Giustino by Vivaldi - "Vedro con mio diletto", Act I

I Capuleti e i Montecchi by Bellini - "Ecco mi... quante volte", Act I scene 2

I Capuleti e i Montecchi by Bellini - "Se Romeo", Act I scene 1

La Sonnambula by Bellini - "Vi ravviso", Act I scene 4

L'Elisir d'amore by Donizetti - "Una furtiva lagrima", Act II scene 8

L'Elisir d'amore by Donizetti - "Come Paride vezzoso", Act I scene 2

L'Elisir d'amore by Donizetti - "Caro Elisir", Act I scene 7

Nabucco by Verdi - "Tu sul labbro dei veggenti", Act III scene 3

La Traviata by Verdi - "Lunge da lei", Act I scene 4

La Traviata by Verdi - "Parigi o cara", Act I scene 4

From L'Elisir d'amore to La Traviata by Verdi, the artists of the Academy will perform a musical Italian tale full of laugh, fantasies and love stories during this recital on the Stage of the Palais Garnier.

Airs et ensembles d’opéras italiens

From L'Elisir d'amore to La Traviata by Verdi, the artists of the Academy will perform a musical Italian tale full of laugh, fantasies and love stories during this recital on the Stage of the Palais Garnier. 

Vivaldi, Donizetti, Verdi, Bellini

Arias and Ensembles from Italian Operas

Born in Catania, Italy, in 1801, a contemporary of Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini was, at first, considered as the heir of Rossini. Yet, he was able to distance from the Rossinian example, as he strove for an ideal of virtuosity. Bellini always put first in his work the quality of the melody, the search for dramatic expression and the portrayal of emotions. His early death (he died in 1835) deprived the history of a musician who could have become Verdi's only great rival. Raised in Naples, he studied composition with Giovanni Furno, Giacomo Tritto and Niccolo Zingarelli. He had not yet completed his studies when he created a small opera entitled Adelson e Salvini (1825) on the conservatory stage. Almost immediately he was commissioned to write Bianca e Fernando (1826) for the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. The piece was so well received that Bellini was immediately invited to compose Il pirata (1827) for La Scala in Milan, which was a great success. Bellini went on to compose La straniera (The Foreign Woman), Zaira and I Capuleti e i Montecchi (1830). His fame was already growing when he returned to Milan to give La sonnambula, which earned him an international reputation. At the end of that same year, and again in Milan, he had his masterpiece Norma performed. In 1833 Beatrice de Tende was premiered in Venice and it was then that, thanks to Rossini's influence, he was commissioned to compose an opera for the Théâtre-Italien in Paris. He settled in Puteaux, where he wrote I puritani, performed in 1835 to great acclaim. The composer died a few days later.

Born in Bergamo in 1797, Gaetano Donizetti played a central role between Rossini and Verdi. Less influenced by the Romanticism than Bellini, and despite an easy and mostly excessively large work (more than sixty operas composed between 1816 and 1843, most of which have been forgotten since), Donizetti forged the bond between too artistic trends to which Italy owes its most authentic masterpieces.He first studied at the Musical School of Bergamo with Simon Mayr and, with the help of his teacher who quickly noticed his talent, had his first opera, Enrico di Borgogna, staged in 1818. His Zoraide di Granata had a remarkable success in 1822. Donizetti was then commissioned for a series of operas, making the artist a full-time composer. From 1822 to 1830, he wrote no less than 26 operas.His first genuine triumph came with Anna Bolena (1830). Bellini’s death and Rossini’s early retirement contributed to Donizetti’s growing fame in Europe. He composed Les Martyrs, La Favorite and Dom Sebastian for the Paris Opera,&nbsp;La Fille du régiment for the Opéra Comique, and Linda di Chamounix and Maria di Rohan for the Vienna Opera. His last great masterpiece, Don Pasquale, was premiered in 1843 at the Théâtre des Italien, in Paris.While he was at the peak of his fame, his health deteriorated rapidly. Hospitalised in Ivry, France, in 1846, he died in 1848 in his native city of Bergamo after being diagnosed with cerebro-spinal syphilis. His operas that have gone down in history also include Lucrèce Borgia (1833), Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), Maria Stuarda (1835), Roberto Devereux (1837), Maria di Rudenz (1838) and Caterina Cornaro (1844).

