A Musical Journey from East to West and Back
VIEW EVENT DETAILSAsia Society Music Series
Evening Performance and Conversation
Drinks Reception 6:30pm
Performance and Conversation 7:00pm
Close 8:00pm
The Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is the advanced, career-oriented training center of Opera di Firenze and Italy’s pride. Each year, a handful of young talents from around the world are selected through a stringent audition process and admitted to live and study in Florence to improve every aspect of their theatrical skills. On their very first Asia tour — two Koreans, two Italians and two Chinese young artists, destined for careers on the world’s leading stage will make their fine music heard by Hong Kong while engaging in a conversation moderated by Peter Gordon, sharing their life journey from the East to the West.
PROGRAM
‘A vucchella — Francesco Paolo Tosti
Non t’amo più — Francesco Paolo Tosti
Marechiare — Francesco Paolo Tosti
La serenata — Francesco Paolo Tosti
Te vojo bene assaje — (anonymous)
Musica proibita — Stanislao Gastaldon
Non ti scordar di me — Ernesto De Curtis
La promessa — Gioachino Rossini
Parlami d’amore, Mariù — Cesare Andrea Bixio
La serenata — Gioachino Rossini
Chinese songs
Qianming Dou (Baritone, China) graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Ukraine. After moving to Italy, he enrolled in the Music Conservatory of Verona. In 2015, he joined the Academy of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. In 2016 he won the International Opera Competition Ferruccio Tagliavini. In February 2017 he is Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia by G. Rossini at the Royal Opera House Muscat (Oman).
Eleonora Bellocci (Soprano, Italy) began her vocal studies in 2011 with Donatella Debolini at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini of Florence. She made her debut in 2012 in Noye’s Fludde by Benjamin Britten and as a soloist in the New Year’s concert at the Opera di Firenze. In 2016, she was a student at the Accademia Rossini directed by Maestro Alberto Zedda. In March 2017, she will perform the role of La Regina della Notte in La Piramide di Luce from the opera Il Flauto Magico by W. A. Mozart at the Opera di Firenze.
Manuel Amati (Tenor, Italy) began his vocal studies at the age of 13 with, Riccardo Frizza, Roberto Frontali and Roberto Scandiuzzi, also specializing with Maestro Domenico Colaianni. In 2015 he won a scholarship at the Accademia Lirica di Bari. In March, 2017 he interpreted Tamino in La Piramide di Luce from the opera Il Flauto Magico by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for the Opera di Firenze.
Eunhee Kim (Soprano, South Korea) studied music at the National University of Seoul. She then moved to Italy where she graduated with honors at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi di Milano. She won several competitions including the Riccardo Zandonai Prize and the Grand Prix of Bucharest. In 2015 she debuted in Ireland at the Wexford Opera Festival with Le portrait de Manon by Jules Massenet. The same year she joined Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Benjamin Cho (Baritone, South Korea) was born in 1989 in Seoul. He graduated at the Korea National University of Art. He moved to Italy to study the Italian lyric repertory, and in 2015 he was admitted to the Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. In 2016, he was one of the winners of the Concorso lirico Andrea Chénier. In October 2016, he was Schaunard in La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini at the Teatro Regio d Torino, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.
Yin Bojie (Pianist, China) graduated in Piano Accompaniment and Choir Direction from the Shanghai Music Conservatory. In 2012, she worked as a piano accompanist at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. In 2015, she was admitted to the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy where she worked as a rehearsal pianist for the preparation of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Falstaff under the guidance of Maestro Muti. Since November 2015, she has been enrolled at the Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. In April 2016, she worked on the preparation of Falstaff with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra directed by Richard Muti in Chicago.
Richard Barker (Pianist, Italy/ UK) studied at the King's School Worcester and specialized at the Giuseppe Verdi Music Conservatory in Milan. From 1997 to 2014, he was a teacher at the Accademia di Perfezionamento of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Barker is often a guest performer at Teatro Comunale in Bologna; Teatro La Fenice in Venice; Teatro Lirico in Cagliari; Teatro Regio in Parma; Teatro San Carlo in Naples; Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa; Opéra Bastille de Paris; Opéra de Montecarlo; Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux; Japan Opera Foundation; and Teatro São Carlos in Lisbon. He has also participated in the festivals of Glyndebourne, Wexford, Edinburgh, Schwetzingen, Jerusalem, Sofia and Houston (Texas). He has accompanied prestigious singers such as Renato Bruson, Leo Nucci, Katia Ricciarelli, Carmen Oprisanu, Desirée Rancatore, Margarita Zimmermann, Roberto Scandiuzzi and Michele Pertusi, to name only a few. He has also accompanied international singing competitions such as the Butterfly in Tokyo and the Bicentennial Mozart Competition at the Wiener Staatsoper. Since 2015 he is the principal coach at Accademia del Maggio Fiorentino.
Gianni Tangucci, (Artistic Director, Italy), his career began as Maestro Collaboratore at La Fenice in Venice in 1970 and in 1978 he was appointed Artistic Secretary. He has been Artistic Director of several Italian opera houses including Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Comunale of Bologna, La Fenice, Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and artistic consultant of the Genoa Opera House, the Teatro Comunale of Treviso,Teatro Regio of Parma. He is currently the artistic director of the Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Peter Gordon (moderator) is editor of the Asian Review of Books. He writes on opera for the local press, gives regular pre-performance opera talks as well as for the Dante Alighieri Society and supplies programme notes and translated subtitles for local performances.
Click here for more upcoming events.