08/08/2004 00:00
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By Humphrey Carter THIS Sunday, two of Italy's leading young opera singers will be performing at Bellver Castle as part of the Nits a la Fresca musical programme. Soprano Anna Maria Dell'Oste and Australian-born tenor Rosario La Spina will be performing “El Bel Canto Italiano” with the Parma Opera Ensemble. The ensemble, from the Teatro Regio de Parma, is currently on a mini-tour of Spain, organised by Euromusic productions, and have performed this week at the highly acclaimed Santander Festival.



The performance at Bellver Castle includes a compilation of arias and symphonies from some of the operas written by Italy's most accomplished composers such as Puccini, Rossini, Verdi and Bellini.

The ensemble was set up in 1996 by Sergio Pellegrini who wanted to create a repertoire of varied classic opera. Over the years they have toured the world, enjoying great success in the United States, France and Austria. This is their first tour of Spain and Majorca.

Soprano Anna Maria Dell'Oste joined the Scala in Milan in 1994 and during the last opera season, enjoyed enormous success performing La Traviata at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

She has also performed at the Opera de Roma. She played Papengena in the Magic Flute and during her career has performed in Peking, Barcelona, Paris and Covent Garden.

Tenor Rosario La Spina was born in Australia to where his parents had emigrated. He studied at the Queensland Conservatory under Joseph Ward and in November 2002, won the Theatrical Tenor competition at La Scala where he then studied.

Prior to that he won the Young Lyrical Singer competition in Lugano in 2000, and that same year went on to win in San Remo and Monaco.
He started his professional career in 2001 playing the role of Rodolfo in La Boheme and singing solo in Beethoven's “Misa Solemnis” which opened the Musical Afternoon cycle at the Teatro del Verme in Milan.

He made his debut at the Scala shortly after playing Ricardo in Verdi's Conde de S. Bonifacio.
The 10-strong ensemble is being brought to Palma by classic music promoter Juan Martin-Montalvo Barra who has been working with Spain's top festivals and a number of Britain's leading youth symphony orchestras, for the past ten years.