Giuseppe Verdi was born in 1813 into a modest but relatively well-to-do family in the hamlet of Le Roncole, near Busseto. He received his first musical training from the village organist. In 1824, he became the organist at the church in Busseto. After following music lessons with the organist and composer Ferdinando Provesi, he was noticed by Antonio Barezzi, a spirits merchant and music aficionado who also founded the Filarmonici (Societa filarmonica), the town’s amateur orchestra. Barezzi would become Verdi’s patron and sponsor and the composer would ultimately marry Barezzi’s daughter Margherita in 1836. A stipend enabled him to continue his studies in Milan where he took private lessons with Vincenzo Lavigna, a teacher at La Scala, and a friend of Rossini. On the recommendations of the impresario Bartolomeo Merelli, his first opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio was performed at La Scala in Milan. For a short while following the death of his two children and then his wife Margherita, and after the relative fiasco that befell his second opera, Un giorno di regno, Verdi considered abandoning music altogether. However, he started composing again when Merelli offered him the libretto for Nabucco. That opera was a huge success at its premiere at La Scala on March 9, 1842 and it did not take long before all of Italy was singing Va pensiero, the anthem in which the chorus of slaves lament their lost freedom. From then on, Verdi became the bard of Italian unification. Most of the works that followed would be operas with patriotic undertones (I Lombardi alla prima crocciata, Ernani, Giovanna d’Arco, Attila, La Battaglia di Legnano…). In 1847, Verdi left for London for the world premiere of I Masnadieri, then settled in Paris where he met up with Giuseppina Strepponi, who would create the role of Abigaille. They would never be separated again. Verdi purchased the property at Sant’Agata, near Busseto and openly enlisted in the struggle for the liberation of Italy, which was then occupied by the Austrians. After 1850, Verdi was unrivalled in Italy. In particular, his popular trilogy, Rigoletto – Il Trovatore – La Traviata dates from this period.Les Vêpres siciliennes (Paris, 1855), Simon Boccanegra (La Fenice in Venice, 1857), Un ballo in maschera (Rome, 1859), La Forza del destino (Saint Petersburg, 1862), Don Carlos (Paris, 1867), Aida (Cairo, 1871), the Messa di Requiem (Milan, 1874), Otello (Milan, 1887), and Falstaff (Milan, 1893) would follow. In 1861, he was elected deputy of Busseto. He passed away in Milan on January 27, 1901. With no heir at the time of his death, Verdi bequeathed his copyrights to the retirement home for aging musicians that he had founded in Milan.

Fernando Escalona began his vocal studies in Margot Parès-Reyna's class with El Sistema d’Orquestas de Venezuela. He continued his training as a soloist with Isabel Palacios at the Camerata Barroca of Caracas. In 2005, he performed at the "MozartFest" Festival at the Aula Magna of Caracas with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra. The same year, he performed Pepíček in Brundibár at the Teresa Carreño Theatre with the Caracas Youth Orchestra conducted by Alfredo Rugeles. In 2015, he sang Beethoven's Choral Fantasy with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra conducted by César Ivan-Lara. In June 2016, he performed as a soloist in Carmina Burana with the Caracas Youth Orchestra conducted by Christian Vásquez. He made several international tours with the National Simón Bolívar Choir of Venezuela, of which he is a founding member, and then worked with conductors such as Helmuth Rilling, Johan de Meij, Sir Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado and Gustavo Dudamel. In September 2016, he joined the Centre of Baroque Music of Versailles under the tutorship of Olivier Schneebelli and participated in many productions such as Les Horaces by Salieri conducted by Christophe Rousset and Rameau's Les Fêtes d'Hébé with the Paris Opera Academy and the Royal College of Music of London conducted by Jonathan Williams and directed by Thomas Lebrun. In 2018, he was a finalist in the Marmande international singing competition. Fernando Escalona joined the Paris Opera Academy in September 2019 and made his stage début as the Second Aunt of Yvonne, Princesse de Bourgogne at the Palais Garnier.

