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INTRODUCTION
We are so thrilled to have the Italian mezzosoprano Teresa Iervolino as the cover star of our 1st 2023 issue. She talked with our dear Maria-Isabela Nica about her vast repertoire and also about her intense and complex activity. She felt best when singing Rossini’s masterpieces and she told Isabella how this kind of repertoire guided her voice through the years, how it helped her to develop more and more. When reading this conversation, you will find out about her opinion regarding modern and classic productions, but also about how to sing baroque and belcanto repertoire in the same period of time. Is it a challenge or a pleasure for her? How is the world of recordings? What are her future plans and performances? Where can we admire her? Our only regret is that we couldn’t ask her more, because for sure we would have wanted an endless conversation with this brilliant woman. Keep reading to find out!
BIOGRAPHY
Teresa Iervolino is a rising star in the opera world. She has already made her name for herself performing Bel canto roles and baroque operas in many of the great opera houses in the world. Already as a child she showed an interest in music, so at the age of 8 she began studying piano and later, attracted by opera, she decided to dedicate herself to opera singing, and in 2011 she obtained her singing diploma with top marks and honours. In 2012, she won the 63rd European Young Opera Singers Competition 2012 ASLICO, which was followed by many other victories in high-profile international competitions such as the Maria Caniglia Competition, the Etta Limiti Prize Competition, etc. In 2012, she began her ascent to the major Italian and international theatres and opera festivals, making her debut at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella. In the same year she made her debut in the role of Isabella in Italiana in Algeri at the Ravenna Festival, a role she later performed also at the Massimo in Palermo and at the Opera Lorraine in Nancy. In 2013 she debuted Tancredi, one of her workhorses, at the Circuito Lombardo and in the same year, in addition to other engagements, she also made her debut at the famous Spoleto Festival as Fidalma in Cimarosa’s Matrimonio Segreto. In 2014 came her double debut at the Rome Opera, as Calbo in Rossini’s Maometto II, followed by her triumph at the Chatelet in Paris as the protagonist in Rossini’s Pietra del Paragone and her debut at the San Carlo in Naples in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella. In 2014 she made her debut as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, at the Caracalla Festival of the Rome Opera House, a role she will play many more times, at the same Rome Opera House and with which she will make her debut at the Sächsische Staatsoper in Dresden in 2016. In 2015, she made her debut in Gazza ladra at the renowned Rossini Opera Festival in the role of Lucia, a role with which she made her debut at La Scala in Milan in 2017. These were followed by her debuts at the Duch National Opera in Amsterdam, La Fenice in Venice, and Opera Frankfurt, always playing leading roles. In 2016, she made her debut in the title role in Cenerentoladi Rossini at the Teatro Regio di Torino, meeting with great success that led her to perform this role in various Italian and international theatres, and to make her debut as the protagonist at the Opera de Paris in 2017. In 2017, she made her debut as Maffio Orsini in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia, a role she had already performed several times, such as at the ABAO in Bilbao, at the Salzburger Festspiele, a role with which she also made her debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich in spring 2018. All of this always conducted by great conductors such as Roberto Abbado, Alberto Zedda, Christophe Rousset, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Ivor Bolton, Donato Renzetti, Fabio Luisi, Carlo Rizzi, Marc Minkowsky ,Ottavio Dantone, Gabriele Ferro Antonino Fogliani, Riccardo Chally, Daniel Harding, Marco Armiliato, Daniel Oren, etc.. Also worth mentioning is her recording as Rosmira in Handel’s Partenope for Warner Classic Erato with the Orchestra del Pomo D’Oro, the recording of Mozart’s Betulia Liberata in the title role of Judith and Salieri’s Armida in the role of Ismene, both for the Aparté label with the Les TalensLyrique ensemble conducted by Maestro Christophe Rousset, and her presence in the recording of the Messa di Gloria conducted by M. Antonio Pappano with the Accademia di Musica. Antonio Pappano with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia for the prestigious Warner Classic label. The mezzo-soprano from Irpinia still continues her ascent towards a career of high prestige, in fact, among her recent triumphs we find her Rinaldo at the Festival della Valle D’Itria, her triumph with Lucrezia Borgia , with Cenerentola at the Bayerische Staatsoper, her acclaimed Arsace at the Teatro La Fenice in Rossini’s Semiramide, her return again as the protagonist in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans at the Duch National Opera in Amsterdam, her debut as Diana in Cavalli’s Calisto at the Teatro Real in Madrid, her debut in Orlando Furioso at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona and her return to the Fenice in Venice with her Rinaldo, her return to Rossini Opera Festival with Equivoco Stravagante and her triumphant debut at the Arena in Verona in Nabucco conducted by Daniel Oren.
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INTERVIEW
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Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.
Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.
Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.
She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.
Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.
Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.
Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.
His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.
During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.
He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.
Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.
She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.
She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.
Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.
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