Robert Davidson has sung leading roles with numerous professional organisations including New York City Opera; Opera in the Slope, Brooklyn; Christman Opera Company; Russian Opera Workshop at the Academy of Vocal Arts; Opera Philadelphia; Ars Tempo Guatemala; and the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra.

At home in a broad range of styles, his rich, flexible voice adds a golden-age touch to opera, operetta and musical theatre. Davidson is a founder member of the Philadelphia Opera Prep Club—a role study club for opera students and professionals.

He resides in South Philadelphia where he studies and teaches bel canto singing.

For more information, visit www.robertjamesdavidson.com.

American soprano Kirsten C. Kunkle has been hailed as an outstanding singing actress with a voice that has been described as beautiful, ethereal, powerful, fiery and bewitching. She is the co-founder and artistic director of Wilmington Concert Opera. Her career highlights include singing at Carnegie Hall, inclusion on the list of Classical Native Artists and Musicians at the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution, and creating numerous roles with The Philadelphia Opera Collective.

Her discography includes nearly 30 recordings with Comic Opera Guild, focusing on the works of Victor Herbert.

Soprano Martina Bortolotti von Haderburg is known for her wide repertoire and warm, expressive voice. A native of the Italian province of South Tyrol, she has found her niche in German and Italian operas and operettas as well as in lieder, chamber repertoire and symphonic works including Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

She studied at the Milan Conservatory, the Accademia Teatro alla Scala, and the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, and she has performed with conductors including Riccardo Muti, Giovanni Antonini, Donato Renzetti and Gustav Kuhn, and with stage directors including Franco Zeffirelli, Giorgio Strehler and Bepi Morassi.

For more information, visit www.martinabortolotti.com.

MONITOR Interview: Canto Lirico: Un’emozione fatta di musica (Italian)

Founded in 1928, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra has long established itself as one of the leading institutions in Bulgaria’s musical life. Throughout its 90-year creative history it been associated with eminent musicians such as Sasha Popov, Konstantin Iliev, Dobrin Petkov, Vassil Stefanov and Vassil Kazandjiev, among others. The orchestra has also collaborated with conductors Kurt Masur, Neville Marriner, Valery Gergiev, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Karl Österreicher and Charles Dutoit, and soloists such as José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Dmitry Shostakovich, David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yuri Bashmet, Angela Gheorghiu, Diana Damrau and Joshua Bell.

The orchestra has a vast repertoire, and has given the premiere performances of dozens of Bulgarian works. Having started touring regularly in 1939, the Sofia Philharmonic has a strong international reputation, appearing in prestigious venues across Europe, Asia and America. The orchestra has released albums on the Naxos, Supraphon and Capriccio labels, and has also featured on radio in Paris, Berlin, Moscow and Munich, and Bulgarian National Radio and Television

The orchestra is the recipient of a number of prestigious awards including Bulgarian National Radio Musician of the Year (Nayden Todorov, 2002), the Golden Lyre and Crystal Lyre awarded by the Union of Bulgarian Musicians and Dancers and Classic FM Radio, the Honorary Sign of Sofia and the Honorary Sign of the President of Bulgaria.

www.sofiaphilharmonic.com

Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus
Photo: Vasilka Balevska

Dario Salvi is a busy and respected conductor with a versatile and eclectic repertoire, which has been recognised through numerous awards and nominations, including the 2023 ‘Riccardo Drigo’ Music for Ballet prize and a 2022 International Classical Music Awards nomination for the world premiere recording of Johann Strauss II’s Waldmeister (Naxos 8.660489–90). His passion for the rediscovery and performance of long-forgotten masterpieces and the curation of world premieres has put Salvi in the spotlight around the world.

He has conducted many international orchestras and opera companies including the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, PKF – Prague Philharmonia, Neue Preußische Philharmonie Berlin, Kosovo Philharmonic, Malmö Opera and State Opera Rousse, among many others, in a repertoire ranging from ballet to opera, operetta to musical comedies, and stage to symphonic works.

World premiere performances include Vassallo’s Edith Cavell, Adam’s Griseldis, Romberg’s The Desert Song and Strauss II’s Blindekuh, among many others. Salvi’s discography is available on Naxos.

www.dariosalvi.com

Dario Salvi receives the “Riccardo Drigo” Music for Ballet Prize (in Italian)

The eldest son of Johann Strauss, and not intended by his father for a career in music, Johann Strauss the younger nevertheless established an unrivalled reputation throughout the second half of the 19th century as a composer and purveyor of light Viennese music. He involved his two younger brothers in the management and direction of dance orchestras that performed both in Vienna and abroad.

Stage Works

The younger Johann Strauss wrote some 16 operettas between 1871 and 1897. Of these the best known is Die Fledermaus (‘The Bat’), characteristic in plot and music of Vienna at its most lighthearted. Other operettas are more familiar through dances extracted from them, although Der Zigeunerbaron (‘The Gypsy Baron’) remains second only to Die Fledermaus in terms of popularity.

Dance Music

Dance music by the younger Johann Strauss comprises waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, marches and other works. Among these the most familiar remains An der schönen, blauen Donau (‘The Blue Danube’), originally a choral waltz sequence. Strauss, like his father, was extremely prolific as a composer, writing several hundred dances in various forms.