Origin
Founded in 2005 by Gianluca Capuano himself, Il Canto di Orfeo initially brought together under its name a vocal ensemble and an instrumental ensemble, both composed of specialists in historically informed performance.
Immediately distinguishing itself by performing the works of Giacomo Carissimi and his contemporaries, it gradually expanded its repertoire to include masterpieces from the period between 1600 and 1750.
Over the years, Il Canto di Orfeo has appeared on the stages of the most prestigious European early music festivals, including the Royaumont Festival, the Monteverdi Festival in Cremona, the Bach Festival in Lausanne, Milano Arte Musica, and others.
From 2006 to 2009, the ensemble curated the ‘Pietre Sonore’ festival at the Basilica di San Simpliciano in Milan, offering the public programmes of great musicological and artistic interest.
Canto di Orfeo has also featured in major opera productions, such as Gluck’s ‘Orpheus and Eurydice’ and Mozart’s ‘La clemenza di Tito’ at the Salzburg Festival, taking both operas on tour throughout Europe, in venues such as the Kölner Philharmonie, Philharmonie de Paris, Elbphilarmonie in Hamburg, Philharmonie in Essen, Bozar, etc.
ICO has also participated in several premières of contemporary music, both concert and opera.
International critics have praised the performances of Il Canto di Orfeo for their expressive depth and stylistic precision.
Gianluca Capuano
Gianluca Capuano was awarded the Premio Abbiati as best conductor of the year in 2022. He has been chief conductor of Les Musiciens du Prince — Monaco since 2019. He studied organ, composition and conducting at the conservatory in his home city of Milan, and went on to specialize in early music at the Scuola Civica there. He also completed a degree in theoretical philosophy at the University of Milan.
As a soloist and conductor he has performed throughout Europe and in the USA, Russia and Japan. In 2006 he founded the instrumental and vocal ensemble Il Canto di Orfeo, dedicated to exploring a wide range of Baroque repertory, with which he works with some of the finest musicians and singers active in the field of historically informed performance practice. With his vocal ensemble he has also participated in Vacchi’s Teneke, Raskatov’s A Dog’s Heart and Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten at La Scala, Milan.
In August 2016 Gianluca Capuano came to international attention when he stepped in at short notice to conduct Norma with Cecilia Bartoli on the opening night of the Edinburgh Festival. Bartoli then invited him to conduct further performances of Norma at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and in Baden-Baden.
Since then he has collaborated with Bartoli and Les Musiciens du Prince on numerous opera productions and concerts, among them La Cenerentola in Monte Carlo, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Versailles and Luxembourg, Ariodante, Le Comte Ory, Il turco in Italia, Alcina and Il barbiere di Siviglia in Monte Carlo, concert performances of La clemenza di Tito at the Lucerne Festival and on a European tour, and La Cenerentola, Il turco in Italia and a gala concert at the Vienna State Opera. At the Salzburg Festival since 2017 he has appeared with Bartoli and Les Musiciens du Prince in staged productions of Ariodante, Alcina, Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Orfeo ed Euridice, in concert performances of La donna del lago, La clemenza di Tito and Haydn’s L’anima del filosofo and in several concerts. In 2023 he conducted Les Musiciens du Prince in Monte Carlo and Salzburg in a marionette production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo.
In addition to his performances at the Salzburg Festival, Gianluca Capuano’s engagements in the 2023/24 season include Orfeo ed Euridice at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Giulio Cesare and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem in Monte Carlo and Norma at the Bavarian State Opera. Future projects include La Cenerentola in a return to Munich and at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; he will also conduct Rossini’s opera at La Scala, Milan, with members of the Accademia.
Jacopo Facchini
Facchini studied piano, choral conducting and composition, before taking a degree in opera singing. He later specialized in Baroque singing, working with Sara Mingardo, Gloria Banditelli, Monica Bacelli, Romina Basso, Michael Chance, René Jacobs, Gérard Lesne, and studied contemporary repertory with Alda Caiello.
In 2017 and 2018 he conducted the chorus of the Opéra National de Montpellier and the chorus of the Opéra national de Lorraine. In 2019 he took over the directorship of the vocal ensemble la Barocca in Milan, in the same year he also began a collaboration with the Coro Sinfonico di Milano.
In 2022 he was the musical director for a performance conceived by himself and directed by Damien Robert entitled XV de c(h)oeur at the Opéra National de Montpellier, and prepared Il Canto di Orfeo for a European concert tour of La clemenza di Tito with Les Musiciens du Prince — Monaco, under the baton of Gianluca Capuano and with Cecilia Bartoli in the role of Sesto. In 2023 and 2024 he was Il Canto di Orfeo’s chorus master for Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Haydn’s L’anima del filosofo, Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito and C-Moll Messe at the Salzburger Festspiele. In 2025 he is Il Canto di Orfeo’s chorus master at the Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo festival performing Monteverdi’s Vespro and a premiere of Bruno Mantovani; he prepare the chorus of the Opéra de Lausanne for Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.
As a singer Jacopo Facchini works regularly with vocal and instrumental ensembles specializing in early music, among them Il Canto di Orfeo, Theatro dei Cervelli, Concerto Romano, Cantar Lontano, the Cappella Musicale Arcivescovile di San Petronio, and L’Armonia degli Affetti. He appeared in Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten under Ingo Metzmacher at La Scala, Milan, was a soloist in the world premiere of Adriano Guarnieri’s L’amor che move il mondo e l’altre stelle and performed in a Kurtág programme with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano under Sylvain Cambreling. He has also worked with the Divertimento Ensemble, the mdi ensemble, Tempo Reale, Cesare Picco, Roberto Cacciapaglia and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and with Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali under Carlo Boccadoro.
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