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Before becoming the hero of Italian opera in England, Handel spent several years in the Italian sunshine, where he immersed himself in the art of the transalpine masters and brought to life several sacred frescoes – opera itself being banned in the Eternal City at the time. His talent was such that ecclesiastical eminences willingly turned a blind eye to the young North German’s Lutheran origins. This was particularly true of Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili, a poet in his spare time, who in 1707 offered him the libretto for Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno [The Triumph of Time and Disillusion]. The first Roman oratorio to come from Handel’s pen, it was premiered in the palace of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, the future Pope Alexander VIII, and features passionate exchanges between four allegorical figures who debate the attitude to be adopted by Beauty, which oscillates between the ‘carnal’ advances of Pleasure and the moralising warnings of Time and Disillusionment the latter emphasising the merits of the beauty of the soul for those who choose a life of asceticism. In the wake of their pioneering presentations on the Scala stage, Diego Fasolis and his Barocchisti present an “original” reading of this masterpiece, which Handel revised several times, highlighting the high male registers that the choir is fortunate to possess, since at the time women’s voices were not allowed to resound in Roman churches.
Born in Verona, countertenor and soprano Federico Fiorio trained with Lia Serafini and Patrizia Vaccari and graduated with honors from the F. A. Bonporti and Arrigo Boito Conservatories of Parma. He attended master classes given by Roberta Invernizzi at the International Academy of Organ and Early Music Giuseppe Gherardeschi in Pistoia. He discovered singing in a children’s choir in Verona and has since preserved his soprano voice, releasing in 2013 with harpist Marina Bonetti an album entitled “Come voce antica risuonano fili di luce”. He made his debut as a soprano at the age of sixteen, on the stage of the Teatro Ristori in Verona, followed by invitations as Erster Knabe of the Zauberflöte at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona and the Teatro Verdi in Padua. The roles followed, with invitations to the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Barcelona Auditorium (with the Jove Capella Reial de Catalunya at the invitation of Jordi Savall), the Teatro Massimo in Palermo and the Teatro Verdi in Pisa. He recently participated in the recording of Stradella’s Forza dell’amor paterno with Andrea De Carlo at the Stradella Festival in Viterbo and Nepi.
Born in South Korea, countertenor Kangmin Justin Kim was raised in Evanston, Illinois. He studied voice, opera and musical theater at Northwestern University in Evanston and the Royal Academy of Music in London. His operatic debut in 2013 was quickly followed by engagements on the world’s greatest stages: Opéra-Comique, Châtelet, Salzburg Festival, New York’s Lincoln Center, Paris and Berlin Philharmonics, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Glyndebourne, Naples’ Teatro San Carlo… Recent engagements include Cherubino at Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House, Nerone in L’incoronazione di Poppea at Berlin’s Staatsoper, as well as Ottone in Griselda and Gilade in Farnace at La Fenice in Venice. In the 2022/23 season, he will appear as Justin in Hänsel und Gretel at the Dallas Opera, as Nerone at the Rhine Opera, as Amanzio in Vivaldi’s Il Giustino in Basel and at the Congertgebouw in Amsterdam, as Cleopatra in Hasse’s Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra in Chicago, and as Hyacinthus in Mozart’s Apollo et Hyacinthus at La Fenice.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Rinaldo (2021).
American countertenor Reginald Mobley has established himself as one of the most outstanding personalities of his generation, equally at home in the Baroque, Classical, and Modern repertoires, performing works on both sides of the Atlantic. In the United States, where he resides, he is a regular guest of such Baroque ensembles as Cantata Collective, Musica Angelica, Agave Baroque, Charlotte Bach Akademie, Seraphic Fire, Quodlibet, Pacific Music Works, Bach Collegium San Diego, San Francisco Early Music Society, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. In 2021/22, his eclectic repertoire has led him to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Handel’s Messiah and Carmina Burana), Opera Lafayette, Blue Heron, Chatham Baroque, Washington Bach Consort, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra and Early Music Seattle. This year he will sing Messiah with the New York Philharmonic and Pittsburgh Symphony, and will make his Carnegie Hall debut in a concert conducted by Bernard Labadie and at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Known for his commitment to the broad dissemination of Baroque music, Reginald Mobley has been invited to participate in the various initiatives of the Handel & Haydn Society and Apollo’s Fire. In Europe, he has worked with the OH! orchestra (Orkiestra Historycsna) in Poland, the Wiener Akademie in Austria (Musikverein), the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra under the direction of John-Eliot Gardiner, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart and Holland Baroque. He has also performed the role of Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, at the Müpa in Budapest and at the Teatro di Vicenza, during a European tour with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. His recordings have been enthusiastically received by critics: “American Originals” with the American ensemble Agave Baroque (Acis Productions) was nominated for a Grammy Award, after the nomination of “A Lad’s Love” with tenor Brian Giebler (Bridge).
