The protagonists

With her combination of vocal confidence and stage presence, Maria José Siri has established herself as one of the most appreciated performers on the international scene. She has already played Aida in Teatro alla Scala, and with the Theatre’s ensembles and Maestro Chailly she brought the RequiemMass to the Bolshoi in Moscow last September (she will sing it again in January in Berlin with Chailly and the Berliner Philharmoniker). After other dates in 2016/2017, and her debut in Norma in Macerata, we must also mention Manon Lescaut at Teatro Regio in Turin, at Teatro San Carlo in Naples and at the Grand Théâtre in Geneva, Tosca at the Semperoper in Dresden and at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, and Maddalena di Coigny in Andrea Chénier at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome.

Fresh from a successful run at the Metropolitan as Arnoldo in Guillaume Tell in recent weeks, Bryan Hymel is eagerly awaited in the coming months in Carmen at the Opéra in Paris and in Don Carlo at Covent Garden, London. Born in New Orleans in 1979, Hymel has already played Pinkerton, incidentally at the Metropolitan, at the Staatsoper in Vienna, and most recently last summer in Orange. His first solo album, ‘Heroïque’, dedicated to French opera, was released by Warner in 2015. At La Scala, he played Don José in the staging of Carmen conducted by Daniel Barenboim in 2010.

Carlos Álvarez is on his second consecutive opening title. In Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco, which opened the last season, he interpreted the role of Giacomo (replaced on 7 December, however, due to illness). He made his debut at La Scala in 1996 with Riccardo Chailly, singing the part of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly; he returned as Don Giovanni in 1999 and 2006, conducted respectively by Riccardo Muti and Gustavo Dudamel, while in November 2016 he plays Conte in Le nozze di Figaro conducted by Franz Welser-Möst.

She studied piano and made her debut in Salzburg in 2010 with Riccardo Muti: Annalisa Stroppa is a regular feature on the programmes of major theatres these days: we remember her as Cherubino in I due Figaro conducted by Muti in Salzburg and Madrid, and as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia in Rome, Berlin and Tel Aviv. She recently made her debut at the Opéra in Paris as Suzuki and at the Staatsoper in Vienna as Dorabella. At La Scala she played Emilia in Rossini’s Otello and Maddalena in Rigoletto.