Escalona

Born in Russia, Kseniia Proshina began her vocal studies in Raisa Gladkova's class at the Samara Academy of Arts and graduated in 2016. She performed the title role in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden and Sonya Gurvich in The Dawns Here Are Quiet by Kirill Molchanov. Since 2014, she has been focusing on the Italian repertoire with Alessandro Svab at the Accademia Lirica Santa Croce in Trieste, Italy. She sang the roles of Gilda in Rigoletto, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and Adina in L'Elisir d'amore. She won the first prizes at the Saveliy Orlov and Hramov competitions in Samara. In 2018, she was a finalist in the “Toti Dal Monte” international song competition and won several prizes in competitions such as the Tenor Viñas in Barcelona and the Klaudia Taev in Pärnu Estonia. More recently she won the first prize at the Gianluca Campochiaro Competition in Italy. Beginning of the season 2019/20, she took part in the Paris Opera Academy’s Chinese Tour and performed at the Shanghai Grand Theatre, at the Shenyanget Poly Theater, and the Nanjing Jiangsu Art Theater. Kseniia Proshina joined the Paris Opera Academy in September 2019. In 2021, she sang Lucia Britten’s Rape of Lucretia at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, conducted by Léo Warynski and staged by Jeanne Candel, and she was a laureate of the AROP Award. Beginning 2022, she sang Amore in L'incoronazione di Poppea at the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet and Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Palais Garnier.

Proshina

Born in India, Ramya Roy studied economics at the University of New Delhi. She began classical singing in Delhi before entering Valérie Millot's class at the W. A. ​​Mozart Local Conservatory in Paris in September 2014. In 2016, she entered the Regional Conservatory (CRR) of Paris. She graduated in 2017 and joined Mireille Delunsch's class at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance of Lyon (CNSMDL), she graduated in 2019. She followed masterclasses with Karine Deshayes, Ludovic Tézier, Roberto Scandiuzzi and Enrique Mazzola. She won the Special Jury Prize at the Marseille International Singing Competition in 2018. She then performed Madame de la Haltiere in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Giustina in Il Flaminio by Pergolese, Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, the Third Lady and the Third Knabe in Mozart's Magic Flute and Gertrude in Gounod's Romeo and Juliet. She sang the alto parts in the requiems of Saint Saëns and Jomelli, Rossini's Petite messe solennelle, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and Mahler's Eighth Symphony, Brahms’ Rhapsody for alto and Beethoven’s Mass in C major. She sang the title-role in Carmen, coached by Béatrice Uria-Monzon, at the Festival des Nuits Musicales in Armagnac in 2019. The same year, she joined the Paris Opera Academy and made her first steps on the stage of the Palais Garnier as the squirrel and cat in L’Enfant et les sortilèges by Ravel in January 2020. In 2021 she performed the title-role in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord and the Second Lady in The Magic Flute at the Opéra National de Lorraine. In 2022 she sang in the vocal quartet of Bernstein’s A Quiet Place at the Palais Garnier. She is working with chorus masters such as Kent Nagano, Vello Pähn, Bas Wiegers, Mikko Franck, Marco Balderi, Claire Levacher, Patrick Lange, Bas Wiegers, Françoise Lassere, and Guillaume Connesson.

ramya

Trained at the Académie de l'Opéra national de ParisGraduating from Aberdeen University in 2016, Niall Anderson continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He took part in a number of competitions, including the Pavarotti Prize in 2019. His repertoire includes the roles of Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Escamillo (Marius Constant's Carmen Tragedy), Somnus (Sémélé) and Bertrand (Iolanta). He took part in several concerts in Europe, including Bach's St John Passion in Würselen, Germany.Particularly interested in contemporary music, he performed the baritone part of Paul Mealor's Symphony no. 1 (Passiontide) at its premiere in Wales. He sings Haydn's Nelson Mass, Mozart's Requiem and Rossini's Petite Messe solennelle. He sings the Orator in The Magic Flute at the Royal Academy of Music in London.In September 2020, Niall Anderson joins the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris, for two seasons. He has recently performed the roles of Allazim (Zaide) at Opéra de Rennes and Angers Nantes Opéra, and the Sacristain (Tosca) and Knyaz Gremin (Eugène Onéguine) at Northern Ireland Opera.At the Opéra national de Paris: A Quiet Place (Mourner), 2022; The Magic Flute (Erster Priester, Zweiter Geharnischter Mann), 2022, 2024

