Zubin Mehta, conductor

Zubin Mehta is an accomplished conductor born in Bombay in 1936. He received his early training from his father, Mehli Mehta, and later attended Hans Swarowsky’s conducting courses at the Akademie für Musik in Vienna. In 1958, he won the Liverpool International Conducting Competition and the Tanglewood Summer Academy Award, and has since conducted some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras. He has held significant positions, including music directors of the Montreal Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, and honorary director of the orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

He has also made his mark in the world of opera, collaborating with renowned opera houses and festivals such as the Metropolitan of New York, the Wienerstaatsoper, the Covent Garden of London, the Teatro alla Scala of Milan, and the Salzburg Festival.

Mehta has received several honors and awards, including the “Praemium Imperiale” from the Japanese imperial family, the Cross of Merit of the German Federal Republic, and the Indian government awarded him the Tagore Award for cultural harmony in 2013.

Mehta has been nominated as Florence Ambassador for Culture and has recently conducted a European tour with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra.

Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

The Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, founded in 1928 by Vittorio Gui, is one of the most renowned orchestras in Italy. It has been engaged since its inception in the concert and operatic seasons of the Teatro Comunale of Florence. The orchestra has been led by prominent conductors including Riccardo Muti and Zubin Mehta, and collaborated with many renowned conductors including Victor De Sabata, Antonio Guarnieri, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Tullio Serafin, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Otto Klemperer, Issay Dobrowen, Erich Kleiber, Arthur Rodzinski, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Thomas Schippers, Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, Carlo Maria Giulini, Georges Prêtre, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Carlos Kleiber, Georg Solti, Riccardo Chailly, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Seiji Ozawa and Fabio Luisi, who was its musical director from April 2018 to July 2019. Currently, Daniele Gatti is principal conductor and Zubin Mehta Honorary Conductor for Life.

The Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, formed in 1933 under the guidance of Andrea Morosini, is a prestigious Italian vocal ensemble for both opera and symphonic repertoire. In recent years, the chorus has expanded its repertoire to include the most important choral-symphonic works, classical and modern. The chorus has participated in international tours and is known for its ability to interpret works of different periods and styles in their original language, making it one of the most flexible and appreciated ensembles by conductors and international critics.

Lorenzo Fratini, chorus master

Born in Prato in 1973, Lorenzo Fratini graduated in composition, polyphonic vocal composition, choral music, choir conducting, orchestration, and clarinet from conservatories in Bologna, Ferrara, Florence, and Milan. He has conducted various concerts with leading Italian orchestras, such as Orchestra Regionale Toscana, the Radio Orchestra of Bucharest, and the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, among others. He has worked with renowned conductors including Daniel Oren, Lorin Maazel, Christoph Eschenbach, Pinchas Steinberg, Roberto Abbado and Daniele Gatti, and has conducted world premiere music by composers like Arvo Pärt and Tan Dun. Since January 2013, he has been the choir director of the Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Mandy Fredrich, soprano

Soprano Mandy Fredrich has performed in numerous operas and concerts across the world. Recently made her debut as Gutrune in Götterdämmerung at the Staatsoper Berlin, and her house debut as Contessa in the new production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Opéra National de Lyon. She also performed with various orchestras, including the Munich Radio Orchestra, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Duisburg Philharmonic.

In the 2021/22 season, Fredrich appeared at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and The Royal Danish Opera, among other venues, and sang roles such as Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust and Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Other important recent engagements include performances as Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, Marzelline in Fidelio and Frau Fluth in a new production of Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor under the baton of Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera. She has performed at numerous prestigious venues such as La Scala in Milan, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Vienna State Opera, and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, as well as renowned festivals such as the Salzburg Festival and more.

Marie-Claude Chappuis, mezzo-soprano

Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Marie-Claude Chappuis has worked with many leading conductors, including Riccardo Chailly, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Riccardo Muti, Sir Roger Norrington and Zubin Mehta. She has earned two GRAMMYs nominations, the Swiss Music Award nomination, and the Midem Classical Prize.

Marie-Claude has performed in various opera productions, including included Idomeneo (Idamante) staged and conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt in Graz and Zurich, Paisiello’ s Il Matrimonio Inaspettato (Contessa) at Salzburg Festival, La Damnation de Faust (Marguerite) in Leipzig, and L’incoronazione di Poppea (Ottavia) at the Berlin State Opera. She is also renowned for her performances in the title role of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas throughout Europe and is featured at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Theater an der Wien, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Real in Madrid and Grand Théâtre de Genève.

Collaborated orchestras include the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Giardino Armonico, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. Her discography includes several recordings with René Jacobs and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra on Harmonia Mundi, as well as recordings with other ensembles such as the Akademie für alte Musik Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor. She has also released solo albums such as Sous l’empire d’Amour and Au coeur des Alpes. Recently, she has released a new recording of Clérambault’s Les Fables de La Fontaine with Valentin Tournet and La Chapelle Harmonique.

AJ Glueckert, tenor

American tenor AJ Glueckert opens his season 2022/23 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Guido Bardi in Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Florentinische Tragödie. This season, he will return to the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino to perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under the baton of Zubin Mehta, and perform in the new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at Oper Frankfurt and the Budapest Wagner Days as Walther von Stolzing.

Glueckert has been an ensemble member at Oper Frankfurt since 2016/17 and has performed there in various roles such as Don José in Carmen, the title character in Wagner’s Lohengrin and Herod in Strauss’ Salome. He has also appeared in various productions at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Metropolitan Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, and the Glyndebourne Festival. He has worked with various renowned orchestras, including the Utah Symphony, Santa Clara Symphony, and Sacramento Symphony Orchestra.

A graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he has twice won regional competitions at the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions. 

Tareq Nazmi, bass

Bass Tareq Nazmi gained his initial stage experience at the Bavarian State Opera’s Opera Studio before becoming a member of the Opera’s ensemble. He has performed various roles, including Masetto, Speaker, Truffaldino, Nachtwächter, Colline, Publio, and Osman in Les Indes galantes.

In previous seasons, he has starred in various productions, including Verdi’s Don Carlo at Theater St. Gallen and Verdi’s Macbeth in Antwerp. He has also performed in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the Tonhalle Zurich, as Zaccaria in Verdi´s Nabucco at Theater St. Gallen, and as Bottom in Britten´s A Midsummer Night´s Dream at the Theater an der Wien. He has worked with renowned conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Teodor Currentzis, Kirill Petrenko, Manfred Honeck, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Christoph Eschenbach and Constantinos Carydis.

Nazmi has a particularly varied concert repertoire, ranging from J.S. Bach to Beethoven, Haydn, Brahms, Mozart and Dvořák. He has performed with many orchestras, including the Washington National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and the Deutsches Symphonie⁠-⁠Orchester in Berlin. He has also given recitals with pianist Gerold Huber in various locations, including Munich, Cologne, Ingolstadt, the Schubertiade Hohenems, and London’s Wigmore Hall.