Gioachino Rossini
Farsa comica in one act
Libretto by Giuseppe Maria Foppa
From 25. September 2025 until 24. October 2025
The Italian conductor Leonardo Sini studied at the Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Canepa di Sassari and continued his education at the Royal Academy of Music in London, at the conservatories in The Hague and Amsterdam, and in Siena. In 2017, he won the prestigious International Conducting Competition “Sir Georg Solti.” Since then, he has made highly successful debuts at the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, with Opera Lombardia in Como, Cremona, Pavia, and Bergamo, at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and in 2021 in Japan with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Also in 2021, he conducted “L’elisir d’amore” at the Opéra National de Paris and returned to the Hungarian State Opera for Puccini’s rarely performed “Edgar” as well as productions of “Simon Boccanegra” and “Don Carlo.” Further highlights include his debuts at the Hamburg State Opera and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin with “Lucia di Lammermoor,” “Aida” at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, “Turandot” and “Adriana Lecouvreur” at the Sydney Opera House, “Il barbiere di Siviglia” at Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia and in Modena, “La traviata” and “Aida” at the Semperoper Dresden, and “Carmen” and Verdi’s “Alzira” at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège. Recent engagements include “Il trovatore” at the Korean National Opera in Seoul, “Don Carlo” in Tokyo, “Aida” at the Staatsoper Hannover, “Nabucco” with Plácido Domingo in Paris, “Carmen” at the Arena di Verona, and his 2025 American debut with “Tosca” at the Seattle Opera. At the Zurich Opera House, Leonardo Sini has conducted “Rigoletto,” “Lucia di Lammermoor,” “Tosca,” and “La scala di seta.”
Damiano Michieletto studied opera and theatre direction in Milan and literature at the University of his hometown, Venice. In 2003, he won the ESB Theatre Award of the Irish Times at the Wexford Festival for his production of Jaromír Weinberger’s opera "Schwanda the Bagpiper." This was followed by productions for the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, and for opera houses in Bologna, Verona, Venice, Naples, Turin, Graz, Geneva, and Leipzig. He directed "Così fan tutte" for the New National Theatre in Tokyo, "Il trittico" and "Idomeneo" for the Theater an der Wien, and at the Zurich Opera House "La scala di seta," "Il corsaro," "Lucia di Lammermoor," "Luisa Miller," and "Poliuto." In 2012, he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival with "La bohème," followed by productions of "Falstaff" and "La Cenerentola." Further engagements have taken him to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Paris Opera, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, and the Glyndebourne Festival. In 2022, he created the immersive installation "Archèus. Labirinto Mozart" for the Venice Biennale. His most recent works include "Messiah" at the Komische Oper Berlin, "La fille du régiment" at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and the world premiere of Francesco Filidei’s "Il nome della rosa" at La Scala in Milan. In addition to his work as an opera director, Damiano Michieletto is also active in theatre, particularly at the Teatro Stabile del Veneto and the Piccolo Teatro in Milan. He recently released his first film, "Primavera," inspired by Tiziano Scarpa’s novel "Stabat Mater."
Paolo Fantin was born in Castelfranco, Italy, and studied set design at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. He has a close artistic partnership with director Damiano Michieletto, with whom he became a finalist at the Graz Ring Award in 2005 for "Le nozze di Figaro." Their collaborations have since included Britten’s children’s opera "The Little Sweep" in Sicily, "Don Giovanni," "Le nozze di Figaro," and "Così fan tutte" at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, "La bohème" in Salzburg and Shanghai, Puccini’s "Il trittico" in Vienna and Copenhagen, "L’elisir d’amore" in Madrid and Graz, "Un ballo in maschera" and "La scala di seta" in Milan, as well as theatrical productions such as Gogol’s "The Government Inspector" in Italy and "The Threepenny Opera" at the Theater an der Wien. In 2011, together with Carla Teti, he received the prestigious Premio Franco Abbiati for set and costume design for "Sigismondo," "Don Giovanni," and "Madama Butterfly." In 2012, Paolo Fantin made his Salzburg Festival debut with Michieletto’s production of "La bohème," followed by "Falstaff" and "La Cenerentola." Further collaborations include "Idomeneo" at the Theater an der Wien and in Tokyo, "The Rake’s Progress" in Leipzig and Venice, "Samson et Dalila" and "Don Pasquale" in Paris, "Roméo et Juliette" and a Mozart/Da Ponte cycle at La Fenice, Martinů’s "The Greek Passion" in Palermo, "Guillaume Tell" at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, "La damnation de Faust" in Rome, "Oedipus Rex" at the Frankfurt Opera, "Animal Farm" at Dutch National Opera, and "Madama Butterfly" at Teatro Regio in Turin. At the Zurich Opera House, his designs have been seen in "Lucia di Lammermoor," "Il corsaro," "Luisa Miller," "Poliuto," and "La scala di seta."
