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, Joyce has an acclaimed reputation for bringing newly discovered/rarely performed works to life, most recently with the world premieres of Donizetti’s L’Ange de Nisida (Royal Opera House (ROH)) and Franz Liszt’s Sardanapalo (Weimar Staatskapelle) –both captured and released internationally.

Her 2022/2023 season opens with a highly anticipated role debut as Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Riccardo Muti. Joyce then makes her debut with the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester at the Grafenegg Festival performing Strauss’s Vier Letzte Lieder. She appears in concert with tenor Jonathan Tetelman for Festkonsert 2022 with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with The Birgit Nilsson Museum in Båstad, Sweden. Further in the season, Joyce returns to the Canadian Opera Company for Micaëla in Carmen as well as debuting the title role of Anna Bolena at ABOA Bilbao Opera in Spain. She then reunites with composer Tobias Picker for his opera Awakenings in the role of Rose for the opera’s east coast premiere in collaboration with Odyssey Opera & Boston Modern Opera Project. A world premiere studio recording will follow on BMOP/sound (TBR Summer 2023). In the spring of 2023, Joyce reprises Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera with Riccardo Muti at the Tokyo Spring Festival as well as reprising Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at Opéra de Montréal.

Ms. El-Khoury’s discography includes three rare Donizetti operas on the Opera Rara label (Les Martyrs, Belisario and L’Ange de Nisida) conducted by Sir Mark Elder – all to critical acclaim, L’Ange recently took home the 2019 Oper! Award for Best Opera Recording.  She also has a Juno-nominated solo disc, ‘Écho’  with The Hallé conducted by Carlo Rizzi.  Additionally, Audite released the newly-discovered unfinished Liszt opera Sardanapalo in 2018.

Recent engagements include debuting with the London Philhamonic Orchestra in Rossini’s Stabat Mater, and with Opéra National de Bordeaux as Leila in Les Pêcheurs de Perles. She also made role and house debuts with Opera Philadelphia as Liù in Turandot, and as Salome in Massenet’s Herodiade with Washington Concert Opera.  Violetta in La traviata with the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Musetta in La bohème with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and with San Diego Opera in Jake Heggie’s new opera Great Scott as Tatyana Bakst.

Ms. El–Khoury garnered raves when she starred in the title role of Maria Stuarda at Seattle Opera, replacing an ailing colleague in addition to giving her own scheduled performances, in some instances singing back to back performances. On the concert stage, Ms. El-Khoury debuted with the Orchestre de Paris in Rossini’s Stabat Mater, under the baton of Jesús López-Cobos, and performed in concerts in Austria with Elīna Garanča, and in Spain with Juan Diego Flórez.

