Lisette Oropesa, Stefan Pop, Mattia Olivieri, Riccardo Zanellato, Ochestra E Coro Del Teatro Massimo Bellini Di Catania & Fabrizio Maria Carminati
Biography Lisette Oropesa, Stefan Pop, Mattia Olivieri, Riccardo Zanellato, Ochestra E Coro Del Teatro Massimo Bellini Di Catania & Fabrizio Maria Carminati
Lisette Oropesa
is one of the most outstanding lyric coloratura sopranos of her generation, and performs at the world’s leading opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala, Milan, the Vienna and Bavarian State Operas and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. At the heart of her extensive repertory are bel canto operas, works by Mozart and Handel and French operas. In 2024 she was named Singer of the Year at the International Opera Awards.
She has thrilled audiences at the Met, Covent Garden, the Paris Opéra, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Vienna State Opera and other opera houses with her interpretation of Verdi’s Violetta (La traviata). Her other signature roles include Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, which she has performed at venues including the Teatro Real, Covent Garden, La Scala and, in 2022, in a concert performance at the Salzburg Festival. She is also celebrated internationally as Gilda (Rigoletto) and Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail).
Following appearances as Ophélie in concert performances of Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet at the Salzburg Festival, in the 2024/25 season Lisette Oropesa made her role debut as Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda in Madrid and sang Massenet’s Manon at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, Violetta at the Vienna State Opera, Elvira (I puritani) at the Paris Opéra, Handel’s Alcina in Versailles and Amalia (I masnadieri) at the Bavarian State Opera.
In the 2025/26 season she will make her debut at the Berlin State Opera as Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) and return to the Met and to Covent Garden as Elvira in new productions of I puritani. She will also appear in Zurich as Manon, in Madrid and Munich as Amalia and in Munich and at the Met as Violetta.
Highlights of Lisette Oropesa’s career to date also include Alcina in an Olivier Award-winning new production at Covent Garden and Marguerite de Valois (Les Huguenots) and Ophélie at the Paris Opéra. She has also delighted audiences worldwide in concerts and recitals. Her discography includes the two song recital recordings Within / Without and Aux filles du désert, several solo albums with orchestra — including Ombra compagna, featuring a selection of Mozart’s concert arias, and French Bel Canto Arias — and recordings of La traviata and I puritani. A recording of Lucia di Lammermoor will be released shortly.
Stefan Pop
At 23, in 2010, he won two of the most important international vocal competitions just seven days apart, on two different continents: Operalia, hosted by Teatro alla Scala in Milan under the careful guidance of Maestro Placido Domingo, where he was of the few competitors in the entire history of the contest who won two prizes in the same evening, the first prize and the auditorium prize; and the 6th International Music Competition in Seoul, where he won the first prize.
Born in Bistrita, Romania, and having a strong musical background after studying the violin for twelve years, Stefan Pop graduated the “Gheorghe Dima” Music Academy (the canto department) in Cluj Napoca.
After winning most of the national singing competitions, in 2008, at 21, he made his debut as Nemorino in “L’elisir d’Amore” at the National Opera in Timisoara and in “Il Matrimonio Segretto” at the Hungarian Opera in Cluj-Napoca. In March 2009 he was invited to perform at the world premiere of “Colinda balada op. 46″ by Gyorgy Kurtag together with Transylvania Philharmonic Orchestra from Timisoara. His spectacular international debut came when he was only 22, in December 2009, as Alfredo in “La Traviata” at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in famous production staged by Franco Zeffirelli.
Stefan Pop was also celebrated as Duca (Rigoletto) in Taormina under the baton of Placido Domingo. The greatest successes of the past seasons include Jacopo (I due Foscari) in a new production in Parma, which was also recorded on CD and Blu-ray, his first opera-movie La Traviata for Classica HD At Teatro Massimo Bellini Catania.
The 2022/23 season begins for Stefan Pop with the Messa da Requiem by G. Verdi at Festival Verdi Parma; continue with a concert “Bellini &Donizetti” at Teatro Massimo Bellini Catania, then with two gala concerts in Osaka and Tokyo.
At the Staatsoper Berlin he will guest as Rodolfo and Pinkerton before making his debut as Don Carlo under Daniel Barenboim at the end of the season. In Teatro Comunale Bologna and Teatro Carlo Felice Genoa he is engaged as Pollione (Norma). Concerts with Verdi's Requiem in Rome under Michele Mariotti complement his calendar.
Highlights of recent seasons have included his role debut as Cavaradossi (Tosca) at Royal Opera House, where he returned as Foresto (Attila in Concert) and Rodolfo (La Bohème).