Elfried Roller is a native of Stuttgart. While studying electrical engineering, he worked part-time at a private theater in Karlsruhe. This was followed by professional training at the Stuttgart Opera House. He then moved to the Staatstheater Kassel, where he created lighting designs for directors such as Armin Petras, Volker Schmalöer, Schirin Khodadadian, and Hans Henning Paar. Since 2008, Elfried Roller has been employed at the Zurich Opera House. There he designed the lighting for productions such as “La finta giardiniera” directed by Tatjana Gürbaca, Donizetti’s “Roberto Devereux” by David Alden, as well as Sebastian Baumgarten’s productions of “Hamletmaschine,” “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny,” “Belshazzar,” “Turandot,” and “America.” In 2023, a guest engagement took him to the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena,” directed by David Alden.
The soprano Olga Peretyatko, born in St. Petersburg, studied voice at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin and subsequently joined the opera studio of the Hamburg State Opera. In 2007, she achieved international recognition as a prizewinner at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition. Since then, she has appeared at leading opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, La Scala in Milan, the Vienna and Berlin State Operas, Teatro Real Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, as well as at the Opéra Bastille and the festivals in Salzburg, Baden-Baden, Aix-en-Provence, and Pesaro. Her recent debuts include the title role in "Norma" and Marguerite ("Faust") in Hamburg, Mathilde ("Guillaume Tell") in Tokyo, and Elettra ("Idomeneo") in Berlin. Her repertoire also includes Violetta ("La traviata"), Gilda ("Rigoletto"), Leonora ("Il trovatore"), Donna Anna ("Don Giovanni"), Norina ("Don Pasquale"), and the title role in "Anna Bolena." Highlights of her career include the role of the Nightingale in Stravinsky’s "Le Rossignol" in Toronto, Aix-en-Provence, New York, and Amsterdam, Liù ("Turandot") and Marfa ("The Tsar’s Bride") in Berlin and at La Scala, as well as Leïla ("Les pêcheurs de perles") under Daniel Barenboim. In concert, she has performed Rachmaninov’s "The Bells" with the Orchestre de Paris, a program with Ádám Fischer in Salzburg, and Strauss’s "Four Last Songs" in Washington and on a tour of China. In 2018, she gave her first solo recital at La Scala in Milan. For her six albums with Sony Classical, she has received multiple awards and, in 2025, was honored with the European Culture Prize for her outstanding artistic achievements.
Siena Licht Miller, a German-American mezzo-soprano, studied voice at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She completed her training with programs at Opera Philadelphia, the Santa Fe Opera, the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and the Aspen Music Festival. She is a recipient of scholarships from the Bagby Foundation and prizes from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Marilyn Horne Rubin Foundation, and the Gerda Lissner Foundation. Career highlights include her role debuts as Hermia in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," the Second Lady in "Die Zauberflöte," and one of the two solo roles in the world premiere of Philip Venables’s "Denis and Katya" at Opera Philadelphia. At the Aspen Opera Center, she sang the title role in Ravel’s "L’enfant et les sortilèges" under the baton of Robert Spano. She is also an active recitalist, having appeared in the Carnegie Hall series "The Song Continues" in celebration of her mentor Marilyn Horne, and toured the United States in recital with pianist Kevin Murphy. In the 2020/21 season, she was a member of the International Opera Studio at the Zurich Opera House, where she appeared in "Maria Stuarda," "Simon Boccanegra," "Viva la mamma," "Salome," "Odyssee," the ballet "Monteverdi," "L’italiana in Algeri," and as Flosshilde in "Das Rheingold." Since the 2022/23 season, she has been a member of the Zurich Opera House ensemble, where her recent performances have included roles in "Barkouf," "Salome," "Anna Karenina," "Lakmé," "La rondine," "Die Walküre," and "Götterdämmerung," as well as the title role in Handel’s "Serse" at Theater Winterthur.
The tenor Levy Sekgapane was born in South Africa and studied voice at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town. During his studies, he appeared in various opera productions in South Africa, including "La bohème," "The Rake’s Progress," and "Les Contes d’Hoffmann." In the 2015/16 season, he was a member of the Young Ensemble at the Semperoper Dresden. After winning the Operalia singing competition in 2017, guest engagements took him to the Hamburg State Opera, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo, and the Salzburg Festival. His signature roles include Count Almaviva ("Il barbiere di Siviglia"), which he has performed at the Glyndebourne Festival, the Opéra National de Paris, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Opéra National de Bordeaux, and the Vienna State Opera, as well as Don Ramiro ("La Cenerentola"), which he has sung at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, in Hamburg, Los Angeles, and Dresden, and alongside Cecilia Bartoli in Zurich. He has also appeared in the world premiere of Kris Defoort’s "The Time of Our Singing" at La Monnaie in Brussels and in "Idomeneo" at the Salzburg Festival, made his debut with Rossini’s "Otello" at the Frankfurt Opera and in "I puritani" at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, returned to Cape Town as Nadir ("Les pêcheurs de perles"), and performed with Olga Peretyatko in a New Year’s Gala Concert at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. In 2019, he released his solo debut album of Rossini arias with the Munich Radio Orchestra conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti.
