ERMANNO WOLF-FERRARI
Born in Venice on January 12, 1876, he was encouraged by his father, the German painter August Wolf, to study art and music. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and the Akademie der Tonkunst in Munich. In 1899, in Venice, he received his first public recognition with the oratory La sulamita; but the following year the unfortunate outcome of the musical fairy tale Cenerentola forced him to move back to Monaco. For this city he composed Le donne curiose (1903), I quattro rusteghi (1906) and the interlude Il segreto di Susanna (1909), works in which are evident his ties with Goldoni and Mozart, constant references in his production. After a long period of inactivity following the outbreak of World War I, he composed Sly (1927), La vedova scaltra (1931) and Il Campiello (1936), further tributes to the beloved Venetian playwright.
FRANCESCO CILLUFFO
Born in Turin in 1979, where he graduated in conducting and composition at the Conservatory Giuseppe Verdi. Graduated in the history of music from DAMS, he attended a master's degree at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and a doctorate at King's College of London, in the meantime with working with Gianluigi Gelmetti and Iván Fischer. Among his recent engagements are: Der König Kandaules at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Il trovatore in Lecco, and other historical Lombard theaters, L'Arlesiana at the Teatro Perglesi of Jesi, Tancredi in the theaters of the Circuito Lirico Lombardo, La cambiale di matrimonio at the Teatro Regio di Parma, Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. He has also composed several instrumental works and the operas Il caso Mortara and Edward II.
LEO MUSCATO
He was born in Martina Franca and studied Literature and Philosophy at the University La Sapienza in Rome. After joining the company of Luigi De Filippo, in 1997 he won the competition at the School of Dramatic Art Paolo Grassi in Milan. From 2005 to 2008 he was Artistic Director of the Company LeArt'-Teatro of Grottamare. In 2007, the National Association of Theatre Critics awarded him Best Director and in 2009 he made his debut in opera with the diptych La voix humaine/Pagliacci for the theaters of the Circuito Lirico Lombardo. The following year, he stagged La bohème for Opera Macerata Festival and in 2013 staged I masnadieri for the Verdi Festival in Parma and L'Africaine at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. In Florence in January 2014 he staged Nabucco, winner of the Premio Abbiati as the best production.
