Guest
A rising star of her generation, the Russian mezzo-soprano Maria Kataeva’s repertoire ranges from Baroque to Contemporary music. Maria started her career during her studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory when she became a member of the opera studio at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and 2 years later, she became a permanent member of the ensemble and leading soloist. Winner of many awards in numerous voice competitions, won in 2014 the 3rd prize in the Paris Opera Competition, the 1st prize in the general category and 3rd prize in the German category of the voice competition “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” (Nuremberg, 2016); in 2019 she was awarded the 2nd Prize and the Audience Prize of Placido Domingo’s Operalia, in Prague. Marco Mencoboni, conductor, born in Macerata, studied harpsichord in Holland in the classes of Ton Koopman and Gustav Leonhardt and conducting with Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli. Thanks to a training attentive to original sources, he tackles a vast repertoire, both vocal and instrumental, ranging from the early Renaissance to full Classicism. His recent conducting of Rossini's Otello led him to in-depth historical research aimed at understanding performance aspects of early 19th-century Italy. In the 1990s he devoted himself at length to the rediscovery of Baroque vocal practice in the Marche region called Cantar Lontano. Since 2017 he has been in permanent residence in Malta where he directs for Festivals Malta the training project The Abos Project and Consort and directs the research project on the works of Maltese composer Girolamo Abos. He teaches harpsichord and historical keyboards at the Licinio Refice Conservatory in Frosinone. The concert is being held as part of the Rossini Opera Festival Pesaro's August 20, 2023 program inside the Teatro Sperimentale.
