Orchestra Teatro Comunale di Bologna
An orchestra with a long and distinguished tradition, it has seen eminent musicians succeed one another as Music Directors, including Sergiu Celibidache, Zoltán Peskó, Vladimir Delman, Riccardo Chailly, Daniele Gatti, Michele Mariotti and Oksana Lyniv. The ensemble has also been led by Myung-Whun Chung, James Conlon, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Jurovsky, Daniel Oren, Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Riccardo Muti, Mstislav Rostropovich, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Georg Solti, Christian Thielemann, Charles Dutoit and Georges Prêtre.
With Oksana Lyniv, the Teatro Comunale presented the complete performance of Wagner’s Ring cycle over two years in concert form, and opened the 2023 season with a Wagnerian title, Der fliegende Holländer.
The Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale is frequently invited abroad and has taken part in prestigious festivals, from Amsterdam to Aix-en-Provence, from Savonlinna to Muscat, and from Wiesbaden to Paris. A special relationship with Japan has led to several tours, including the November 2023 tour featuring Tosca conducted by Lyniv and Norma. The most recent tour saw the Orchestra performing at the Hong Kong Arts Festival between February and March 2025.
The Orchestra has made numerous recordings, including Armida conducted by Daniele Gatti, and Simon Boccanegra and Attila conducted by Michele Mariotti. Again with Mariotti, the Orchestra recorded a CD of sacred arias with Juan Diego Flórez for Decca, and an album of Romantic arias with Nino Machaidze for Sony; for Deutsche Grammophon, Le Comte Ory with Flórez and La Nuit de Mai, an album of opera arias and songs by Leoncavallo, with Plácido Domingo. In 2021, the Orchestra recorded an album for Deutsche Grammophon with tenor Benjamin Bernheim and Frédéric Chaslin on the podium.
Among the awards received is the “Franco Abbiati” Music Critics’ Prize for La bohème at the Bologna theatre (Best Production of 2018), directed by Graham Vick and conducted by Mariotti. After a thirty-year association with the Rossini Opera Festival (from 1988 to 2016), 2017 marked a new collaboration between the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and the Verdi Festival in Parma. Among various productions, this collaboration saw the Orchestra perform in Stiffelio directed by Vick and awarded the “Abbiati”, as well as Luisa Miller, Aida, a symphonic concert conducted by Valery Gergiev, Simon Boccanegra in concert form, La forza del destino, the Messa da Requiem (with Oksana Lyniv on the podium), Il trovatore for the 23rd edition of the Festival, La battaglia di Legnano, and finally Un ballo in maschera.
In 2025, the Orchestra of the TCBO returns to the Rossini Opera Festival with Zelmira, L’italiana in Algeri, and the Messa per Rossini.