Carmen

Enrico Castiglione was born in Rome, Italy. On today’s international scenario he is considered one of the best-known and acclaimed musical theatre and video musical directors and set designer of his generation, as well as being the founder and artistic director of prestigious festivals and the tireless driving spirit of international musical life. Castiglione’s style of direction is passionately realistic, characterized by a strong

visual dimension of evident cinematographic inspiration, with stage sets always hallmarked by spectacular, surprising concepts. Some of Castiglione’s most successful opera productions, which he also directed for television and cinema and which have been broadcast by international television networks and in the cinemas in the world, are also available in dvd and blu-ray format.

Among its most successful international film and theatre production include Manon Lescaut by Giacomo Puccini (2024), La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini (2017), Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini (2016), Carmen by Georges Bizet (2015), Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci (2014), Rigoletto (2013), Norma (2012), Nabucco (2011), Turandot (2010), Tosca by Giacomo Puccini (Enrico Castiglione in his career has already make seven new production and two film, in 2008 and 2000), Aida (2009), Medea (2007), L’impresario teatrale di Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (2006), the rediscovery of Le Villi and Edgar, which are Giacomo Puccini’s first two works performed and recorded in 2004, Candide by Leonard Bernstein (2003), the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “love trilogy” comprising the three operas with Lorenzo Da Ponte’s Italian librettos, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così Fan Tutte (2001), Leonard Bernstein’s Mass/Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers at Vatican City (2000), transmitted several times by major television and cinemas networks in the world, as well as broadcast “live” worldwide in the cinemas. Many of his films are visible in streaming in hight definition on www.musicalia.tv and are released on DVD and BLU-RAY distributed worldwide by Pan Dream and Unitel.

The theatrical productions and scenes Enrico Castiglione are regularly staged in the most prestigious theaters in the world, including among the newest hits theatres in Athens, Hong Kong, Fuzhou, Beijing, Shenzen, Seul, Daegu, Barcelona, La Victoria, Manaos, Dijon, Paris, Malta, and in the theatres of Ancient Rome in the archaeological sites of Mediterranean area as Taormina, Siracusa, Ostia Antica, Villa

Adriana/Tivoli, Segesta, Catania in Italy, Aspendos in Turkey.

It is certainly no easy feat to summarize in a few lines Enrico Castiglione’s career as a theatre director and stage designer, without neglecting his equally impressive track record as a television director and producer of mega concerts and official events with artists of the calibre of José Carreras, Lorin Maazel, Montserrat Caballé, Katia Ricciarelli, Cecilia Gasdia, Zubin Mehta, Renato Bruson and Mstislav Rostropovich.

Great success he obtained his film direction of Beethoven's Nine Symphonies (and ouvertures) recorded at the Ancient Theater of Taormina with the conducting of Lorin Maazel (all visible in streaming in hight definition on www.musicalia.tv).

Then there is his résumé as the founder and artistic director of festivals and concert seasons of international scope. Enrico Castiglione is the founder in 2001 of Festival Euro Mediterranean in Rome; founder in 1998, president and artistic director for many years of the Easter Festival held in Rome and in Vatican City; founder in 2009 and artistic director from the same year of the Festival Belliniano dedicated in

Sicily to Vincenzo Bellini; founder and artistic director from many years of the Taormina Opera Festival at the Greek Theatre of Taormina in Sicily, founder in 2021 of Vivaldi Festival in Venice.

His many appointments include his role in the 2004 European Parliament commission to select the European cultural capitals; artistic director of the fifty Jubilee Concerts that His Holiness John Paul II commissioned for the 2000 Jubilee; artistic director of the 2000 opera season for Bari’s Teatro Petruzzelli; artistic director of the Easter festivals from 1998 to 2002; president of the international “Una Vita per la Musica” (A life for the Music) award, conferred each year for the career of great musical figures worldwide,president and artistic director of the international “Montserrat Caballé” opera competition held in Andorra,

Spain, artistic director of Taormina Arte until 2015.

In addition to more than two hundred DVDs of his theatrical and television directions, his books include conversations with Leonard Bernstein, Una Vita Per La Musica (1989, translated into twelve languages); the most complete edition of the Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1991); the Letters of Gioachino Rossini (1992).

