as well as to the Liceu in Barcelona as Marcello and Conte di Luna.

In the recent seasons he made his debut at San Francisco Opera as Germont in La Traviata, at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma as Francesco in I Masnadieri, at Teatro Real de Madrid as Lord Ashton in Lucia di Lammermoor, at Lyric Opera of Chicago in Il Trovatore and at Opéra de Monte-Carlo in a concert version of Luisa Miller. Most recently, he sang La Bohème at ABAO Olbe Bilbao and at Opéra Bastille, where he also debuted as Gianni Schicchi, I Masnadieri at Palau de les Arts, La Traviata, Manon and La Bohème at the Metropolitan Opera, Iolanta at Palais Garnier, Il Trovatore, La Traviata and Un Ballo In Maschera at Teatro Real, and he returned to Opéra de Monte-Carlo in Lucia di Lammermoor.

Future plans include Lucia di Lammermoor in concert at the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, and the return to Opéra de Paris for Il Trovatore.

Artur Ruciński devotes part of his busy schedule to concert performances and appearances on Radio and Television at Warsaw Festival, in Paris, Oslo, Dresden, Vienna, Berlin, to name some, singing repertoire from Handel’s Messiah to Penderecki’s Lukas Passion. The memorial concert of Gdansk with Britten’s War Requiem under Neville Marriner received wide attention.

Numerous CD and DVD’s document the versatility of this exceptional young artist.