The Orchestra Sinfonica del Conservatorio Vincenzo Bellini di Catania (Symphony Orchestra of the Vincenzo Bellini Conservatoire, Catania) is set to give its debut performance in Slovenia at the Slovenian Philharmonic on Monday, 22 July (from 9.00 pm) as part of the 72nd Ljubljana Festival. The orchestra is led by the Italian pianist and conductor Epifanio Comis and will be joined onstage by the soprano Serena Sáenz.

The orchestra’s home town is the birthplace of the Romantic composer Vincenzo Bellini, who was in many ways the herald of a new era of opera. The composer of 11 operas including La sonnambula, Norma and I puritani, he significantly influenced the subsequent development of Romantic music. Another of Bellini’s operas is I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues), which differs from Shakespeare’s most famous version of the Romeo and Juliet story by focusing exclusively on the last day in the lives of the star-crossed lovers of Verona.

The Orchestra Sinfonica del Conservatorio Vincenzo Bellini di Catania will present a varied programme in Ljubljana, including the sinfonia or overture from Norma and a selection of Bellini’s best-loved arias. The first half of the programme will also feature Saverio Mercadante’s orchestral work Omaggio a Bellini. The Romantic spirit will still be present in the second half of the concert, which will consist of the Symphony No. 4 in F minor by the king of Russian Romantic composers, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Bellini’s operas are considered to be vocal tours de force and are not frequently performed, except by the finest and most accomplished singers. Bellini’s arias will be sung at the Ljubljana Festival by the soprano Serena Sáenz, who was born in Barcelona in 1994. She made her professional debut at the age of 13 in the children’s opera Brundibár by Hans Krása at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. She studied at the Conservatori Liceu in Barcelona (with Dolores Aldea) and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. Alongside her musical studies, she trained in ballet and modern dance and has a professional qualification as a fitness coach.

In 2021 she won the first prize and the audience prize at the Montserrat Caballé International Singing Competition and multiple prizes at the Paris Opera Competition and the Francisco Viñas Competition in Barcelona. In 2022 she won second prize at the Operalia international opera competition. She has been lauded by the press for her “musicality, good taste in ornamentation and luminous high notes with a good arsenal of bel canto resources” (Scherzo).Despite her youth, she is a regular presence at the world’s most prestigious opera houses, including the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Berlin State Opera), the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera) and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

She has recently completed a tour with the famous Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča, who has performed in Ljubljana several times. Last Saturday (13 July), she joined world-famous tenor-turned-baritone Plácido Domingo in a performance of arias and duets as part of the Opera and Zarzuela Gala at the Český Krumlov Festival. In just a few days, Serena Sáenz will conquer Ljubljana and conjure up a romantic evening for us.