catalogue: LIEB
Francesca Bruni was born and bred in a tiny Umbria village, near Orvieto. Surrounded as a child by an artistic environment (her father is both musician and painter) she approached singing in the most natural and genuine way even if she had to wait until her college years for beginning to study it seriously.
At Perugia University she graduated in Educational sciences and in singing at Conservatorio F. Morlacchi. Once her studies ended she started to enter the Opera world, which means auditions, competitions, masterclasses and travels…after two years as a member of the choir at Teatro Lirico Sperimentale di Spoleto she began her soloist career which, after 19 years onstage, counts 40 roles in 32 operas besides several Sacred Music concerts so far.
She has frequently worked all around Europe, especially in Spain and France but participated in many long tour in Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Malta, Portugal. Among the several and important directors and conductors she has worked with, with Teatro comunale di Bologna and with conductor M° H.Yoshida she participated in a Japan tour as Nedda in Pagliacci (R.Leoncavallo) performing at Kyoto National Museum, Himeji Castle and Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall.
With Teatro Verdi di Trieste performed W.A.Mozart’s Requiem conducted by M° F.M.Carminati. With M°G.Gelmetti she was Lauretta in G. Schicchi at Accademia Musicale Chigiana di Siena and with M° D. Renzetti at Teatro Marrucino di Chieti in Suor Angelica. She collaborated with Teatro Sociale di Como, As.Li.Co, Opera 2001, Ramfis Management (France), Lyriquement Votre (France), Supierz Music Management (Holland), Asociacion Lirica Luis Mariano di Irun (Spain), FAM e RAISAT PREMIUM, Orchestra Chigiana di Siena, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese, Orquesta Do Norte (Portugal), OJPA (Spain), Orchestra de l’Opera de Massy (Paris), I Solisti di Perugia, Accademia Hermans, Florilegio Musicale, Fantasia in Re, Cappella Musicale di San Francesco, il GOF di Recanati, I Filarmonici Veneti, Complesso Bandistico Città di Norcia in various theaters in Italy and abroad: Teatro Greco di Segesta, il Teatro F. Cilea di Reggio Calabria, la Basilica Papale di San Francesco di Assisi, in Portogallo at Teatro Coliseu Do Porto; in Switzerland at Palazzo dei Congressi di Lugano and at KKL in Luzern, in Malta at Teatro Manoel de La Valletta.
She participated in various events such as Festival Città di Como, Sarzana Opera Festival, Settimana Mozartiana di Chieti, Pan Opera Festival di Panicale, Festival Villa Solomei, Festival de Vonnas, Festival de Obidos, Concierto Dìa de Europa Alicante, Musifestival Pianura Veneta at Verona.
She won several prizes in international competitions: as an artist in residence at Teatro Marrucino di Chieti, Concorso “Tommaso Traetta” di Bitonto second prize, third prize in the lyric section at 5th Concorso Internazionale di canto “Giulio Neri” di Torrita di Siena and finalist at Concorso Internazionale “Città di Pienza”. At the international competition “Premio Spiros Argiris” di Sarzana she has been selected for the European masterclass held by E.Dara, aimed to the staging of Il Barbiere di Siviglia by G. Rossini (Rosina) conducted by M° E. Maschio and directed by R. Bonajuto.
She attended advanced specialization classes with M. Freni, G. Raimondi, R. Bruson with whom she debuted the role of Gilda in Rigoletto (G.Verdi) and of course her beloved Maestro Claudio Desderi thanks to which her boundless passion for the stage soared, getting the chance to interpret the roles in which actorial qualities and ability to get fully involved take art to the maximum level. That is exactly what made me say to myself deep within: “this is what I want to do in my life”!
Sabina Belei
The love for Poetry was born in me even before the love for Music, thanks to my father who introduced me to the knowledge of literary and poetic works since an early age.
The fascination of the sounds produced by words had a great influence on me, introducing me gradually to the art of listening and silence, which then would have occupied great space in my whole life.