Voice and charisma, that’s the unanimous enthusiastic verdict of the critics when it comes to Jonathan Tetelman. “A star par excellence,” writes the New York Times about him. The Chilean-American tenor performs on the stages of renowned houses with world-famous orchestras and shows his skills in a “darkly colored tenor timbre” (SZ) and with “balsamic verve” (Der Tagesspiegel), while the audience listens in awe.
Following outstanding performances in Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in March 2021 and a concert tour with Elīna Garanča in the summer, Jonathan Tetelman has signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in October 2021. Together with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria and its chief conductor Karel Mark Chichon, he immediately began recording his DG debut, which will be released in summer 2022. You can hear arias by Verdi and Verismo, a selection from the lyrical French repertoire and duets with the Lithuanian soprano Vida Miknevičiûtė. “Basically, this album is a portrait of what I see as my journey as an artist, combining some lesser-known works with arias and duets for the romantic tenor voice,” explains Tetelman.
At the start of the 2021-22 season, Tetelman made his role debut as Stiffelio in Verdi’s eponymous work at the Opéra national du Rhin. Forum Opéra celebrated the singer as a “real revelation”. Tetelman embodied a deeply human Stiffelio, Olyrix also noted, “whereby his voice effortlessly covered the entire range of expression of this seldom sung, demanding role”. This season also saw Tetelman appear as Cavaradossi in Tosca, making his house debut at the Theater an der Wien (January 2022) or in his critically acclaimed role debut as Loris Ipanow in the first stage production of Giordano’s Fedora (April/May) at the opera Frankfurt and – alongside Plácido Domingo – as Jacopo Foscari in Verdi’s I due Foscari at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (May/June). Also in July, Tetelman will perform in a series of open-air concerts in Austria and Latvia with Elīna Garanca and Karel Mark Chichon.
Recent highlights include his role debut as Canio in Pagliacci at the Teatro Regio Torino (August 2021); his Royal Opera House debut as Alfredo Germont in La traviata, followed by performances in La bohème (January/February 2020); Tosca and Madama Butterfly at the Dresden Semperoper (November 2019, September 2020); Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas (September 2019); Verdi’s Requiem with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons at the 2019 Tanglewood Festival; Cavaradossi at the Liceu, Barcelona (June 2019); and Rodolfo at the Komische Oper Berlin and the English National Opera.
Jonathan Tetelman was born in 1988 in Castro, Chile. Adopted at the age of seven months, he was raised by his American parents in Princeton, New Jersey. One of the music teachers there noticed the young Jonathan’s vocal talent and so he received his first lessons at the American Boychoir School in Princeton. Tetelman received his bachelor’s degree in baritone from the Manhattan School of Music. He then continued his studies at the Mannes School of Music, where he gradually switched to tenor; He later completed this development with his teacher Mark Schnaible, who is still his teacher and mentor today.
While waiting to see how his voice would develop, Tetelman earned his living as a DJ at a Manhattan club. “That was my quarter-life crisis,” he says humorously, looking back. When the job lost its appeal, he decided to once again focus full-time on singing, a decision that eventually led to competitive successes – including a place in the final of the Mildred Miller International Voice Competition (2016) and first prize at the New York Lyric Opera Theater Competition (2017). Professional engagements as a singer followed. When asked how he managed all this, Tetelman replies: “I locked myself in for practically six months. However, I also worked as a waiter in order to be able to afford several lessons per week, supported by my family. I listened to old recordings and studied YouTube clips from big artists. I also perfected my technique and voice control until it sat, while also learning how to protect my voice. Eventually I reached my goal and was able to pursue my passion.«