Born in Rovigo, Veneto, Massimo Altieri graduated in classical guitar in 2004 at the Conservatory of Bologna, while discovering singing in several ensembles, among which the Philharmonic Choir of Rovigo. Since 2007, he has specialized in early vocal practice, collaborating with numerous specialized ensembles such as Odhecaton, La Venexiana, Concerto Italiano and L’Accademia Bizantina, taking part in numerous recordings on the Arcana, Alpha, Glossa and Archiv labels. In 2013 he began a fruitful collaboration with Diego Fasolis and his Coro della Radiotelevisione svizzera, which allowed him to perform in a very wide range of repertoire. Thanks to his experience in madrigals, he was called by Walter Testolin to join his ensemble RossoPorpora, with several recordings to come, including the Sixth Book of Madrigals by Monteverdi. In the medieval register, he is also a member of La Fonte Musica, an ensemble directed by Michele Pasotti, with whom he took part in the recording of an anthology of the works of Antonio Zacara da Teramo, as well as Monteverdi’s Vespers on the stage of the Wiener Konzerthaus. He will soon be seen in the Premier Berger of Orfeo in Monte-Carlo with the Musiciens du Prince and the puppets of the Carlo Colla & Sons Group, as well as in Vanni Moretto’s Don Quichot with La Fonte Musica for Opera2day, an interesting marriage of 12th century and contemporary music.
Diego Fasolis began his career as a concert organist before turning to conducting. A regular guest at the Salzburg Festival, he conducts Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Musikverein with the Vienna Concentus Musicus and the Arnold Schönberg Choir. La Scala entrusts him with the creation of an orchestra playing on period instruments, which he then conducts in Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. In Milan, he also conducted Tamerlano with Plácido Domingo. With over 120 CDs released by major international labels such as EMI-Virgin, Naïve, Universal Music and Warner Classics, Diego Fasolis has received numerous awards for his commitment to rediscovering the operatic repertoire: the Disco d’Oro, the Grand Prix du Disque for his work on Handel and Vivaldi, and the Echo Klassik for Leonardo Vinci’s opera Artaserse. In 2014 and 2015, he was nominated for two Grammy Awards for the triumphant “Mission” project with works by Agostino Steffani and the “Saint Petersburg” project with Cecilia Bartoli. To mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s death, he recorded Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony with I Barocchisti in Lugano for Arte. In 2019, Diego Fasolis was named Conductor of the Year at the International Opera Awards. Recent and future engagements include Bach’s St. John Passion in Stuttgart, Donizetti’s Anna Bolena in Lugano, Reggio Emilia, Modena and Piacenza, and Vivaldi’s Tamerlano at La Fenice.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Faramondo (2009), Rinaldo (2011), Farnace (2011), L’Artaserse (2012), Dorilla in Tempe (2014), Die Zauberflöte (2015), Ariodante (2016), La clemenza di Tito (2018), Orphée et Eurydice (2019), Meyerbeer’s Gli amori di Teolinda (2019), Alcina (2022), I Barocchisti (Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno) (2023) and Norma (2023)
Winner of the prestigious Abbiati Award 2019, as best costume designer for the production of Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso directed by Maestro Diego Fasolis for Teatro alla Fenice in Venice. Giuseppe Palella already has a long career for the most important Italian and foreign opera houses, specializing in the Baroque repertoire, which began in 2007 with Alan Curtis in the sacred action for the music of David in Florence. His musical studies as an opera singer and those of art and sculpture make him a very original creator, although of classical line.