Manlio Benzi

Born in Rimini, he studied music at the Arrigo Boito Academy of Music in Parma, where he graduated in Composition in 1989 with M° Togni and in Orchestral Conducting in 1990 with M° Gatti, obtaining in 1991 a first class honours degree in Musicology at the University of Arts, Parma.

He specialised in Orchestral Conducting at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Finalist in the International Competition “L. V. Matacic” in Zagreb, he was awarded the prize for Best Conductor in the Operatic Repertoire (1995).
In the season 1996- 97 he was appointed Permanent Conductor at the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad.
In the period 1997-99 he was Associate Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra “G. Verdi” of Milan, where he worked alongside many renowned conductors such as Muti, Gatti, Chailly, Francis and Ceccato.
From 2000 to 2007 he was Artistic Director of the Notti Malatestiane Festival in Rimini.

He made his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper (Madama Butterfly), Staatsoper Stuttgart (Cenerentola) Paris Opera and Lincoln Center of New York (Orfeo e Euridice), Semperoper in Dresden (Macbeth) and Staatsoper Hamburg (Madama Butterfly).
Recently he has been regulary invited in Holland Park Festival in London (Gianni Schicchi, Zanetto, Madama Butterfly, Adriana Lecouvrer, Aida)

He conducted new productions at Teatro La Fenice of Venice (Lucia di Lammermoor, Rota’s Il Principe Porcaro ), Fondazione Arturo Toscanini in Parma and Busseto (Traviata), Valle d’Itria Festival (Gounod ‘La Reine de Saba’ and ‘Le Polyeucte’, Giordano ‘Siberia’ and ‘Marcella’, Mascagni ‘Amica’), Macerata Opera Festival (Don Carlo), National Theatre of Estonia in Tallinn (Traviata, Madama Butterfly and Puritani), Théatre Royal de Wallonie in Liège (Tosca), National Theatre of Georgia in Tbilisi (Ballo in Maschera), Theater Erfurt (Don Carlo, La Gioconda, Andrea Chénier ,Beethoven symphony n. 9), Opera North in Leeds (Capuleti e Montecchi), Volksoper Wien (Rigoletto, Tosca), Opera Ireland (Capuleti e Montecchi).

He has conducted many orchestras worldwide, among them, Orchestra National de France, Orchestra of Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Orchestra of Pomeriggi Musicali of Milano, the orchestra of Teatro Regio in Torino, the Orchestra of Teatro Comunale in Bologna, the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia in Roma, the Orchestra Haydn in Bolzano, Orchestra Filarmonica of Emilia Romagna ‘Toscanini’ .

He was touring with the Symphony Orchestra of Milano (France and Switzerland) and with Haydn Symphony Orchestra of Trento and Bolzano (Wien Musikverein and Austria).

He made his debut in Teatro ‘La Scala’ of Milan in a concert with the singers of Accademia of Teatro alla Scala.

Highlights of the current season are Boheme at the Welsh National Opera, Puritani in Stuttgart Opera, Barbiere di Siviglia in Oslo Opera and a symphonic program in the summer season of Maggio Musicale Festival of Florence.

Since December 1999 he combines his conducting career with a professorship in Orchestral Conducting at the “Rossini” Academy of Music in Pesaro/Italy.
He is a composer of chamber music and theatre music and contributes regular reviews and music essays for Ricordi musical editions and for the Istituto di Studi Verdiani of Parma.

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