Alfredo Casella was born in Turin in 1883. His exceptional musical talent was discovered early on and supported by the composers Giuseppe Martucci and Giovanni...

Alfredo Casella was born in Turin in 1883. His exceptional musical talent was discovered early on and supported by the composers Giuseppe Martucci and Giovanni Sgambati. On the advice of Martucci, the thirteen-year-old was sent to Paris, where he took piano and composition lessons from Gabriel Faure, among others. Casella stayed in Paris for nearly twenty years and began to write his first major works there, including his first and second symphonies, which show the stylistic influence of Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. Casella was among the first to recognize the significance of Mahler's oeuvre and introduced his works to French audiences. He was a friend of Ravel, with whom he collaborated between 1911 and 1913, on the composition of a series of pastiches entitled ''A la maniere de...'' - piano miniatures that demonstrated his ability to cover a wide variety of styles with ease. Fabrizio Ventura was born in Rome. After appointments as general music director of the South Thuringian State Theatre in Meiningen and the Istanbul Opera, he became general music director of Munster in 2007. He has conducted opera productions for the Swedish, Danish and Norwegian Royal Opera, for the Vienna Volksoper, the Prague State Opera, the Rome Opera, the Teatro Verdi in Trieste, the Arena di Verona, the Nice Opera and Opera Australia in Sydney.