Cecilia & Plácido

The mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli is one of the world’s leading classical artists with an outstanding and ongoing stage career that, so far, spans more than 30 years. Her work is inspired by her passion for re-discovering little-known music, and her profound interest in historically-informed performance practice. Her large-scale projects, which embrace various art forms, have brought her international recognition and led to prestigious managerial positions in Salzburg and Monte Carlo. A role model for future generations, Cecilia Bartoli can truly be said to have made musical history. Cecilia Bartoli always brings key aspects of her personality to her performances and projects: her musicianship, intellectual imagination and keen sense of theatre, together with her charisma, depth of feeling and great personal warmth. Born in Rome and educated by her mother, the singing teacher Silvana Bazzoni, Cecilia Bartoli was first discovered by Daniel Barenboim, Herbert von Karajan and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Each of the three helped to shape her fast-developing international career in a different way. Soon she began to perform with other leading conductors and prestigious orchestras in all the great opera houses and concert halls of North America, Europe, the Far East and Australia, and at many famous festivals. Her innovative investigations of neglected music have become a hallmark of her career, and have led to extensive concert tours, best-selling records, spectacular staged productions, original film projects and multimedia events. Since 2012 Cecilia Bartoli has been artistic director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival. At the start of 2023 she also took up the post of director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo: the first woman to hold this position in the company’s history. In 2016 her orchestra Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco was founded in Monte Carlo under the patronage of HSH Prince Albert II and HRH Princess Caroline of Hanover. Cecilia performs regularly with this period-instrument orchestra both at their homebase in Monte Carlo and on large-scale tours throughout Europe. Cecilia Bartoli’s repertoire focuses on the music of Rossini, Mozart, Handel and their contemporaries. Her extensive research into the vocal characteristics and roles of such legendary singers as Farinelli, Maria Malibran and Giuditta Pasta has also encouraged her to explore areas previously considered atypical for mezzo-sopranos. Milestones of her career include the first ever production of Rossini’s Cenerentola at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1997, the legendary Vivaldi Album which has sold millions of copies since its release in 1999, the Paris concert marathon on Maria Malibran’s 200th birthday in 2008, her radical new approach to Bellini’s Norma in 2013 – which led to a scholarly reconstruction of the original score – and, in 2022, a rapturously received week dedicated to Rossini at the Vienna State Opera. The Cecilia Bartoli – Music Foundation was created as part of Cecilia’s philanthropic work. It aims to establish collaborations with talented young musicians, and to bring classical music to a wider audience. Among other projects, the Foundation has set up a new record label in collaboration with Decca, mentored by Bartoli. Thanks to this initiative, wonderful artists such as Javier Camarena and Varduhi Abrahamyan have been able to record their first studio albums. Honorary doctorates, five Grammy Awards, more than a dozen ECHO Klassik and BRIT awards, the Polar Music Prize, the Léonie Sonning Music Prize, the Herbert von Karajan Music Prize and many other awards highlight Cecilia Bartoli’s importance in the world of culture and music. In this context, Europa Nostra – the European Voice of Civil Society Committed to Cultural Heritage – appointed Cecilia as their president. She took up this position for an initial term of five years in 2022.

