Todi Musica

Todi - Festival - opera studio 2- 10 SEPTEMBER 2023

The young artist program for 2023 concluded with an opera gala performance by the young artists in the Todi Teatro Comunale on the 9th of September that was free to attend.

learn about our Artists.

Opera/ Vocal Studio: Performance and the

Art of Auditioning

A unique opportunity offered a very small number of emerging international singers to be part of the inaugural year of the Todi Musica Festival in Umbria, Italy from the 2nd until the 10th of September 2023.
The Opera & Vocal Studio involved masterclasses with international professionals, vocal coaching, audition coaching and preparation, movement and diction coaching, character development, and on stage performance opportunities for the young artists.
Coaching and conducting staff assembled from Covent Garden, Arena Verona, Met, Vienna, Oslo, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Frankfurt Opera, Berlin State Opera houses plus many more.
Offered an opportunity to create an entire professional audition package, including a recording session in an Italian opera house resulting in a polished, professional audition video.
Performance opportunities open to the public throughout the masterclass workshops. The masterclasses took take place in beautiful venues throughout the historical centre of Todi.
Performance of an opera gala performance in the Todi "Teatro Comunale". The opera house in Todi was built in 1876, seats 501 and has four levels of galleries.
Performances will be professionally recorded for promotional and career use.

Key People:

Marie McLaughlin -International British Soprano, Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, Opéra National de Paris and the Salzburg and Glyndebourne Festivals
Eleonora Pacetti - Young Artist Program presso Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro alla Scala,Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Petruzzelli
Jonathan Santagada - International Italian conductor, Royal Opera House
Felice Venanzoni - Conductor/ Music Director - Oper Frankfurt
Laetitia Ruccolo - Music Director, Bare Opera, NY Opera company, International vocal coach
Yuri Napoli - Actor and Opera Director, Maestro - Performing Artists of Zeffirelli Foundation.

Faculty - Opera Studio

MARIE MCLAUGHLIN

Distinguished soprano Marie McLaughlin has enjoyed more than four decades of performance at the highest international level. Over that time, she has collaborated with some of the world’s greatest conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink, Sir Antonio Pappano as well as such legends as the late Leonard Bernstein and Giuseppe Sinopoli. A wide repertoire of core roles took McLaughlin around the world at an early age including to the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, Opéra National de Paris, and the Salzburg and Glyndebourne Festivals. Her substantial discography includes many of those roles including Zerlina with Sir Neville Marriner for Philips, Despina with James Levine for Deutsche Grammophon as well as Micaëla and Violetta under Bernard Haitink.
Key roles in today’s repertory include Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro) which has been heard at Gran Teatre del Liceu, Opéra National de Paris, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, at the Salzburg and Ravinia Festivals and at the Metropolitan Opera, La Ciesca (Gianni Schicci) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Glyndebourne Festival, Madam Larina (Eugene Onegin) at Teatro Regio di Torino, Glyndebourne Festival and Opéra de Lille, Despina (Cosi fan tutte) at Scottish Opera and the Spoleto Festival, Alisa (Lucia di Lammermoor) at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Mrs Grose (The Turn of the Screw) at Teatro Real Madrid and Berlin’s Staatsoper unter den Linden, and Miss Jessel in the highly-acclaimed co-production by the late Luc Bondy at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, conducted by Daniel Harding and released on DVD by BelAir Classique.

Equally at ease in contemporary repertoire, Marie McLaughlin has recently created the characters of Lilian Disney in Philip Glass’ The Perfect American at Teatro Real Madrid, Mother Needham in Iain Bell’s The Harlot’s Progress at Theater an der Wien, Abigail Simpson in the world premiere of Julian Grant’s The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare for Boston Lyric Opera, and latterly Annie Chapman in Iain Bell’s Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel for English National Opera.

Recent highlights have included Meg Page in Robert Carsen’s production of Falstaff for the Royal Opera House under Nicola Luisotti, Older Woman in Jonathan Dove’s Flight for Scottish Opera, and Mother Goose in The Rake’s Progress with London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski. Most recently Marie joined Daniel Evans’ hit production of The Light in the Piazza on tour to LA Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago following its critically acclaimed debut run in London, as well as singing Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro at Salzburg’s Mozartwoche under Sir András Schiff. This season Marie returns to LA Opera and to the role of Marcellina in James Gray’s new production under James Conlon.

