Venera Gimadievam, soprano

Russian soprano Venera Gimadieva has quickly become one of the most sought-after lyric coloratura sopranos in Europe. Having studied at the St Petersburg Conservatoire and on the young artist programme at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, she now performs regularly at prestigious opera houses and venues across Europe and the USA.

Gimadieva’s signature roles include Violetta La traviata (the role in which she made her debuts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Glyndebourne Festival Opera, as well as her US debut with the LA Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl); the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor (Semperoper Dresden, Teatro Real, Madrid and for her debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper) and The Queen of Shemakha The Golden Cockerel (La Monnaie, Brussels, Teatro Real, Madrid and for her US stage debut at Santa Fe Opera).

Other roles include Elvira I puritani (Teatro Real, Madrid and for her debut at the Wiener Staatsoper); Giulietta I Capuletti e I Montecchi (Deutsche Oper Berlin); Norina Don Pasquale, the title role of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow-Maiden, Amina La sonnambula (all for the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow) and Juliette Roméo et Juliette in Lima with Juan Diego Flórez; Gilda Rigoletto (Hungarian State Opera).

Engagements in the 2018-19 season include her debut at Washington National Opera (Violetta La traviata) and returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Amina La sonnambula) and Semperoper Dresden (Violetta La traviata and Marguerite in a new production of Les Huguenots).

Gimadieva’s recital and concert repertoire features bel canto arias and Russian arias and song repertoire. She has given recitals at the Edinburgh International Festival (Russian repertoire by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Rimsky-Korsakov); the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow (as part of a concert of bel canto arias by Bellini and Donizetti); and Wigmore Hall (Russian repertoire by Glière, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky) accompanied by her husband, pianist Pavel Nebolsin.

Gimadieva has worked with conductors including Sir Mark Elder, Vasily Petrenko, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Ivor Bolton, Evelino Pidò,Tugan Sokhiev, Yves Abel, Domingo Hindoyan and Daniel Oren. She has worked with directors including Laurent Pelly, Paul Curran and Francesca Zambello and singers including Juan Diego Flórez, José Carreras, Aleksandra Kurzac and Roberto Alagna. She won the Golden Mask award for Best Female Performer in Opera for her performance as Amina La sonnambula (2014, Bolshoi Theatre), as well as First Prize in the 2010 International Shalyapin Competition and Second Prize in the 2015 Paris Opera Competition.

Gimadieva’s discography includes her critically acclaimed performance as Violetta in David McVicar’s production of La traviata at Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Opus Arte 2014, DVD), The Queen of Shemakha in Laurent Pelly’s production of The Golden Cockerel at La Monnaie (Belair 2018, DVD) and the Operngala für die Deutsche AIDS-Stiftung (Naxos 2014, CD). Gimadieva’s first solo album Momento Immobile, produced by Artist Digital and released by Rubicon Classics in October 2018, is a collection of bel canto arias by Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini with The Hallé Orchestra conducted by Gianluca Marcianò.

Gianluca Marcianò, conductor

Young Italian conductor Gianluca Marcianò is Artistic Director at the Al Bustan Festival in Beirut.  Previous posts have included the Tbilisi State Opera & Ballet Theatre in Georgia where he conducted La Forza del Destino, Cavalleria Rusticana, Nabucco, Attila, Il Trovatore, Mitridate, Re di Pontoand Aida, as well as concerts with Andrea Bocelli in Georgia.

Highlights within the 2015/16 season include a return to the Opera de Oviedo in October to conduct a new production of Nabucco by director Emilio Sagi, which tours to Gijon and Pamplona. In December, Marcianò will conduct Verdi’s Ernani at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Much of Marcianò’s operatic work in the UK has centred on English National Opera with Jonathan Miller’s production of La Bohème and Anthony Minghella’s production of Madama Butterfly as well as Grange Park Opera where he has conducted productions of Eugene Onegin, Samson et Dalila, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, I Puritani, Queen of Spades and La traviata as well as a gala concert with Simon Keenlyside and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.  He has also conducted at Longborough Festival Opera (Die Zauberflöte, Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan Tutte and La traviata) and the Chelsea Opera Group (Manon Lescaut, La traviata, La Favorite and Alzira).

Marcianò also had strong ties with the opera houses in Zagreb, Minsk, Sassari and Prague. During his time in Zagreb as the main conductor, he conducted Nabucco, La traviata, Turandot, Carmen, La Cenerentola and Il Barbiere di Siviglia. In Minsk, he has performed Il Barbiere di Siviglia and La traviata, and at the Teatro Verdi in Sassari, La Pietra del Paragone, Poulenc’s Les mamelles de Tirésias and the Italian premiere of Debussy’s La Damoiselle Elue. In 2011 he conducted La traviata at the Prague State Opera.

On the concert platform, Marcianò has worked with instrumentalists such as Gautier Capuçon, Arabella Steinbacher, Anna Tifu, Alexandra Soumm, Steven Isserlis, Boris Andrianov, Maria Joao Pires, David Geringas, Khatia Buniatishvili, Sergei Krylov, Nina Kotova, Giovanni Sollima, Sergei Nakariakov and Denis Kozhukin. His recent work includes concerts with the George Enescu Philharmonic and the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he performed Mahler’s Symphony No.1 in 2011. He has a close relationship with the English Chamber Orchestra, opening their 2011/12 London season in a programme including Mozart’s Symphony No.39 and Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No.2 at the Cadogan Hall. Other notable orchestras which Marcianò has conducted include the Moscow City Russian Philharmonic, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the English National Opera, the Oviedo Filarmonia, the Sarajevo Philarmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia, The World Orchestra, the Macau Orchestra and Beijing Symphony Orchestra.

• 9^th appearance at Al Bustan International Festival of Music and the Performing Arts