Angela Gheorghiu ETERNAMENTE

For Eternamente, her first studio recording in six years, soprano Angela Gheorghiu focuses on Italian composers of the generation that followed Verdi and predominantly on repertoire she has not sung before – including some fascinating rarities. Joining her for duets from Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and Giordano’s Andrea Chénier is another star of today’s opera stage, tenor Joseph Calleja.

Eternamente is described as a collection of verismo – the term used generically for Italian opera of the immediate post-Verdi era. No matter when they were composed, and no matter what their subject matter, all these operas demand great passion and commitment from their performers – and they get it from Angela Gheorghiu. “It is like my soul, it is something different, it is not the voice,” she explained in an interview with Opera magazine. “The voice is also there, it has to be there, and it has had to be prepared – but at that moment of the performance, there is more. The response is never a conscious exaggeration – it is a natural expression. I am never pretending. It is just how I am at that moment.” The character and impact of her voice was summarised thus in Gramophone: “With her smooth and dark-toned soprano, a voice at once powerfully firm and vulnerable, Gheorghiu stands out from an entire generation of talented singers. Her sound is convincingly Italianate in the great tradition; her voice, once heard, is never forgotten.”

Ilya Gringolts / PKF-Prague Philarmonia / Nicola Guerini ANTONIN DVORAK A Bohemian Rhapsody

Nicola Guerini was born in Verona. He studied Piano, Organ and Organ Composition, Conducting and Composition at the Conservatory C.Pollini, Padua and at the Conservatory G.Verdi, Milan; he then perfected his studies at the Accademia Chigiana, at the Mozarteum Salzburg, at the Accademia Pescarese with Donato Renzetti. In 2010 he achieved a Master of Arts in Music Conducting at Lugano Musikhochschule (Switzerland) with Giorgio Bernasconi and Arturo Tamayo. His début was at 24 as composer and conductor for the Fondazione Arena, Verona. He was assistant to Ralf Weikart, Giorgio Bernasconi and Donato Renzetti in Italy and international productions at Teatro alla Scala, Teatro dell’Opera Roma and Lyric Opera Chicago. He has taken part in festivals and prestigious concert seasons with important orchestras including the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma, the Rousse Philharmonic Orchestra, the Targu Mures Philarmonia, the HRT Zagreb Orchestra, the Divertimento Ensemble, the Mozart Chamber Orchestra, the Ensemble ‘900 di Lugano, the ICARUS Ensemble, the Targu Mures Philarmonia Orchestra, the Sofia Philarmonie, the Berliner Symphoniker and the PKF Prague Philarmonia. 

He is President of the "Peter Maag" Music Fund and artistic director of the lyric opera laboratory “La Bottega”, which revives Maag’s well-known workshop for young talents. He has founded Maria Callas International Competition and Maria Callas International Festival.