ELEONORA PACETTI

Eleonora Pacetti is a pianist, music entrepreneur and university teacher. Throughout her career she has held prestigious positions in opera houses including assistant to the casting Manager at Teatro alla Scala in Milano, Coproduction Manager at Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, Manager of International Projects at Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Casting Director at Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari. In 2016 she founded the Young Artist Program at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, which she directed until 2023.

Eleonora is regularly invited to judge in international competitions. She gives masterclasses worldwide on the Italian and French repertoire and she spreads her method (published in 2022 for Curci Editore) on how to prepare auditions and competitions for opera singers. Over the years, she coached at Opéra Comique, the Baroque Academy at the Centre Culturel de rencontre in Ambronay, the Polish National Opera Academy, the Canadian National Opera Academy, and the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma Young Artist Program, among many others.

JONATHAN SANTAGADA

Jonathan Santagada, Italian conductor and pianist, has numerous collaborations to his credit with the most prestigious musical realities on the international scene.

This season he made his debut at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice conducting an opera gala, he conducted the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin for a new recording of Tosca and supervised the musical production of “Gianni Schicchi, il film”, director Damiano's first film Michieletto, which was presented at the Turin Film Festival and on RAI 1.
He will take part in the summer season of the Verona Arena as assistant to the musical director, M° Marco Armiliato, for the productions of Carmen, Aida, Traviata and Turandot.

In the past seasons he conducted at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, Opera North in Leeds, Welsh National Opera in Cardiff, orchestra of I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, orchestra of the Teatro Regio in Turin, Theater Basel , New Generation Festival in Florence, orchestra Southbank Symphony in London.
Jonathan Santagada has a privileged relationship with the Royal Opera House and its musical director, Sir Antonio Pappano. He has worked on over twenty five Covent Garden productions with some of the best conductors and opera singers in the world.

He was also assistant to Maestro Maurizio Benini at the Teatro Real in Madrid and at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, to Maestro Marco Armiliato at the Salzburg Festival and to Maestro Nicola Luisotti at the Opéra National de Paris and La Monnaie in Brussels.

He also collaborated with the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale “A. Belli” in Spoleto, Musicariva Festival in Riva del Garda, CNIPAL (Centre National d'Artistes Liriques) in Marseille, “Fabbrica young artists program” of the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome , Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester andMascarade Emerging Artists in Florence.
Jonathan Santagada carried out his piano studies with Prof. Mariaclara Monetti at the Giuseppe Verdi State Conservatory of Music in Turin where he obtained a diploma and a second level degree with full marks, honors and mention of honor. He studied at the Conservatoire Supérieur de musique in Lyon, France, under the guidance of Prof. Géry Moutier. After completing his piano studies, he obtained the professional qualification diploma of substitute Maestro at the "A. Belli" Experimental Lyric Theater in Spoleto and studied orchestra conducting with M° Marco Boemi in Rome.

LAETITIA RUCCOLO

French-Italian pianist Laetitia Ruccolo is one of the most sought-after vocal and diction opera coaches. She is the cofounder of the company Bare Opera in New York City.

She regularly works for opera companies all over the world, and she has taught masterclasses in several American universities such as Mannes College of Music, Manhattan School of Music or Wellesley College, and she has been a vocal and diction coach for numerous young artists programs. She is often called by the Metropolitan Opera Education department to play for their performances, or for the masterclasses of Met artists. She is a faculty member of the Mascarade Opera Studio in Florence.

Ms. Ruccolo has performed widely as a solo artist, as well as a collaborative pianist with chamber ensembles, singers and with orchestra in France, Italy, England, Germany, Austria, Portugal, and Israel. In New York, she has performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the New York Historical Society, the Museum of the City of New York and at the Metropolitan Opera Guild. She played for concert hosted by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and violinist Joshua Bell.
Also passionate about art songs, she performed at SongFest in California, and was invited twice at the Schubert Institute in Austria, where she worked with pianists such as Julius Drake, Helmut Deutsch, Roger Vignoles, and Graham Johnson, as well as singers Christa Ludwig, Robert Holl and Elly Hameling.

Laetitia was a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio in London, and she has been in residence at the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera and Opera North. She graduated from the Ecole Normale de Musique of Paris, University Mozarteum in Salzburg, and Mannes College of Music in New York, and she also earned a degree in foreign languages and litterature from the University of Aix-Marseille. She is fluent in five languages.

