Founder / Artistic Director
Mirko Matarazzo
Founder and artistic director of Regium Lepidi Opera, he leads the Academy Calliope, the masterclasses and the summer Festival. At the heart of the project is a passion that brings together opera, training and the meeting of artists: a path guided by experience and focused on the stage.
Pianist · Music director
Davide Cavalli
An Italian pianist, chamber musician and music director, he is internationally recognised for his long career in opera and for his collaboration with Maestro Riccardo Muti. Since 2015 he has been the pianist of the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy, one of the most influential projects devoted to handing down the Italian operatic tradition, where he has worked as pianist, répétiteur, musical assistant and coach.
With Maestro Muti he has taken part in major productions at international institutions, including the Salzburg Festival (Verdi's Ernani and Aida; répétiteur and musical assistant for Aida in 2017, with artists such as Anna Netrebko, Francesco Meli, Ekaterina Semenchuk and Luca Salsi). He has worked with the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (Manon Lescaut) and regularly plays with the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. He took part in the Roads of Friendship concerts conducted by Muti in Kyiv, Tehran, Athens, Yerevan, Lourdes and Jerash.
As a soloist and chamber musician he has performed, among others, at the Teatro La Fenice, Oper Frankfurt, the Tel Aviv Opera, St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in New York, the Ravenna Festival, the Festival della Valle d'Itria, the Teatro Regio di Parma and the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. Winner of numerous international competitions (Seiler Piano Competition, Rome International Chopin Competition, Camillo Togni Competition in Brescia), he recorded Rachmaninov's Suites for two pianos for the Austrian broadcaster ORF.
He took part in the Verdi bicentenary celebrations with RAI 1, in the Senato & Cultura series at Palazzo Madama and in the opening of the national celebrations for the 700th anniversary of Dante's death, performing Donizetti's Il Conte Ugolino in the presence of the President of the Italian Republic. He is music director of an advanced training academy for opera singers at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.
He graduated with honours and a special mention from the Luisa D'Annunzio Conservatory in Pescara and earned master's degrees with honours in piano and chamber music from the Arrigo Boito Conservatory in Parma.
