DIDIER DE COTTIGNIES
President
During his long career in Decca London Didier de Cottignies worked in close collaboration with artists such as Luciano Pavarotti, Cecilia Bartoli or Juan Diego Florez, conductors such as Sir Georg Solti, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnanyi, and orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam or the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2002, he worked as general delegate of the Orchestre national de France together with Kurt Masur. He regularly invited conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Bernard Haitink, or Sir Colin Davis and those of the young generation such as Daniel Harding, Paavo Järvi ou Andris Nelsons.
In 2009, he joined the Orchestre de Paris as Artistic Director where he is in charge of the artistic planning and the programmation, together with Bruno Hamard, General Manager. Since 2011, he is also artistic director of the vocal competition Long-Thibaud-Crespin.
GLORIA BANDITELLI
GLORIA BANDITELLI, a mezzo-soprano from Assisi, has got a degree in Voice at the Conservatory of Perugia.
In 1979 she won the Competition “Concorso del Teatro Sperimentale” in Spoleto, debuting in “Cenerentola” by Rossini and “Didone ed Enea” by Purcell.
Banditelli has sung in the most important Italian theatres such as La Scala, La Fenice, the Opera of Rome, the Teatro Comunale of Bologna and the Teatro Comunale of Florence, under the direction of maestros C. Abbado, R. Muti, G. Gavazzeni, L. Maazel, C. Kleiber and others.
Specialized in the Baroque repertoire, Banditelli has participated in several operas and concerts directed by professionals like J. Savall, R. Jacobs, F. Biondi, G. Garrido and A. Curtis.
In 1998, she took part into the Salzburg Festival with J. Savall and C. Scimone.
She has performed in recordings for RAI, Radio France, WDR (German), BBC, ORF (Austrian), Swiss, Dutch and Belgian radios.
Banditelli has pressed records for EMI, DECCA, Harmonia Mundi, Denon Columbia, Nuova Era, Astrée, Ricordi, K617, Glossa, Tactus and Opus 111.
Since 2011, she has been teaching Renaissance and Baroque voice at the Conservatory “G.B.Martini” of Bologna.
ANNE BLANCHARD
Anne Blanchard is a historian and an Art historian, specialized in the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque.
She followed the course of voice interpretation by Andrea von Ramm (the popess of the reformation of medieval and renaissance voice, co-founder with Thomas Binkley of the group Studio der frühen Musik in Munchen) and at the same time, in 1983, she created the International Festival of Baroque Opera of Beaune. It is a pioneer festival in the reconstruction and interpretation of Baroque operas, which takes place every summer within a programme of operas and concertos, voice academy, conferences and films about operas. Thanks to her, that of Beaune, considered the “Salzburg of Baroque” by the magazine Diapason, became one of the very first European festivals about the Baroque movement.
Artistic director of the festival since its creation, Blanchard has highlighted especially the Italian opera seria of the 17th and 18th century. Favouring the reflourish of operas and oratorios by Händel in France, she revealed to the audience the missing pieces in the history of music giving new life to an impressive number of operas, especially by Händel: Flavio (Dir. René Jacobs), Scipione (Dir. Christophe Rousset), Poro re delle Indie (Dir. Fabio Biondi), Riccardo Primo (Dir. Christophe Rousset), Admeto (Dir. Christophe Rousset); Jommelli: Armida Abbandonata (Dir. Christophe Rousset); Porpora: Arianna in Nasso (Dir. Rinaldo Alessandrini); Traetta: Antigona (Dir. Christophe Rousset); Cavalli: La virtà de’ Strali d’Amore (Dir. Gabriel Garrido), Conti: Don Chisciotte (dir. René Jacobs); Pergolesi: L’Olimpiade, Il Flaminio and Adriano in Siria directed by Ottavio Dantone; and Vivaldi: Tito Manlio (Dir. Ottavio Dantone), Orlando 1714 (Dir. Federico Maria Sardelli), La Sena festeggiante (Dir. Rinaldo Alessandrini). Blanchard has contributed to the revival of Spanish Baroque operas, strongly influenced by the Italian opera seria such as Los Elementos and Acis y Galatea by Literes, dir. Eduardo Lopez Banzo; but also of rare French lyric tragedies by Campra: l’Europe Galante (dir. Marc Minkowski); Desmarest: Didon (Dir. Christophe Rousset); Lully: Acis et Galatée (Dir. Marc Minkowski), Persée, Béllérophon and Phaëton (Dir. Christophe Rousset); Rameau: Zoroastre (Dir. William Christie), Hippolyte et Aricie (Dir. Marc Minkowski), Dardanus (dir. Raphaël Pichon); Destouches: Callirhoé or Marin Marais: Sémélé directed by Hervé Niquet…
Besides the above said revised operas, Blanchard has made it possible to stage more famous scores in their entireness such as Dido and Aeneas by Purcell, directed by William Christie; Giulio Cesare by Händel, directed by René Jacobs; Orlando and Serse by Händel, directed by Paul McCreesh; Rinaldo and Tamerlano by Händel directed by Christophe Rousset, or The Fairy Queen and The King Arthur by Purcell, directed by Paul McCreesh.