He is one of the most outstanding opera singers in the world. His vocal art is recognized by audiences and critics alike and has given him access to the largest and most prestigious opera houses. In the 2009/2010 season, the Austrian magazine “Festspiele” included the artist in its list of the 20 best opera singers in the world. In February 2016 he made his debut on the stage of New York’s Metropolitan Opera as Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.
Artur Rucinski is a graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. In 2002 he made his debut on the stage of the Great Theater – National Opera in Warsaw in the title role in Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. On this stage he has appeared in the most important baritone roles, including: Janusz in Halka, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Prince Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades (conducted by Valery Gergiev), Valentin in Faust by Robert Wilson . He also collaborates with opera theaters in Kraków, Poznań, Lodz, Wrocław, Bydgoszcz and Gdańsk.
His debut on the stage of the Berlin State Opera in the role of Onegin in 2009, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, was a great success and the beginning of a brilliant career. In the same year he appeared at the Teatro Liceu in Barcelona in the title role of Karol Szymanowski’s opera King Roger. A year later he took part in the season opening at the Hamburg State Opera in Lucia di Lammermoor, alongside Piotr Beczała, among others. He returned to this theater to appear in Gioacchino Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and in Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata and Falstaff. At the turn of the year 2010/2011 he appeared in Valencia under the baton of Maestro Lorin Maazel as Lescaut in Jules Massenet’s opera Manon. A renewed invitation to this theater led to performances in the role of Onegin. In the Oslo Philharmonic and in the Musikverein Goldener Saal in Vienna he was applauded in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. In the same season he also sang for the first time in the famous Arena di Verona in Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet. A year later he returned to the Arena di Verona.
In the 2011/2012 season he returned to the Berlin State Opera in the role of Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, again conducted by Daniel Barenboim. This season he also sang the role of Marcello in Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème at Los Angeles Opera. Success in the role led to an invitation to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and a performance as Francesco in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera I Masnadieri at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples set a new tone in his career as a Verdi baritone. In the 2012/2013 season he appeared in Bilbao in La Traviata, at the Hamburg State Opera as Ford in Falstaff, at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice in I Masnadieri, at the Opera Bastille in Paris in Falstaff, at the Theater an der Wien and in the Arena di Verona in the role of Count Luna in Il Trovatore.
In the 2013/2014 season he sang at the Teatro Regio di Parma (I Masnadieri), at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari (Falstaff), at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (Onegin), at the Frankfurt Opera (Falstaff), at the Budapest Opera ( Le nozze di Figaro) and made his debut in another Verdi role – as Ezio in a concert performance of Attila at the Grand Theater – National Opera in Warsaw.
In spring 2014 he made his debut at London’s Royal Opera House – Covent Garden as Giorgio Germont (La Traviata). In November he made his debut at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan (Simon Boccanegra with Placido Domingo in the title role) and then sang at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice (Il trovatore). He began 2015 with the first performances of his career at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (La Traviata) and shortly afterwards returned to the stage of the Grand Theater – National Opera in Warsaw as Onegin, as well as performing in Valencia (Don Pasquale) as well as at the Hamburg State Opera and at the Zurich Opera House (Lucia di Lammermoor). The 2014/15 season culminated with a series of performances of Il Trovatore at the Salzburg Festival in August.
In September 2015 he sang Don Giovanni on the stage of the Paris Opera Bastille. At the end of the same year he premiered one of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s last works, Sanctus Adalbertus, and recorded Karol Szymanowski’s Stabat mater for Warner Classics with the ensembles of the National Philharmonic under Jacek Kaspszyk. Before making his February debut with New York’s Metropolitan Opera, he was admired as Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House in London (January 2016), where he soon returned for a series of performances of Lucia di Lammermoor. Appearances at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and the Arena di Verona rounded off the 2015/16 season.

The first months of 2017 are on the artist’s calendar with further performances of Lucia di Lammermoor (Covent Garden and New National Theater in Tokyo) and a return to the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (Il Trovatore).
The 2017/18 season was filled with further productions of Verdi operas: La Traviata at the San Francisco Opera and I Masnedieri in Rome. It was at the Opera Bastille in Paris that Artur Rucinski made his debut as Gianni Schicchi, appearing in a number of performances of Puccini’s La Boheme. In June and July 2018 he was acclaimed by the audience at the Teatro Real in Madrid as Enrico Ashton in Lucia di Lammermoor. In November and December 2018 he sang for the Chicago Lyric Opera for the first time (Il Trovatore) and appeared in a concert performance of Verdi’s Luisa Miller in Monte Carlo. The artist’s calendar for the first half of 2019 was filled with performances in Zurich (Lucia di Lammermoor), at the Opera National de Paris (Jolanta) and in Madrid (Il Trovatore), among others.
In the summer of 2020 he performed at the Teatro Real in Madrid (La Traviata), returning in the autumn as Renato in Verdi’s Masked Ball. In June and July 2021 he was again seen at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo (Sicily). In the following season, Artur Rucinski was, among others, in the Suntory Hall in Tokyo (La Traviata), in Monte Carlo (The Corsair), in Naples (Eugene Onegin) and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (La Boheme, Lucia di Lammermoor). applauded.
In the current 2022/23 season, the artist can be seen in Zurich, Madrid (for the first time as Amonasro in Aida), New York (La Traviata and Fedora). He is also returning to the German theatres: to the Munich and Berlin State Operas (Traviata).