Il Canto della Sirena

Marco Sollini: Italian pianist with a solid musical education was definited by Claudio Scimone “a great poet of the keyboard”. He has performed in some of the most important concert halls all over the world, as Salle Cortot of Paris, Musikverein Golden Hall of Wien, Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, Smetana Hall of Prague, Main Hall of the Cairo Opera House, Mailowsky Palace and Caterina Palace of Saint Petersburg, Solti Hall of the Liszt Accademy in Budapest, Manoel Theatre of Malta, Grossesaal of Mozarteum in Salzburg and others. He performed as soloist in recital and in prestigious Orchestras, as Dohnanyi Symphonic Orchestra and MAV in Budapest, Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgard Symphony Orchestra, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Serbian Radio Television Symphony Orchestra, I Solisti Veneti, Sanremo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Metropolitana Città di Bari, I Solisti Aquilani, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Ciudad de Elche Symphony Orchestra, Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra, Saint Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Kroatisches Kammerorchester, Euro Sinfonietta Wien, Kharkiv Philharmonic Orchestra and many others. He has a large discography with around 40 CDs devoted to the music of Bach, Kozeluch, Clementi, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Thalberg, Poulenc, Rachmaninov, Rimskij-Korsakov, Menotti, Sollini. His discography also inclused the first world of Piano Music of Leoncavallo, Puccini, Giordano, Mascagni, Bellini, Verdi, Persiani, Offenbach. His four CDs devoted to Rossini Piano Music have been definited the “reference edition” by the Rossini German Society (Deutsche Rossini Gesellschaft). He has worked as contributing editor with the Publishing house Boccaccini & Spada for the complete edition of Puccini’s, Mascagni’s, Giordano’s, Leoncavallo’s, Bellini’s piano music, and other previously unpublished chamber compositions of Rossini and Mascagni.
He plays in duo with Salvatore Barbatano and he has cooperated with several chamber ensembles and with important Artists such as Bruno Canino, Antonio Ballista, Quartetto della Scala, Simonide Braconi, Cremona Quartet, Francesco Manara, Alain Meunier, Claudio Scimone, Elena Zaniboni, Fabrizio Meloni, Maxence Larrieu, Fabio Armiliato, Ugo Pagliai, Paola Pitagora, Paola Gassman and many others. Since 2014 he has been teaching at the AFAM – Superiur Institute of Musical Studies “O. Vecchi – A. Tonelli” of Modena-Carpi.
He hold several master classes at the Arts Academy of Rome, Lima State Conservatory, Tirana Arts Academy, Winston-Salem and Davidson Colleges in USA, Izmir Conservatory, Bogotà Conservatory and Superior Royal Conservatory Reina Sofia of Madrid. He was in the jury of several piano competition, such as the “Roma” International Piano Competition, Ars Kosova Music Competition of Pristina (Kosovo), Aram Khachaturian International Competition of Yerevan, Coppa Pianisti of Osimo, Premio Internazionale Pianistico Alexander Scriabin of Grosseto, Cleveland Youth Piano Competition. He received in Campidoglio of Rome the prize “Marchigiani dell’anno 2001” for his international artistic activity.
He is president and artistic director of the “Marche Musica” Association, founder and artistic director of the international music festival “Armonie della sera”, wich has been organizing public concerts in the most evocative places in the Marche region and around all Italy.

Valentina Varriale
Valentina Varriale
After completing her studies with distinction at the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella in Naples, she embarked at a very young age upon a solo career, appearing on the most prestigious national and international stages. Having first established herself in the Baroque repertoire (collaborating with A. Florio, O. Dantone, R. Alessandrini, J. Savall, Sonatori della Gioiosa Marca, and P. Kopp), she then joined the Young Artist Program of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, where she took on leading roles in the bel canto repertoire (Violetta in La Traviata directed by S. Coppola, Madama Cortese in Il Viaggio a Reims directed by D. Michieletto, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, both under the direction of Vick). Winner of numerous competitions, her particular vocal versatility enables her to devote herself successfully both to contemporary writing and to the chamber repertoire. She has enjoyed noteworthy collaborations, including with Nicola Piovani, who chose her for his La Vita Nova and Padre Cicogna (broadcast on the RAI networks), with Silvia Colasanti, in whose Arianna e il Minotauro (melologue) she recently appeared, and with Marco Sollini, with whom she recorded a CD of Rossini arias. In 2022 she made her debut in the theatre of her native city, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, in the role of Lisa in La Sonnambula, receiving wide acclaim from both public and critics. In 2024 she made her Puccini debut as Magda in La Rondine at the Teatro Coccia in Novara, under the baton of J. Bernancer. She has an extensive discography with labels such as Eloquentia, Glossa, Naïve, Stradivarius, Urania Records, Brilliant Classics and Berlin Classics, and she continues her artistic refinement under the guidance of Maria Ercolano.

Alfredo Catalani (1854-1893) was an Italian composer born in Lucca. After studying in his native city, Paris and Milan, he became an important figure in Italian opera in the generation before Puccini. His best-known stage works include Loreley and La Wally. His music combines Italian lyricism with an interest in the orchestral and dramatic language of northern Europe.

Eduardo di Capua (12 May 1865 – 3 October 1917) was an Italian composer, singer and songwriter from Naples.