She encouraged the execution of operas by Mozart using ancient instruments: in particular Zaïde (dir. Christoph Spering), Die Entführung aus dem sérail and Don Giovanni (dir. Marc Minkowki), Così fan tutte (Dir. René Jacobs), before granting the direction of the trilogy by Da Ponte to Sigiswald Kuijken and Jérémie Rhorer.
Giving young directors such as Christophe Rousset, Paul McCreesh, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Fabio Biondi, Emmanuelle Haïm, Ottavio Dantone, Eduardo Lopez Banzo, Jérémie Rhorer, or Raphaël Pichon the possibility to direct their first operas, Blanchard has deeply favoured their promotion and fame.
At the same time, she has given prestige to a number of young voices who are treading the boards of the main theatres worldwide such as Sara Mingardo, Laura Polverelli, Andreas Scholl, Annick Massis, Renata Pokupic, Delphine Galou, Gaëlle Arquez, David DQ Lee, Clémentine Margaine…
Developing a remarkable collection of 22 records, in close collaboration with the most important French and European record labels, Blanchard has actively participated in the diffusion and enhancement of value of the European Baroque heritage.
From 2014, she will arrange in Beaune a series of Romantic operas played on ancient instruments.
> Anne Blanchard has produced many music programs on Radio France – France Culture, among which are: « Les femmes compositrices du 13e siècle à nos jours » (Women composers from the 13th century to our days), « l’univers des opéras de Monteverdi » (The universe of the operas by Monteverdi), « Le Madrigal » (The madrigal), « La musique au temps de la Reine Margot » (The music at the time of Queen Margot), « Sur les routes de la soie » (On the Silk Road), « Le mythe d’Orphée dans l’histoire de l’opéra » (The mith of Orpheus in the history of opera), « Les Mots de l’ivresse » (The words of drunkness), « Les Musiques au temps de Titien » (Music at the time of Titian)…
> Anne Blanchard has participated in a number of radio and TV programmes in France and Europe: TF1, France 2 and France 3, Arte, Mezzo, France Inter, Europe 1, RTL, France Infos, France Culture and France Musique, but also: BBC, RAI, RTBF, Swiss Radio and Television, WDR and NDR Germany…
> As an enthusiast of history of gastronomy, Blanchard has staged several reconstructions of historical banquets based on ancient treaties of cuisine together with great chefs and in particular a medieval banquet, a banquet of the Italian Renaissance and a banquet of the French Renaissance. For the 30th anniversary of the festival in 2012, she recalled the splendour of a French-Italian Baroque banquet of the 17th – 18th century.
> Finally, Anne Blanchard has published a book about Ancient Egypt for the French publishing house Hachette entitled « Isis et Osiris » (Isis and Osiris).
BRIAN DICKIE
Brian Dickie has worked in opera for more than fifty years and stepped down in August as General Director of Chicago Opera Theater where he had been since 1999.
He began his opera career at the Glyndebourne Festival in England in 1962, when Maestro Vittorio Gui was Music Director of the Festival, and remained there for twenty-seven years. He was the first administrator of Glyndebourne Touring Opera before becoming General Administrator of the festival in 1981, served as Artistic Director of the Wexford Festival 1967-1973, and as General Director of the Canadian Opera Company 1989-1993. He was General Director of the European Union Opera project 1996-98.
He has been Chairman of the Jury for Pre-selections for the Bertelsmann Foundation’s biennial Neue Stimmen Competition since 1999. He was Chairman of the jury of the Toronto Bi-centennial Mozart competition in 1991, and has been a regular jury member for the Metropolitan Opera Nation Council auditions, including adjudicating the final that was the subject of the documentary film Audition in 2007.
He will be conducting auditions for Neue Stimmen in Asia, Europe and North and South America throughout the spring and summer of 2013, as well as serving on the Artistic Advisory Committee of England’s Garsington Opera summer festival.
VINCENZO DE VIVO
Vincenzo De Vivo, born in Salerno in 1957, has held executive and consulting charges since 1982 at several European musical institutions: Vice Superintendent at the Palau de les Arts of Valencia, Artistic Director of the Teatro dell’Opera of Rome, of the Teatro Comunale of Bologna and of the International Art Workshop of Montepulciano, Artistic Consultant of the Teatro Carlo Felice of Genoa and of the Teatro Comunale of Treviso, Consultant for the symphonic-vocal activities of the RAI Orchestra of Rome, Assistant of the Artistic Director of the Teatro San Carlo of Naples and of the Teatro La Fenice of Venice, Member of the Board of Directors of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana of Siena.
He has also collaborated with RAI, SDR (Radio – Television of Stuttgart) and Schwetzingen Festspiele for radio, TV and video productions.
At present, DeVivo is the Artistic Director of the Teatro di San Carlo of Naples and of the Opera Academy of Osimo. He gives lessons at the Advanced Course of Music Management at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome. De Vivo has been a member of the jury of several international competitions.
He has published several studies on the Italian Opera of the 18th and 19th century. He has written librettos for Dall’Ongaro, Ferrero, Rendine, Taralli and the ritmical version in Italian of operas by Bizet, Mozart, Offenbach and J. Strauss jr.