Anderson.Niall (c)

Born in Chicago, Alexander York is a graduate of Lawrence University (Wisconsin). He won numerous scholarships such as those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, the arte-musica Foundation and the Fulbright Zscholar Program, which allowed him to continue his education in Europe. He obtained a master's degree at the Munich Musikhochschule under the direction of Lars Woldt, Rudi Spring, and Donald Sulzen.&nbsp;He performed the following roles at the Augsburg Theater: Angelotti and Sciarrone in Tosca, the Captain in Simplicius Simplicissimus by Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Weickmann and Fuhrmann in Kaspar Hauser by Hans Thomalla,the herald in Verdi's Otello and Belcore in the L'Elisir d'amore by Donizetti. In 2016, he participated in Renée Fleming's master classes at the Aspen Music Festival and School. He created the role of James Ramsey at the world premiere of To the Lighthouse by Zesses Seglias in August 2017 at the Bregenz Festival. He gave a recital at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam and also performed in Munich with the Munich Radio Symphony. He played the role of Bedienter in Der zerbrochene Krug by Viktor Ulmann.&nbsp;For his first season at the Paris Opera Academy, the baritone sang Dr. Falke in Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus at the MC93 in Bobigny and then on tour. In January 2020, he is l’Horloge and le Chat in L’Enfant et les sortilèges by Ravel on the stage of the Palais Garnier.&nbsp;He received the John Moriarty Award as a young artist in residence at the Central City Opera of Denvers in 2015 for his participation in the company's productions. The Bel Canto Society of Chicago gave him an honorary award and he received the second prize in the Mélodie and Oratorio category of the American Prize.&nbsp;Alexander York joined the Paris Opera Academy in September 2018.

York

From South Carolina, Aaron Pendleton studied music at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, at Johnson C. Smith University and at the State University of Arizona. He attended various masterclasses included those of Sherrill Milnes. In 2019, he took part in the creation of 27 by Ricky Ian Gordon at the Opera of Las Vegas. At the Opera Studio of Las Vegas University, he sang Leaf in State of Grace by Linda Lister, Sky’s father in No Guarantees by Cynthia Wong and the Marquis de la Force in the Dialogues des Carmélites by Francis Poulenc. In 2020, he performed the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte and Olin Blitch in Susannah by Carlisle Floyd. First price of the Metropolitan Opera Competition in Arizona and finalist in Denver (Colorado) in 2019, Aaron Pendleton joined the national Opera Academy in September 2020.

Born in Sweden, Tobias Westman graduated from the University of Stockholm in singing. He made his operatic debuts on the main Scandinavian stages in the roles of Gennaro (Lucrezia Borgia) at the Malmö Opera House, or Albert (Die tote Stadt) at the Wermland Opera in Karlstadt, Sweden. The following season, he was Pinkerton in a concert version of Madama Butterfly, then Gastone (La Traviata) in a staging by Olivier Py for the Malmö Opera. During summer 2019, he performed Tamino (The Magic Flute) at the Opera pa Skäret Festival. Tobias Westman joined the Paris Opera’s Academy in Septembre 2019 and made his Palais Garnier debut in the roles of the Teapot, the Tree frog and the Little old man in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges in January 2020. He appeared in The Rape of Lucretia at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in 2021. In 2022, he sang Gernando (L’Isola disabitata) at the Dijon Opera, the Second Friend (Wozzeck) and the third Esquire (Parsifal), the Second Priest and the First armoured man (The Magic Flute) at the Paris Opera.

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