Stefano Vignati is an Italian-born American conductor. His career began in 1990, and since then, in addition to conducting numerous Symphonic Concerts in Italy and abroad, he has dedicated himself to opera, with over 60 titles in his repertoire.

Maestro Vignati was recently appointed Music Director and Principal Conductor of Carolina Opera, becoming the first Italian (naturalized in the US) to hold this prestigious position in Opera Carolina’s 75-year history.

He also serves as Principal Guest Conductor at the New York City Opera and as Artistic and Music Director of the International Lyric Academy, which in 2025 will celebrate 31 years of international activity.

Maestro Vignati has conducted prestigious orchestras in the United States, Canada, Italy, China, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenija, Serbia, Republic of Macedonia, Switzerlandand Russia, collaborating with world-famous artists such as Lina Wertmüller, Barbara Frittoli, Michele Campanella, Mariella Devia, Bruno Praticò, Alfonso Antoniozzi, Pierre Amoyal, Nicola Ulivieri, Marco Vinco, Mirco Palazzi, Jesus Leon, Moni Ovadia, Aleksey Bogdanov, Janet Perry, Carol Neblett, Limmie Pulliam, Svetla Vassileva, Leo An, and Alexander Malta.

In 1995, his first Concerto, produced by the Italian RAI Radio-Television for "I Concerti di RaiTre", was broadcast. In 2007 and 2008, he directed two other RAI productions: "Prima della Prima", of "Le Nozze di Figaro" by Mozart, and Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia", directed by Lina Wertmüller and Alfonso Antoniozzi, respectively.

In 1998, 1999, and 2000, he recorded various music CDs, including the first interactive CD dedicated to Giuseppe Verdi's Opera Omnia, published by De Agostini of Novara.

From 2007 to 2017, Maestro Vignati was the artistic and music director of the Tuscia Operafestival in Italy. In 2009 he was also appointed Artistic and Music Director of the Italian American Opera Foundation in Los Angeles, and in 2010 Artistic Director of the Viterbo Baroque Festival (2010-2014) during which, among others, he conducted the Accademia Baroque Orchestra of Santa Cecilia and collaborated with artists and ensembles such as Giovanni Antonini and the Giardino Armonico, Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante, Ramin Barhami, Enrico Onofri, and Evangelina Mascardi.

Maestro Vignati studied piano and composition under the guidance of T. Procaccini, C. Savelloni, and C. Ricci, and conducting under the guidance of N. Hansalik Samale and Lawrence Golan. He also earned his Master’s in Conducting from the University of Denver in Colorado, USA. M° Vignati has been a Professor at Drake University, IA, where he was also Director and Principal Conductor of the Drake Opera Theater (2015-2022).

He has also been a guest conductor in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2011, and 2007 of the UNM Symphony Orchestra in New Mexico, in 2000 of the Amarillo Symphony of Dallas, Texas, in 2012 and 2013 of the Tonhalle in Zürich, Switzerland, and from 2014 to 2017 of the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra in China.

Last engagements: Verdi’s La Traviata (Macedonian Opera and Ballet, Skopje (May 2023), Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (ILA/Opera Carolina/Teatro Comunale of Vicenza (July 2023); Verdi Tribute Opera Recital with Barbara Frittoli and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Canada (October 2023), Opera Grand Gala with

Barbara Frittoli and St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg, Russia, Places Festival (December 2023), DU Symphony Orchestra, Symphonic Concert, Denver Colorado (May 2024), Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Beethoven’s IX Symphony, Teatro Comunale of Vicenza (July 2024).

Future engagements: 2 Concerts at the New York City Opera (June 2025), Verdi’s Falstaff at Teatro Comunale di Vicenza (August 2025), Verdi’s La traviata at the Taormina Opera Festival (August 2025), Bizet’s Carmen at the New York City Opera (September 2025), Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz at the Festival Mascagni in Livorno (September 2025), 2 Concerts with the Orchestra Sinfonica del Friuli Venezia

Giulia (July 2025), 10 Concerts with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Bari (December 2025), Verdi’ Rigolettoat Macedonian National Opera (February 2026), Busoni’s Turandot (July 2026), and Puccini’s Il Trittico at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago (August 2027).