Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Massimo Bellini di Catania
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Massimo Bellini di Catania
In their long history of over one hundred years, the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Massimo Bellini have been appreciated also outside their native Italy with a series of prestigious tours of Europe, Russia, Japan, and China. The great conductors that have led this renowned Etnean orchestra and choir from the podium have been numerous: Gino Marinuzzi, Vittorio Gui, Sergiu Celibidache, Guido Cantelli, Francesco Capuana, Oliviero De Fabritiis, Peter Maag, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Gianluigi Gelmetti and Fabrizio Maria Carminati, who is the present artistic director.
It should also be emphasized how the choral direction has been entrusted, over the time, to maestros of the caliber of Roberto Benaglio, Giuseppe Conca, Rolando Maselli, Nicola Luisotti, and presently, Luigi Petrozziello.
In the award-winning productions staged by this opera house in Catania, the Orchestra and Choir have worked alongside great historic voices, namely Maria Callas, Giulietta Simionato, Montserrat Caballè, Mirella Freni, Katia Ricciarelli, Renata Scotto, Beniamino Gigli, Franco Corelli, Tito Schipa, Mario Del Monaco, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Luciano Pavarotti, Gino Bechi, Tito Gobbi, Renato Bruson, Leo Nucci, Piero Cappuccilli.
Of note is the ample discography not only of Bellini operas, such as Adelson e Salvini, Zaira, Norma, Beatrice di Tenda e I Puritani, but also Fedra and La Nina pazza per amore by Paisiello, La battaglia di Legnano and Il trovatore by Verdi, to name only some Italian titles.
From 2019 the Theatre has been guided by the superintendent Giovanni Cultrera di Montesano.