Mattia Olivieri
Early graduated at the Music Conservatory G.B. Martini in Bologna, Mattia Olivieri specialized then with baritone Maurizio Leoni with whom he is still studying. In 2009 he has been admitted at the Scuola dell’Opera Italiana of Teatro Comunale di Bologna and began collaborating with musical institutions such as Martina Franca Festival and Semperoper Dresden.
Future commitments include: Don Pasquale at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Il barbiere di Siviglia at Arena in Verona, Le nozze di Figaro at Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Don Giovanni at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Simon Boccanegra and Carmen at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Massenet’s Manon at Wiener Staatsoper and. Among other future operas: La traviata and I puritani.
In Summer 2012 he participated at the Accademia Rossiniana at Pesaro’s ROF and has been admitted in September at the Centre de Perfeccionament of the Opera Valencia where among other activities he has been Schaunard in La bohème (Chailly-Livermore).
In autumn 2015 Mattia started his relationship with La Scala debuting as Schaunard in the historical Zeffirelli’s La bohème production under Dudamel and at the same time as Belcore in Asagarov’s L’elisir d’amore under Luisi with also a Flash Mob at the Malpensa Airport broadcasted live by RAI. It followed then Masetto in Carsen’s Don Giovanni under Järvi, again Schaunard under Pidò, Malatesta in the new Livermoore Don Pasquale production under Chailly, Nardo in La finta giardiniera in the Wake-Walker Glyndebourne production under Fasolis which will also tour in Shanghai, Dandini in La cenerentola in the historical Ponnelle/Asagarov production under Dantone. During last Seasons he appeared there also as Mercutio in Romeo et Juliette Sher’s production conducted by Lorenzo Viotti and as Prosdocimo in Il turco in Italia, Andò’s production and conducted by Maestro Fasolis.
Among the performed roles Marcello in La bohème in Athens, Sao Paulo, La Fenice and Amsterdam and Schaunard in Valencia and at La Scala, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte in Valencia, Nice and Rome, Cherubini in the Zarzuela El duo de la Africana in Valencia, the title role in Don Giovanni in Palermo, Trieste and in the Teatro San Carlo di Napoli tour in Dubai, Ping in Turandot at Arena di Verona and Bregenz Festival where he also sung Donizetti’s Requiem, Nardo in La finta giardiniera in the Glyndebourne Tour, at La Scala and in their tour in Shanghai, Escamillo in Carmen in Genova, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore in Cagliari, at La Scala and in Valencia, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia in Nice, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte with Circuito Lirico Marchigiano, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor in Padova, Parmenione in L’occasione fa il ladro in the ROF tour in Muscat, Alphonse in La Favorite in three different venues over a year (Teatro del Maggio Fiorentino, Liceu and Massimo di Palermo), Malatesta in Don Pasquale at La Scala and Ford in Falstaff, his Verdi debut, at Tokio NNTT.
Among the recent engagements other important debuts: at the Metropolitan in New York with Florencia en el Amazonas, at the Bayerische Staatsoper as Ping and Belcore, performed also during the Münchener Festspiele as well as Belcore, Conte in Le nozze di Figaro at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino where he will be back for other projects, Silvio in I pagliacci in Amsterdam and Valencia, Il Trovatore in Venice, Nardo in La finta giardiniera at LAC Lugano and the Scala tour in Shanghai, again at La Scala with Il barbiere di Siviglia, Così fan tutte at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Les vêpres siciliennes in Palermo, Turandot and Puccini Messa di Gloria under M° Pappano at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Il barbiere di Siviglia at Wiener Staatsoper, Le nozze di Figaro and Pagliacci in London, Il trovatore at La Fenice in Venice, La bohème in Valencia, Don Giovanni and Il barbiere di Parigi in Berlin, Lucia di Lammermoor in Paris, Carmen at Maggio Musicale in Florence, Il turco in Italina in Madrid, Les Martyrs at Theater an der Wien, I vespri siciliani at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Beatrice di Tenda at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa and Pagliacci at Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
Didier Pieri
was born in Livorno in 1989. He began his vocal studies in Florence and continued his training in Paris in 2013. He made his stage debut in 2016 and recently sang Don Ottavio in »Don Giovanni« in Como and Cremona, Prunier in »La rondine« and Pang in »Turandot« at the Festival Puccini in Torre del Lago, Arlecchino in »Le maschere« in Livorno and Spoletta in »Tosca« in Rome, where he will return as Il Tinca in the new production of »Il tabarro«. Then he will sing Remendado in »Carmen« at the Arena di Verona, Ruiz at the Festival Verdi in Parma and the 4 servants in »Les Contes d’Hoffmann« in Venice. Future engagements include »Tosca« at the Royal Opera House in London, »Adriana Lecouvreur« at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and »Manon Lescaut« at the Teatro Regio di Torino. Didier Pieri makes his debut in Salzburg at the 2024 Easter Festival.