Singer, conductor, artistic director, world-renowned tenor turned baritone — Plácido Domingo is universally acknowledged as one of the most influential figures in the operatic world. Often referred to as “the man of a thousand lives” or a “Renaissance man,” he has performed more than 150 different roles — a record for an opera singer — and taken part in over 4,400 performances across the world’s most prestigious stages: the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House in London, Berlin State Opera, Teatro Real in Madrid, Arena di Verona, to name just a few. His vast repertoire ranges from Mozart to Verdi, Wagner to Puccini, as well as contemporary composers. He has participated in several world premieres — Goya by Menotti, Il postino by Catán, Las divinas palabras by García Abril — attesting to his appetite for artistic innovation and risk-taking. Throughout his career, he has also championed zarzuela, the Spanish lyrical tradition inherited from his singer parents, Pepita Embil and Plácido Domingo Ferrer. Domingo’s immense popularity also stems from his ability to bring opera to a wider audience. The legendary Three Tenors concerts, performed with Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras in the world’s largest stadiums, introduced opera to millions and left a lasting cultural legacy. His discography is monumental: over one hundred recorded albums, around fifty filmed operas, twelve Grammy Awards, and countless international honors, including the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, France’s Légion d’honneur, Mexico’s Order of the Aztec Eagle, and an honorary knighthood in the United Kingdom. As a respected conductor, he has led more than six hundred opera performances and symphonic concerts. He has also held leadership roles at the Washington National Opera and the Los Angeles Opera, and currently serves as Honorary Artistic Director for the Arena di Verona’s centennial season. A tireless advocate for emerging artists, he founded the international Operalia competition in 1993, which has since become a major launching pad for young talents. In recent years, he has focused primarily on major baritone roles, especially in the Verdi repertoire (Simon Boccanegra, Nabucco, Macbeth, Il trovatore, I due Foscari, Luisa Miller, Ernani, Don Carlo), as well as works by Puccini (Gianni Schicchi), Mussorgsky (Boris Godunov), and French opera (Thaïs by Massenet). Plácido Domingo has long enjoyed a close relationship with the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, where he has appeared on numerous occasions. In 2023, he shared the stage with Cecilia Bartoli for an exceptional recital; in 2025, he returns to the Principality to renew this artistic collaboration in a new landmark concert.

David Fray began taking piano lessons at the age of four and continued his studies with Jacques Rouvier at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris. He has won numerous international awards. He performs in prestigious venues such as the Philharmonie de Paris, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Musikverein in Vienna, as well as at festivals such as La Roque d'Anthéron, the BBC Proms, the Festival de Menton, the Festival de Pâques d'Aix-en-Provence, Verbier Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Schubertiades, and others. He has collaborated with conductors Marin Alsop, Semyon Bychkov, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Järvi, Kurt Masur, Riccardo Muti, Yannick Nézet-Seguin, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Jaap van Zweden. He performs with orchestras such as the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Deutsche Sinfonie-Orchester, the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchester, as well as numerous orchestras in the United States: Los Angeles, Cleveland, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, or New York. David Fray has released numerous recordings on Warner/Erato, with whom he has an exclusive contract. His next release, Baroque Encores, features original masterpieces and transcriptions from Rameau to Scarlatti, with a particular focus on Bach, as well as lesser-known composers such as Royer.

Born in Livorno (ltaly) in 1960, Stefano Visconti studied the piano and then choral conducting with Fosco Corti and Roberto Gabbiano, as well as orchestra conducting with Piero Bellugi and Giancarlo Andretta. He was appointed choirmaster at Opéra de Monte-Carlo in 2007. Before this he was choirmaster at the Teatro Goldoni, Livorno (1991-2001), Choirmaster at the Opéra-Théâtre d’Avignon (2001-2007), as well as Choirmaster at the Festival Puccini, Torre del Lago (1999-2015). From 1984 to 2001 he conducted the Guido Monaco Polyphonic Choir of Livorno which, under his direction, won several national awards (Vittorio Veneto, Arezzo and Florence competitions). In 2000 he founded the Chamber Choir of Tuscany, formed of professionals. He directed the reconstitution of the complete sacred works of Giuseppe Cambini for soloists, choir, and orchestra. Since 2008 he has conducted the choirs of the Sanxay Lyrical Evenings. He is the artistic and music director of the Monte Carlo Chamber Choir. He has made several recordings with Foné, Agora and Kikko Classics, in particular several of Mascagni’s operas (L’amico Fritz, I Rantzau, Lodoletta, Guglielmo Ratcliff, Silvano, Cavalleria rusticana, Iris and Sì). Since 2017 he has directed the coordination of the choirs for the Chorégies d’Orange festival.