FELICE VENANZONI

Felice Venanzoni, born in Italy, studied piano at the conservatory in Pesaro. His studies began with Lorenzo Bavaj, and he later went on to study with Sergio Fiorentino, Viktor Merzhanov, and Pier Narciso Masi.

Felice began working as a musical coach in 1994, in his home town, at the Macerata Opera Festival. From there he went on to work for AsLiCo in Milan, and accompanied Master Classes for Leyla Gencer, Renata Scotto, Rockwell Blake, and Edoardo Müller. He also participated in opera productions in Como, Brescia, Bergamo, Novara, Pavia, and Salerno.

Mr. Venanzoni has worked at Oper Frankfurt since 1999. He began his work there as a coach, but in 2002 he took on the responsibilities of Director of Musical Studies. While in Frankfurt he has also enjoyed successes as conductor for Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and Orfeo (2005), Il ballo delle ingrate and Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (2006), Händel’s Agrippina (2006), Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria (2007), Ariodante (2007), Almeida’s La Giuditta (2010), Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso (2010 and 2013), and Händel’s Teseo (2012).

Dresden’s Semperoper engaged Mr. Venanzoni to conduct two Intermezzi for their project “Rediscovery of 18th Century Baroque Opera”, La Dirindina (2011-2012) by G. Battista Martini, and Domenico Sarro’s Dorina e Nibbio (2012-2013). In 2013 he opened the season conducting Purcell’s King Arthur, a co-production between Dresden’s State Theater and the Semperoper, and in 2015 he conducted the world premiere of Lucia Ronchetti’s Mise an abyme, which is based on texts from Metastasio.

Mr. Venanzoni has also participated in the Baroque Festival, “Winter in Schwetzingen”, where he conducted Jommelli’s Fetonte (2014), Zingarelli’s Giulietta e Romeo (2016), and Porpora’s Mitridate (2017). He has also participated in the Salzburg Festspiel for Claus Guth’s production of Don Giovanni (2008, 2010, 2011) as Musical Assistant and Cembalist under the batons of Bertrand de Billy (’08) and Yannick Nézet-Séguin (’10, ’11).

Over the course of the last several years Mr. Venanzoni has had the opportunity to collaborate as Musical Assistant and playing continuo on projects with Jean-Christoph Spinosi and his Ensemble Matheus. These projects include opera productions and concerts in Nancy, Madrid, Dortmund, Beaune, Versailles, Quebec City, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall, Theater an der Wien, and in Paris at the Theatre du Chatelet and the Champs-Elyses. He returned to the Salzburg Festspiel in 2014 as Cembalist for La Cenerentola starring Cecilia Bartoli. In that same year he took the podium of the Ensemble Matheus for the first time to conduct Händel’s Xerxes in Stockholm.

At the Ruhrtriennale in 2016, Mr. Venanzoni was Musical Assistant to René Jacobs for Gluck’s Alceste.
During the 2017/2018 season Felice was Guest Cembalist at the Berlin State Opera where he worked with Berlin’s Academy for Early Music, under the direction of Diego Fasolis, for the production of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea.

In addition to these engagements, Mr. Venanzoni has held a teaching position in Recitative Presentation at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts since 2009. Opera studio programs and festivals continually engage him to come and coach their young singers. It is in this vein that he has directed Master Classes and projects for the Opera Studio in Strasbourg, and has worked as one of the docents for the Mediterranean Opera Studio in Sicily. Felice has been responsible for the artistic development of the Opera Studio at Oper Frankfurt since 2017.

YURI NAPOLI

Yuri Napoli, actor, author and director. He studied directing at the Zeffirelli Foundation in Florence, and at the Scuola Civica Paolo Grassi in Milan. He studied acting in Naples, Rome, London and New York. Between directing, theater and cinema he has worked in Italy, the United States, Russia, Germany, Spain and Holland. In Cinema he has acted on set with Francesco Montanari, Silvio Muccino, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Renato Scarpa, Luca Ward. He has worked for Teatro Regio in Parma, Fondazione Europa Festival, Calatafimi Segesta Festival - Dionisiache, Teatro dei Rinnovati in Siena, Narnia Festival, among others. He is director and assistant director of several operas in Italy (Traviata, Carmen, Dido & Eneas, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, La Serva Padrona) and the United States. His most recent performances include "To The Moon," awarded the Official Patch of NASA (USA). Under the High Cultural Patronage of the European Parliament, he is artistic director of Christmas in Rome.