The baritone Enrico Marabelli was born in Pavia, Italy. He made his operatic debut as Ford in «Falstaff» in Como, Italy, as a winner of the AsLiCo singing competition. Since then, he has performed at some of the world’s major opera houses and has worked with conductors such as Bruno Campanella, Nicola Luisotti, Enrique Mazzola, Kazushi Ono, Daniel Oren, and Alberto Zedda. His key roles include Don Bartolo in «Il barbiere di Siviglia», Fra Melitone in «La forza del destino», as well as appearances in «L’elisir d’amore» at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. At Teatro alla Scala in Milan, he appeared as Masetto in «Don Giovanni», and at La Monnaie in Brussels as Ford and in «La sonnambula». At the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, he portrayed Dandini in «La Cenerentola». Further engagements have taken him to the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Germano in «La scala di seta», to the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv as Mercutio in «Roméo et Juliette», and to the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago for «Tosca» and «Madama Butterfly». He has also appeared in «Il viaggio a Reims» and «La pietra del paragone» at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, and in «Il turco in Italia» at the Theater an der Wien. Most recently, he has sung the roles of Gianni Schicchi and Enrico VIII («Anna Bolena») in Hong Kong, Lescaut («Manon Lescaut») at the Opera Carlo Felice in Genoa, Sergeant Sulpice («La fille du régiment») at Grange Park Opera, as well as Fra Melitone and Dulcamara («L’elisir d’amore») at Theater Bonn.
The bass Nahuel Di Pierro was born in Buenos Aires, where he studied voice at the Instituto Superior de Arte of the Teatro Colón and appeared there as Masetto (“Don Giovanni”), Figaro, Colline (“La bohème”), and Guglielmo (“Così fan tutte”). After joining the Paris Opera Studio and the Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival, he went on to perform at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Dutch National Opera, in Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires, at the Opéra National de Bordeaux, and regularly at the Paris Opera, as well as at the festivals in Salzburg, Glyndebourne, and Beaune. His roles include Leporello (“Don Giovanni”) in Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, and Tel Aviv; Colline and Masetto at the Royal Opera House in London; Osmin (“Die Entführung aus dem Serail”) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées; Guglielmo at the Edinburgh Festival; the title role in “Le nozze di Figaro” at the Houston Grand Opera; Seneca (“L’incoronazione di Poppea”) at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona; Osmin at the Zurich Opera House and in Geneva; and Claudio (“Agrippina”) also in Zurich. Recent concert highlights include Handel’s “Messiah” and Paisiello’s “Missa Defunctorum” in Salzburg, Bach’s “St John Passion” and Rossini’s “Stabat Mater” in Paris, Mozart’s “Requiem” in Versailles, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Teatro San Carlo, Teatro Regio di Torino, in Valencia, and at the Wiener Festwochen, as well as Schubert’s Mass in E-flat major with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His discography includes recordings of the baroque operas “Les Paladins” and “Ercole Amante,” as well as Mozart’s “Betulia liberata” and “Requiem.” He also released the album “Anclao en Paris,” dedicated to the tango music of his hometown Buenos Aires.
Martin Zysset was born and raised in Solothurn. He trained as a clarinetist while simultaneously studying voice, complementing his education with master classes with Ernst Haefliger and Edith Mathis. In 1990/91, he was a member of the International Opera Studio at Zurich Opera House and, at the same time, a scholarship holder of the Migros Culture Percentage and a prizewinner of the Pro Arte Lyrica Competition in Lausanne. Since 1992, he has been a regular guest at the Selzach Summer Festival. He has been a permanent member of the Zurich Opera House ensemble since the 1991/92 season, where he has built up a wide-ranging repertoire encompassing both comic and dramatic roles, including Pedrillo, Monostatos, Spoletta, Incredibile (“Andrea Chénier”), Jaquino, Kudrjasch (“Káťa Kabanová”), Alfred (“Die Fledermaus”), Tamino, Tybalt, Dancaïro, Arturo, the Witch, Brighella, and the male lead in Udo Zimmermann’s “Weiße Rose.” He achieved great success as Simplicius in Johann Strauss’s operetta of the same name, which was also released on CD and DVD. Guest performances have taken him throughout Europe, to Shanghai, and to San Diego with “The Magic Flute,” “Le nozze di Figaro,” “Fidelio,” and “Tannhäuser.” For Bavarian Radio, he recorded Lehár’s operetta “Paganini.” Most recently at Zurich Opera House, he has appeared as Don Basilio (“Le nozze di Figaro”), Tschekalinski (“The Queen of Spades”), Triquet (“Eugene Onegin”), the Chief Eunuch (“The Land of Smiles”), Goro (“Madama Butterfly”), Spoletta (“Tosca”), Dormont (“La scala di seta”), the White Minister (“Le Grand Macabre”), the Devil/Narrator (“The Soldier’s Tale”), the Third Jew (“Salome”), Schmidt (“Werther”), and Feri (“The Csárdás Princess”).
A silk ladder (La scala di seta) enables Giulia to receive her husband, whom she married against her guardian’s wishes, in her room night after night. The fact that three men end up using the silk ladder is one of the unsavory complications of this comedy. Director Damiano Michieletto presents the six-character work as a fast-paced sitcom, true to Rossini’s motto that the everyday must be exaggerated in order for it to become an opera.
