Gianluca Capuano studied organ, composition, and conducting at the conservatory of his hometown Milan, as well as historical performance practice at the Civica Scuola di Musica. In 2015 he made his debut at the Semperoper Dresden with Händel’s "Orlando", and in 2016 at the Zurich Opera House with Haydn’s "Orlando paladino". In the same year he conducted "Norma" with Cecilia Bartoli in the title role for the opening of the Edinburgh Festival, followed by performances in Paris and Baden-Baden. In 2017 he undertook a European tour of "La Cenerentola" with Cecilia Bartoli. He has conducted, among others, "Ariodante" and "Alcina" at the Salzburg Festival, the "Weihnachtsoratorium" and "L’elisir d’amore" at the Hamburg State Opera, "Orfeo ed Euridice" in Rome, "Il matrimonio segreto" in Amsterdam, "L’elisir d’amore" at the Teatro Real in Madrid, "La finta giardiniera", "La Cenerentola", "Iphigénie en Tauride", and "L’italiana in Algeri" in Zurich, "Le nozze di Figaro" at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, and "Il turco in Italia", "Semele", "Norma", and "La Cenerentola" at the Bavarian State Opera. His most recent engagements include "La clemenza di Tito" and "Das Rheingold" at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, "Hotel Metamorphosis" at the Salzburg Festival, "La Cenerentola" at the Teatro alla Scala, "Il barbiere di Siviglia" at the Vienna State Opera, and "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" at the Teatro Regio di Parma. In 2022 he received the Premio Abbiati as "Conductor of the Year". With his ensemble Il canto di Orfeo, founded in 2005, he focuses primarily on works of the late Renaissance and the Baroque. Since 2019 he has been Chief Conductor of the ensemble Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco, with whom the CD recording "Rhapsody" was recently released.
15. June 2025
From baroque to bel canto: works by Handel, Mozart, Rossini and others.
Official Timepiece Opernhaus Zürich
Gianluca Capuano
Ernst Raffelsberger
Ernst Raffelsberger comes from Gmunden, Upper Austria. He studied music education and church music at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, as well as choral conducting at the Salzburg Mozarteum. From 1983 to 1986, he was Kapellmeister of the Vienna Boys’ Choir. During this time, he led the ensemble in Vienna and on tours throughout Europe, South Africa, Canada, and the USA. Starting in 1986, Ernst Raffelsberger served as Chorus Director and Kapellmeister at the Landestheater Salzburg (participating in the Salzburg Mozart Week and the Salzburg Festival). In 1989, he moved to the theater in Freiburg im Breisgau as Chorus Director and Kapellmeister. Since autumn 1993, Ernst Raffelsberger has been engaged as Chorus Director at the Zurich Opera House. By now, he has overseen around 150 premieres and countless revivals, collaborating with many renowned conductors such as Marco Armiliato, Riccardo Chailly, Teodor Currentzis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Zubin Mehta, Gianandrea Noseda, and Franz Welser-Möst. Guest performances with the Zurich Opera House have taken him to Vienna, London, Paris, and Tokyo. Beginning in the summer of 2012, he additionally started a 10-year tenure as Chorus Director of the Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus at the Salzburg Festival. Here, he successfully collaborated with, among others, Riccardo Muti, Mariss Jansons, and Sir Simon Rattle. After concluding this work with the 2021 festival summer, he has once again been responsible—since 2025 and at the request of Maestro Muti—for the choral preparation for his festival concerts in Salzburg.
Numerous CD and DVD recordings document his work in both Zurich and Salzburg.
Cast
mit Sängerinnen und Sänger des Internationalen Opernstudios
Cecilia Bartoli
Cecilia Bartoli has established herself as one of the world’s leading classical musicians with her magnificent stage career spanning more than 40 years. Born in Rome and trained by her mother, the voice teacher Silvana Bazzoni, she was discovered by Daniel Barenboim, Herbert von Karajan and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Milestones included, among others, the very first staging of Rossini’s “Cenerentola” at the New York Met in 1997; the legendary “Vivaldi Album,” which since 1999 has sold millions of copies; the 2008 Paris concert marathon marking Maria Malibran’s 200th birthday; her radically new approach to Bellini’s “Norma” in 2013, which also resulted in a scholarly edition of the reconstructed original score; and a triumphant Rossini Week at the Vienna State Opera in 2022. Since 2012, Cecilia Bartoli has been Artistic Director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, where she has appeared in works by Handel, Gluck, Rossini, Bellini and Bernstein. Since 2023, she has also been the Director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the first woman in the history of the house to hold this position. Also in Monte-Carlo, the ensemble Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco was founded in 2016, with which Cecilia Bartoli performs both at its home base and on major tours throughout Europe. Bartoli’s CDs and DVDs have sold more than twelve million copies; she has received the Grammy Award five times. Among the many honours she has received are the Léonie Sonning Music Prize, the Herbert von Karajan Music Prize and the Polar Music Prize. Since 2022 she has been President of Europa Nostra, was appointed Austrian Kammersängerin in 2023, and also runs the Cecilia Bartoli Music Foundation.