Antonino Fogliani, Music director
Antonino Fogliani is considered one of the world's leading bel canto conductors today: Musically sensitive, technically brilliant, always interested in living theatre. Born from Messina, he first graduated in piano before studying conducting with Vittorio Parisi at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. Later he specialised in Siena at the Accademia Chigiana with Franco Donatoni and Ennio Morricone and assisted the conductor Gianluigi Gelmetti in London's Covent Garden with Rossini's Otello.
His celebrated debut at the Rossini Opera Festival Pesaro in 2001 with Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims was followed by numerous engagements in Pesaro and at well-known opera houses, including the Teatro La Fenice Venice, the Teatro dell Opera Rome, the Teatro San Carlo Naples and the Opéra Comique Paris, as well as the Festival Donizetti in Bergamo. At La Scala in Milan, he conducted Ugo Conte di Parigi and the new production of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, among others. In the 2011/12 season he conducted Aida at Houston Grand Opera and Teatro Regio di Parma, Lucia di Lammermoor at National ReisOpera and Concertgebouw Amsterdam, L'amico Fritz at Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow and La traviata at Opéra de Montréal, among others. In 2012/13 he conducted I Capuleti ed i Montecchi with Vesselina Kasarova in Oslo, La Bohème, L'elisir d'amore in Paris-Massy, Turandot at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Il pirata at the Teatro del Liceu Barcelona, La sonnambula in Monte Carlo and Attila at the St. Gallen Festival. He has since conducted in Bregenz (Carmen 2017) and in many other important opera houses worldwide. He is principal guest conductor in Düsseldorf. The pandemic could not harm his career, among others he conducted live-stream premieres in Zurich Les contes d'Hoffmann and in Munich Il signor Bruschino. Besides Munich (Falstaff, Guillaume Tell, Otello), he works a lot in Geneva.
Fogliani made his debut with ROSSINI IN WILDBAD in 2004. Since then, his continuous collaboration with Jochen Schönleber has resulted in numerous CD recordings such as Rossini's Ciro in Babilonia, Mosè in Egitto, Otello, L occasione fa il ladro, Nicola Vaccaj's La sposa di Messina, Don Chisciotte (Mercadante), Bianca e Falliero (all Naxos). Several of these recordings are cited as reference recordings in international CD magazines (Otello, Mosè, Ciro, Maometto secondo).
In 2011, his long-standing collaboration with ROSSINI IN WILDBAD was institutionalised when he was appointed Music Director of the Festival.
In 2021, at the 32nd edition of the Belcanto Opera Festival, planned completely open air because of Covid-19, he conducted Elisabetta and a programme for Diana Haller featuring Haydn, Mayr and Rossini. During an orchestra rehearsal hastily moved indoors to the Kurtheater because of the catastrophic weather conditions, he fell headfirst into the orchestra pit due to a defective safety device. Despite a broken hand, he was back in front of his beloved orchestra just two days later, conducting a sensational concert. He is a true pillow of the Rossini in Wildbad festival.