Giuseppe Acquaviva, sought-after Italian conductor with many international projects to his credit, will become the art manager of Astana Opera and the opera house’s International Opera Academy, Delovoy Kazakhstan reports.
It is known that culture is the genetic code of the nation. Astana Opera sets itself an important task of promoting the national art abroad. Giuseppe Acquaviva will provide help in achieving this high purpose and he will also train opera company soloists to perform parts from operas and concerts from the current repertoire. In addition to improving the creative work of the Kazakh team, the maestro will represent the interests of the opera house and the academy in the global cultural community.
“We hope that this collaboration will give Astana Opera and its young academy new opportunities to prove its mettle in the international arena. It is very important for the company to tour, perform at famous venues, and also host well-known companies on our stage, which will also attract the attention of the cultural community to our country,” Galym Akhmedyarov, Astana Opera’s general director, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan, said.
Giuseppe Acuaviva began his partnership with the flagship of Kazakh art, Astana Opera, back in 2013. Being an expert of Giacomo Puccini’s music, he staged a number of opera productions and Sergei Prokofiev’s famous ballet Romeo and Juliet. For a long time he worked with the opera house as a guest conductor.
One of the brightest examples of the creative collaboration between Astana Opera and the Italian conductor was the staging of Puccini’s famous opera La Bohème.
In his interviews, the maestro noted more than once the professional maturity of the opera house’s symphony orchestra and the skill of Astana Opera’s artists, with whom it is always a pleasure to work, because they all have their own way of interpreting the works.
At Giuseppe Acquaviva’s invitation, an important tour of Astana Opera to Italy took place, where the company presented the national classical masterpiece, Akhmet Zhubanov and Latyf Khamidi’s opera Abai to Mukhtar Auezov’s libretto. The opera was performed in Kazakh and met with huge success among the Italian audience. Another important joint project of his with the opera house was the ballet company’s tour to Spain, where the dancers presented Tchaikovsky’s legendary ballet Swan Lake with great success.
Today, Giuseppe Acuaviva is in great demand in the professional world. He has a number of international awards and is the winner of numerous prestigious competitions. His creative journey is impressive: in 2001-2010, he was the artistic secretary – head of Artistic and Musical Services of the Puccini Festival Foundation in Torre del Lago. From 2014 to 2019, he was the artistic director of the Teatro Carlo Felice Foundation, and from 2018 to 2023, he holds the position of the artistic director of the Paganini Award in Genoa. The famous conductor collaborates with opera houses around the world. In 2010 he made his debut at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste, and in 2011 at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna. He has conducted performances in Italy, Japan, China, Monaco, Russia and many other world countries.
Among other things, the maestro is a jury member of various international competitions, including the Sanremo Lirica, the AsLiCo Competition at the Teatro Sociale in Como, Verdi competition and Bellini competition in Beijing, Placido Domingo’s Operalia, the World Opera Competition (2017) and many others.
It should be noted that the Italian maestro has already started his work at Astana Opera, and on March 11 and 13 he conducted Bizet’s famous opera Carmen.
