The Theatre
The Orchestra
The Orchestra of Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi di Trieste has been a permanent ensemble since 1944, when it took on the name of “Filarmonica Triestina”; in 1964 it was named after the theatre it perfoms in.
It is worldwide known for its ability in performing a wide opera and symphonic repertory and has been conducted over the years by internationally renowned maestros, including Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Paul van Kempen, Thomas Schippers, Mario Rossi, Carlo Maria Giulini, Laslo Somogryi, Leonard Bernstein, Sergiu Celibidache, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Daniel Oren, Gary Bertini, Gustav Kuhn, Jean Claude Casadesus, Sir Neville Marriner, Nello Santi, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Donato Renzetti and many more.
It has often been invited to perform abroad, holding series of symphonic concerts in France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. The Orchestra was a notable feature at the Festival of the Two Worlds of Spoleto from 1958 to 1969. The Verdi Orchestra commitment to spreading the culture of music in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (Pordenone, Udine, Gorizia) – as well as in neighbouring Istria – goes back several years.
In 2014 the Orchestra took part to a tour in Oman, where it opened the new season at the Royal Opera House Muscat (ROHM) with a stunning and successful production of Verdi’s Macbeth “resulting in an unforgettable opera that left one shivering long after the curtain came down” (Times of Oman review).
In 2016 it has opened the Dubai Opera with a concert performed by the tenor Placido Domingo and with the operas The pearl fishers and The barber of Seville, two production set by the Foundation itself.
The Verdi Theatre Orchestra is featured in record catalogues with the complete symphonies by Mendelssohn, Schumann and, in addition, with the Stabat Mater by Dvorjak, conducted respectively by Lü Jia and Julian Kovatchev. Besides the historic recordings of its concerts at the Festival of the Two Worlds during the Fifties and Sixties, the Verdi repertoire includes live recordings of several operas, namely Il Campiello by Wolf Ferrari; La Straniera by Bellini (for the Fonit-Cetra/Ricordi label); Attila and Stiffelio by Verdi (for the Dynamic label); Ginevra di Scozia by Simon Mayr (for Opera Rara); a DVD of Tancredi by Rossini; as well as a DVD and CD of the opera I Cavalieri di Ekebù by Riccardo Zandonai, a CD of Lohengrin by Richard Wagner, both produced in 2005; the last release is a DVD of Battaglia di Legnano by Giuseppe Verdi recorded for the collection Tutto Verdi – The complete Operas (for the Unitel Classica label), which includes all the productions of the great composer performed by the most prestigious European Opera houses.
Orchestra members
First Violin
Stefano Furini*
Roberta Nitta
Andrea Schibuola
Romina Concion
Anna Apollonio
Eliseo Baldizzi
Giuseppe Carbone
Anna Del Bon
Angelica Faccani
Rossella Ivicevic
Franca Sciarretta
Stefano Toso
Second Violin
Valentino Dentesani*
Aleš Lavrenčič*
Diana Mustea **
Sara Rizzuto
Paolo Blazina
Federico Crisanaz
Andrea Nanni
Pamela Tempestini
Viola
Benjamin Bernstein*
David Briatore*
Mario Leotta
Claudio Pizzamei
Elisabetta Chiappo
Giorgio Gerin
Laura Menegozzo
Cello
Adriano Melucci*
Matteo Salizzoni*
Andrea Di Corato
Simona Slokar
Chiara Urli
Double bass
Michele Benzonelli*
Chiara Molent*
Domenico Digirolamo
Michele Veronese
Flute
Giorgio di Giorgi*
Valter Zampiron*
Maria Ginaldi
Piccolo
Daniele Porcile
Oboe
Paola Fundarò*
Francesca Guerra*
Marco Bardi
English horn
Giovanni Scocchi
Clarinet
Federico Martinello*
Marco Masini*
Bassoon
Matteo Rivi*
Claudio Verh*
Leonardo Calligaris
Horn
Fabrizio Giannitelli*
Nicola Ruggeri*
Simone Berteni
Chiara Bosco
Trumpet
Živa Komar*
Massimiliano Morosini* **
Carlo Beltrami **
Massimiliano Oldrati
Trombone
Domenico Lazzaroni*
Cristian Marcuzzo*
Luca Erra
Alberto Ventura
Percussion
Denis Zupin*
List in alphabetical order
*first part
** with a fixed-term employment relationship
PERMANENT DIRECTOR
Enrico Calesso
Born in Treviso, is the Designated Permanent Director of the Giuseppe Verdi Opera Theater in Trieste and Permanent Guest Conductor at the Landestheater in Linz (Austria). Since 2011 he has been Generalmusikdirektor at the Mainfranken Theater in Würzburg (Germany) and Chefdirigent of the Würzburg Philharmonic Orchestra.
He has conducted orchestras such as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice, Wiener Symphoniker, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Berner Symphonie-Orchester, Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, Münchner Symphoniker, Staatskapelle Schwerin, Norddeutsche Philharmonie, Jenaer Philharmonie, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Erfurt Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique of Mulhouse, and the Rzeszow Symphony Orchestra.
He made his debut at the Teatro Lirico Verdi in Trieste in the 2022/23 season with an acclaimed symphonic concert and musical direction of Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi, a production that was a great and unanimous success with audiences and critics. With Götterdämmerung he opened the first tetralogy of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in the history of the Mainfranken Theater in Würzburg in 2019, and he was nominated for conductor of the year in the prestigious Jahrbuch 2019 of “Opernwelt” magazine. In the same magazine’s Jahrbuch 2020 he was again nominated in the performance of the year category for his highly acclaimed concertation of Rigoletto in Würzburg.
He has a intense activity in the Baroque sphere, with rediscoveries such as Galuppi’s Alessandro nell’Indie and Cherubini’s Iphigenia in Aulide and Händel’s Rinaldo and Gluck’s Orfeo. After conducting the 2022 New Year’s Concert of the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, he returned for a symphony concert in the 2023/24 season.
Enrico Calesso studied in Vienna in the class of Uroš Lajovic at the University of Music, graduating with highest honors, as well as being awarded the Würdigungspreis of the University of Vienna. Previously, he graduated in piano from the Conservatorio “Benedetto Marcello” in Venice under the guidance of Anna Colonna Romano, and received a degree in Theoretical Philosophy with highest honors from Ca’ Foscari University with Prof. Emanuele Severino.
See also
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