Ballet by John Neumeier based on Tennessee Williams | The Glass Menagerie
Conductor
Luciano Di Martino
Conductor
A dynamic and accomplished presence both on the orchestra podium and in the opera pit, Luciano Di Martino is highly acclaimed for his intensity and spontaneity, his precision and musicianship.
In the beginning of 2020 Luciano Di Martino made his debut at the Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice with John Neumeier's production "Duse", conducting music by Benjamin Britten and Arvo Pärt and with the ballet "The Glass Menagerie" at the Hamburg State Opera featuring music by Charles Ives, Philipp Glass and Ned Rorem. A further engagement this year led him to conduct the production of Verdi's "Rigoletto" at the Sofia National Opera.
He has appeared as a guest conductor with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theatre Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion, the Novosibirsk Philharmonic, the Hamburg Symphony and the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice in Venice.
Since 2008, Di Martino has been a regular guest at the Hamburg State Opera, where he conducted erformances of Verdi's "La Traviata" as well as Andreas Homoki's production of Verdi's "Luisa
Miller" in 2016.
In 2014 he led Lera Auerbach's ballet "The Little Mermaid", choreographed by John Neumeier, with the Hamburg Ballet and the Hamburg State Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2017 he conducted guest performances of the ballet for the company’s tour to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. He then conducted Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" for the 50th anniversary of Neumeier's choreography.
Luciano Di Martino made his highly successful debut at the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv in April 2012, directing Mariusz Trelinsky's stylized and powerful production of Puccini's "Madame Butterfly".Following his debut in 2010 with the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, conducting the new production of Verdi's "Attila" during the Stars of the White Nights Festival, he conducted also revivals of "Aida", "Don Carlos", "La Sonnambula", "I Pagliacci" and Mendelssohn's oratorio "Elijah" as well as Laurent Pelly’s production of "L'Elisir d'Amore" in 2011 starring Anna Netrebko. He was guest conductor with the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Solingen Symphony Orchestra, the Bursa Regional State Symphony Orchestra as well as with the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra in Katowice, the Filarmonica Marchigiana in Macerata and the Tampere Filharmonia Orchestra in Finland.
Other notable highlights in Di Martino's career include conducting "Lucia di Lammermoor" at the Historic State Theatre in Minneapolis, a gala concert at the Latvian National Opera in Riga, "La Traviata" and "Carmina Burana" at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, "Otello" and "Tosca" at the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre, "Il Trovatore" and "Aida" at the Festival Opera Open in Plovdiv, "Madama Butterfly" at the Theatre in Lübeck and "Don Giovanni" and "The Magic Flute" at the Nuremberg State Theatre.
In 2012 he was appointed member of the advisory council of Hamburg’s TONALi Competition and conducted TONALi’s Grand Prix Concert at the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg.
Di Martino has been a permanent guest conductor of the Sofia FM-Classic Radio Orchestra since 2005. His live television broadcasts include gala concerts with such distinguished singers as Kammersängerin Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Alexandrina Milcheva, Ghena Dimitrova, Krassimira Stoyanova, and Josè Cura as well as symphony concerts with star soloists Pepe Romero, Uto Ughi, Julian Steckel, Dag Jensen, Anton Barakhovsky and Maxim Vengerov.
Graduated in orchestral conducting in 1996 at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama with Prof. Klauspeter Seibel, he attended specialization courses from 1993 till 1996 at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena with Ilya Musin, Valery Gergiev and Myung-Whun Chung. Following his studies, he first worked as a freelance piano accompanist while also gaining experience in the field of historical authentic performance, conducting baroque ensembles in Hamburg.
He became music director of the Bulgarian State Opera Stara Zagora in 2000, a position he held until 2004. He currently holds the position of conductor and artistic director at the Bulgarian State Opera and Philharmonic in Plovdiv, the European Capital of Culture in 2019, where Di Martino conducted Stefano Poda’s production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice.
In 1999 he conducted the first opera production for the opening of the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden with the operetta "Der Bettelstudent" by Carl Millöcker and the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra.
Orchestra
Symphoniker Hamburg
Die Symphoniker Hamburg sind seit 1957 das originäre Symphonieorchester aller Hamburgerinnen und Hamburger. Sie stehen für Konzerte, die höchsten künstlerischen Ansprüchen genügen, für eine ungewöhnlich vielseitige Musikvermittlung, für Profil in gesellschaftlichen Debatten und für den traditionsreichen Standort: Die Laeiszhalle, deren Residenzorchester sie sind. Die Symphoniker Hamburg gelten nach bald sechs Jahrzehnten als essentieller Bestandteil des Hamburger Musiklebens sowie als Repräsentant der noch jungen Idee einer Musikstadt Hamburg.
Der Intendant Daniel Kühnel und der weltweit renommierte Orchesterchef Sir Jeffrey Tate haben sich seit Beginn ihrer Zusammenarbeit im Jahre 2009 mit der profilierten Programmgestaltung einen Namen gemacht. Nicht zuletzt durch anspruchsvolle und unverwechselbare Programme, die zum Synonym für die Konzerte der Symphoniker Hamburg geworden sind, ist es gelungen, die Zahl der Besucher erheblich zu steigern. Völlig unerwartet starb Sir Jeffrey am 2. Juni 2017.
Mit ihrem Gespür für außergewöhnliche Künstler – der herausragende Geiger Guy Braunstein ist Erster Gastkünstler, zudem konnte 2014 mit Ion Marin ein profilierter Erster Gastdirigent gewonnen werden – arbeiten die Symphoniker Hamburg stets daran, für ihre Stadt ein unverwechselbares Qualitätsprofil zu entwickeln. Dieses soll in alle nur erdenklichen Lebensbereiche hinein wirken, von jedem Hamburger gehört und erlebt werden und über die Stadtgrenzen hinaus strahlen. Der Wirkungskreis der Symphoniker Hamburg ist dementsprechend nicht auf die Laeiszhalle beschränkt, sondern erstreckt sich auch auf die Hochschule für Musik und Theater, auf die Hamburgische Staatsoper sowie auf Konzertsäle des Umlands. Insbesondere die Musikvermittlung für Kinder und Jugendliche bildet dabei einen wesentlichen Schwerpunkt. Mit ihrer Aktion „MusikImPuls“ machen sie seit 2015 die Straßen und Plätze Hamburgs zur Bühne.
Tourneen führten das Orchester u.a. nach Japan, in die USA und in viele europäische Länder.
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photo: J. Konrad Schmidt