He is best known for ’O sole mio, composed in 1898 to words by Giovanni Capurro. The song’s music is also credited to Alfredo Mazzucchi. Di Capua’s melodic writing became part of the internationally performed Neapolitan song tradition.

Francesco Paolo Tosti: (b Ortona, 9 April 1846; d Rome, 2 Dec 1916). Italian song composer and singing teacher. He entered the Naples Conservatory in 1858, studying the violin under Pinto and composition under Conti and Mercadante. In 1869, illness and overwork as maestrino at the college enforced a period of convalescence in Ortona. There he wrote Non m’ama più and Lamento d’amore, songs which subsequently became popular but which he initially found difficult to publish. Sgambati helped Tosti establish himself in Rome (where his admirers included D’Annunzio) by composing a ballad for a concert at the Sala Dante which Tosti himself sang in addition to his own works. Princess Margherita of Savoy (later Queen of Italy) was present and immediately appointed him her singing teacher and shortly thereafter curator of the court music archives. Tosti first visited London in 1875, and then made annual spring visits until he settled there in 1880. In the same year he was appointed singing teacher to the royal family, and from 1894 he was professor of singing at the RAM. He became a British subject in 1906, was knighted in 1908, and retired to Italy in 1912.

The songs Forever, Goodbye, Mother, At Vespers, Amore, Aprile, Vorrei morire and That Day were among his earliest successes in England. He was a prolific composer to Italian, French and English texts, with a graceful, fluent melodic style that quickly found favour among singers of drawing-room songs and ballads; the ballad ‘alla Tosti’ also found many imitators. His Vocal Albums, the 15 duets Canti popolari abruzzesi, and later songs such as Mattinata and Serenata all enjoyed great success.

Gaetano Donizetti (Bergamo, 29 November 1797–8 April 1848) was an Italian composer whose operas helped shape the bel canto repertory of the nineteenth century. He achieved international success in both comic and serious opera, developing a personal dramatic language between the operatic worlds of Rossini and Verdi.

Born into a family of modest means, he received his early musical education at the charitable school established in Bergamo by Simon Mayr, who remained his teacher, mentor and supporter. Mayr arranged further study with Stanislao Mattei in Bologna. Donizetti’s first professional operatic commission, Enrico di Borgogna, was performed in Venice in 1818. Following the success of Zoraida di Granata in Rome, he began working in Naples in 1822, maintaining a demanding succession of commissions while also writing for other Italian theatres.

Anna Bolena established his international reputation in 1830. The following decade brought such enduring works as L’elisir d’amore, Lucrezia Borgia and Lucia di Lammermoor. His writing combines melodic immediacy with a keen understanding of theatrical pace, character and vocal expression. Close collaboration with singers was central to his working methods. Although exceptionally prolific, he continually adapted his musical and dramatic approach to the requirements of different theatres, performers and audiences.

His later career extended to Paris and Vienna, with operas including La fille du régiment, La favorite, Linda di Chamounix and Don Pasquale. Alongside his operas, he composed sacred music, songs, orchestral pieces and chamber works, including string quartets and music for wind instruments. Serious illness curtailed his final years, and he returned to Bergamo before his death in 1848. His elder brother Giuseppe, a military musician who worked in Constantinople, was a different composer.

Gioacchino Rossini: (b Pesaro, 29 Feb 1792; d Passy, 13 Nov 1868). Italian composer. No composer in the first half of the 19th century enjoyed the measure of prestige, wealth, popular acclaim or artistic influence that belonged to Rossini. His contemporaries recognized him as the greatest Italian composer of his time. His achievements cast into oblivion the operatic world of Cimarosa and Paisiello, creating new standards against which other composers were to be judged. That both Bellini and Donizetti carved out personal styles is undeniable; but they worked under Rossini’s shadow, and their artistic personalities emerged in confrontation with his operas. Not until the advent of Verdi was Rossini replaced at the centre of Italian operatic life.

Maurice Ravel (b Ciboure, Basses-Pyrénées, 7 March 1875; d Paris, 28 Dec 1937). French composer. He was one of the most original and sophisticated musicians of the early 20th century. His instrumental writing – whether for solo piano, for ensemble or for orchestra – explored new possibilities, which he developed at the same time as (or even before) his great contemporary Debussy, and his fascination with the past and with the exotic resulted in music of a distinctively French sensibility and refinement.

Mario Pasquale Costa (24 July 1858 –27 September 1933) was a prolific Italian composer primarily known for his art songs, Neapolitan songs, and operettas.

Pietro Labriola (1820-1900) was a Neapolitan composer, singer and teacher. He studied singing and piano at the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella, subsequently performing at the Teatro del Fondo and joining the Cappella Palatina as a tenor in 1852. His many songs contributed to nineteenth-century Neapolitan musical life; his pupils included Nicola D'Arienzo.

Sergey Rachmaninov: (b Oneg, 20 March/1 April 1873; d Beverly Hills, CA, 28 March 1943). Russian composer, pianist and conductor. He was one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, the last great representative of Russian late Romanticism. The influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and other Russian composers soon gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom, with a pronounced lyrical quality, expressive breadth, structural ingenuity and a palette of rich, distinctive orchestral colours.