At the age of nine I began studying the piano, which was immediately a source of great joy. In those years, even though I was a child, I accompanied the choir of Renzo Vaccari, my first piano teacher; since then I realized how much pleasure gave me, making music with others musicians or accompanying voices and instruments.
During the High School, the passion both for German Literature and Lieder found a full realization in the binomial Poetry and Music.
The whole course of my studies and my professional life derive from that (their origin and direction from), leading me to the realization of these passions.
At the age of 20 I graduated in Piano at the Conservatory of my city, Perugia, under the guidance of Maestro Alberto Ciammarughi and, subsequently, Riccardo Marini with full marks and the joy of being able to play with the orchestra of my Conservatory; later, I also took the II Level Academic Diploma in Chamber Music with Maestro Costantino Mastroprimiano, with full marks and honors discussing a thesis on the first book of the Winterreise by F.P. Schubert and performing the first 12 Lieder of the cycle with my beloved friend and tenor David Sotgiu, my partner in many Opera and vocal chamber music concert.
The passion for the voice continued attending the course for substitute teachers at Teatro Mancinelli in Orvieto with Sergio Magli, Stage Director of the Teatro S. Carlo, attending the Course in Lieder held by the Masters Elio and Erik Battaglia and, above all, studying for years the Lieder repertoire of Schumann, Brahms and Wolf with the musicologist and pianist Guido Salvetti and the soprano Stelia Doz. There were also countless singing masterclasses that I accompanied, including those with Carmen Gonzales, Sergio Pezzetti, Enzo Tei, Marie-Thérèse Boiton-Rivoli and Max van Egmond.
Also the years of piano collaboration with the Pan Opera Festival, the precious independent opera festival of Panicale (PG) allowed me to acquire experience, as substitute Maestro, and knowledge of many Operas including: Don Giovanni and L’Impresario Teatrale by W.A. Mozart, L’Elisir d’amore by G.Donizetti, Signor Bruschino, L’Occasione fa il ladro, La Cambiale di Matrimonio, by G.Rossini,Prima la musica poi le parole by A.Salieri, La Serva Padrona by G.B.Pergolesi , , Il Filosofo di Campagna by B.Galuppi, Mozart and Salieri by R.Korsakov.
The thirst of musical knowledge and curiosity prompted me to work for many years as piano accompanist at the Conservatory of Music in of Perugia (where I still hold this position). This gave me the opportunity to broaden my knowledge of the repertoire, not only vocal but above all instrumental, taking care of the preparation of exams and degree theses concerning violin, viola, cello, double bass, trumpet, trombone, horn, clarinet, percussion, oboe, saxophone and flute courses.
Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, America (New York) and many beautiful places in Italy are some of the countries where I have played and recorded CDs for record companies, such as Tactus (complete of Spontini’s chamber melodies), Brilliant Classics (Petite Messe solennelle by G. Rossini), PH Music worx (contemporary music with percussion quartet) and the ETS with a CD attached to the book by Guido Salvetti I Canti dell’ultimo Schumann where I edited the recording of some of the last Schumann Lieder with the soprano Myung Jae Kho and where I wrote a musicological essay on the composer’s Lieder dedicated to the child poet Elisabeth Kulmann.
One of my future project is to make known the complete Lieder of one of the greatest composers in the history of music, the pianist Clara Wieck Schumann, a woman example of strength, tenacity, purity, depth, fragility and courage.
Music has become my job, but I have always conceived it first of all as means of inner research; which is that’s the reason why over the years I discovered other fields of research, such as music therapy, the study of musical phenomenology with the Swiss pianist Christa Bützberger, the Feldenkreis method for musicians with Antonia Sfrangeu, the practice of meditation and yoga.
My work as a musician arises from a strong need to share musical beauty and finds its full realization in the live broadcast of the masterpiece that the composers created in the full and joyful awareness of being able to be the instrument that makes it possible it exists, in that precise moment.