Orchestra
The orchestra of Opera Carlo Felice began its activity in the early 1900s with a symphonic and operatic activity which has been proceeding uninterrupted ever since, not even stopped by the bombings of 1943 and the consequent destruction of the ancient Carlo Felice.
In 1965, the Orchestra took on an organic structure, and evolved by developing a repertoire that ranges from the XVII century to contemporary music, standing out in the national institutional scene and distinguishing itself for both its productivity and versatility.
Since 1950, internationally renowned conductors have alternated on the podium: Victor De Sabata, Tullio Serafin, Igor Stravinsky, Franco Capuana, Vittorio Gui, Sergiu Celibidache, Hermann Scherchen, Sir John Barbirolli, Claudio Abbado, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, Carlo Maria Giulini, Riccardo Muti, Georges Prêtre, Mstislav Rostropovič, Giuseppe Patanè, Vladimir Delman, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Spiros Argiris, Peter Maag, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Myung-Whun Chung, Yury Aronovič. More recently, Daniel Oren (Principal conductor of the Orchestra in the second half of the 1980s and from 2007 to 2010), Antonio Pappano, Christian Thielemann, Daniele Gatti, Gary Bertini, Gennadij Roždestvenskij, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Rudolf Baršaj, Bruno Campanella , Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Nello Santi, Michel Plasson (Principal Guest Conductor of the ensemble in the early 2000s), Bruno Bartoletti, Sir Neville Marriner, Lu Jia, Juanjo Mena (Principal Guest Conductor of the ensemble from 2007 to 2010), Dmitrij Kitajenko, Manfred Honeck, Juraj Valčuha, Kyrill Petrenko, Hartmut Haenchen, Vladimir Fedoseev, Andrea Battistoni (Principal Guest Conductor from 2013 to 2016), Daniel Smith (Principal Guest Conductor from 2017 to 2019).
From the 2020-2021 season, Fabio Luisi (Honorary conductor since 2012) has been the protagonist of numerous concerts dedicated to the great European Romantic symphonic repertoire – with a specific focus to the composer Anton Bruckner – whose work has been intertwined by Luisi with a exploratory journey of Luciano Berio’s symphonic work since 2022 (considering the centennial birth anniversary of the composer from Oneglia, which will be celebrated in 2025).
In 2021, Donato Renzetti (Director Emeritus since 2022) conducted the first modern performance of Bianca e Fernando by Vincenzo Bellini in the version of “Genova, 1828”, as part of a larger project for the rediscovery of Genoese musical civilization promoted by the Theatre. rom the 2020-2021 season, as a regular guest of the Theatre, he has conducted numerous concerts dedicated to the discovery of European musical forms from the XX century.
In 2022, Riccardo Minasi was appointed Music director.
Numerous illustrious recordings were realized at Opera Carlo Felice theatre, in particular of opera productions, for labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Sony, TDK, Rai-Trade, Nuova Era Records, Arthaus Musik, Dynamic, Bongiovanni, Denon / Nippon Columbia and BMG- Memories.
Such an high artistic level has been consolidated over the years, allowing the Theatre to take part in very prestigious events such as the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto (2013, 2020), the Ravello Festival (2014, 2019) and the Festival di musica sacra Anima Mundi di Pisa (2015), and to perform in important national and international venues such as the Parco della Musica in Rome (2015), the Teatro degli Arcimboldi in Milan (2012), the Auditorium della Conciliazione in Rome (2012), the Teatro dal Verme in Milan (2014, 2019, 2021) the Royal Opera House of Muscat (2015, 2017, 2019) the Astana Opera (2017), the Marinsky Concert Hall (2019), the Basilica di S. Francesco d’Assisi for the Christmas Concert of 2020, broadcast in Eurovision by RAI.
Latest update: June 2022
FIRST VIOLINS
Giovanni Battista Fabris (concertmaster) *
Elisabetta Garetti (concertmaster) *
Adele Viglietti (concertino)
Michele Pierattelli (concertino)
Marco Ferrari
Andrea Franzetti
Danilo Porfidio
Antonella Santi
Roberto Sechi
Sylvia Trabucco
Roberto Mazzola
Elena Aiello
Angelica Pierri
Federico Mazzucco
Emanuela Colagrossi
SECOND VIOLINS
Pier Domenico Sommati*
Lorenzo Gentili-Tedeschi*
Sylvio Bove
Anselmo Cerriana
Claudia Conti
Elisabetta Franchi
Marino Lagomarsino
Cristiano Puccini
Luca Salin
Debora Tedeschi
Barbara Maria Pinna
Sofia Locati
VIOLAS
Giuseppe Ambrosini*
Eleonora De Poi*
Cristina Cassiani Ingoni
Gabriella Diatto
Marco Diatto
Giuseppe Francese
Marco Melini
Riccardo Memore
Laura Safadi
Cesare Zanfini
CELLOS
Riccardo Agosti*
Federico Romano*
Raffele Ottonello
Marco De Masi
Giulio Glavina
Paolo Rivaroli
Ainhoa Maria Castello Amoros
Valentina Cangero
DOUBLE BASSES
Andrea Lumachi*
Pietro Procopio*
Andrea Gabriele De Venuto
Maria Silvia Groppo
Alessandro Salvadori
Paolo Zaccarini
Alessandro Paolini
FLUTES
Francesco Loi*
Anna Ratti*
PICCOLOS
Alberto Boschi
Stefania Morselli
Elisabetta Pasquinelli
OBOES
Guido Ghetti*
Dario Sartori*
Andrea Arcieri
CLARINETS
Corrado Orlando*
Valeria Serangeli*
Massimo Ferraris
Danilo Zauli
BASS CLARINET
Lucia Rosati
BASSOONS
Luigi Tedone
Dennis Carli*
Mauro Caligaris
Davide Luigi Ceravolo
HORNS
Carlo Durando*
Serena Flore*
Gianpaolo Rota
Daniele Sala
Claudio Dozio
Fabio Uscidda
TRUMPETS
Riccardo Pasquini
Erika Patrucco*
Giuseppe Alfano
Flavio Bergamasco
Oscar Giuffredi
TROMBONES
Davide Masenga*
Federico De Simone*
Gabriele Bastrentaz
Gabriele Tonelli
BASS TUBA
Stefano Ammannati
HARP
Laura Papeschi*
TIMPANI
Bruno Frumento*
Lorenzo Malacrida*
PERCUSSIONS
Alessandro Salandrini
Marcello Ursi
Dario Doriani
* first musicians
July 3, 2024
