Flórez is the new Artistic Director

Juan Diego Flórez is the new Artistic Director of the ROF.  The Administrative Committee nominated him today, following the advice of the General Administrator, Ernesto Palacio.  The artist, one of the most important opera singers on the international stages, will assist the General Administrator in the thinking out and composing of the Festival’s future programmes.

The Administrative Committee of the Festival, following comparative open market procedures, and having consulted the opinions of the Commission for technical evaluation, has also conferred the post of General Director for the three-year period 2022/24 upon Cristian Della Chiara, previously responsible for Marketing and Institutional Relations for the Festival.

Both will take office on the 1st January 2022.

The tenor Juan Diego Flórez was born in Lima and made his stage début at the ROF in 1996, singing the rôle of Corradino in the first modern revival of Matilde di Shabran. His enormous success opened the doors of the leading theatres and musical institutions all over the world to him.  He is a regular guest of the ROF, for which he has sung 15 operas and 11 concerts and sacred works.  Last summer he took the lead in the Gala Rossini, celebrating his 25 year career at the ROF, in the presence of Sergio Mattarella, President of the Republic of Italy.  He is founder and president of the “Sinfonia por el Perù” Association, an ambassador to Unesco and a Kammersänger.

Juan Diego Flórez declares: “I am very happy and honoured by the novel artistic adventure that this new responsibility represents for me, above all because  it has been conferred upon me by the Festival that gave me my artistic baptism when I was only 23 years old.  I have a very strong bond with the ROF and the town of Pesaro, and I will do my very best to reconcile as much as possible my stage career as tenor with the demands of this new prestigious rôle.  With the experience I have gained in the world of opera, I shall be able to assist the General Administrator Palacio in  developing future programmes and in choosing artists.”

Ernesto Palacio says: “My personal and working relationship with Juan Diego began in 1994.  From that date we have enjoyed a close artistic collaboration.  Often his suggestions and his ideas have been very useful to me, and this is why I proposed that he should undertake this new responsibility, while still continuing his singing career.  His contribution will be fundamental for this new page in the history of the ROF.”

Born in Pesaro, Cristian Della Chiara has been at the ROF since 2012, where he has also been responsible for Communications and Marketing.  From 2008 he has been the organizer of the Mostra Internazionale del Nuovo Cinema and, from 2013, Artistic Director of the Festival nazionale di Arte drammatica.

Cristian Della Chiara said: “I am very happy and very moved to be able to undertake an even more strategic rôle within the structure that witnessed and encouraged my introduction into professional life and which I feel able to accompany in this new phase that will confirm its central importance to the economic and social life of our part of the country, bearing extraordinary witness to the beauty of Italy in the world”.

The President of the ROF, Daniele Vimini, recapitulates the meaning of the day’s events in the following words: “Together with the Administrative Committee and the General Administrator Palacio, today I am beginning to outline a new pathway for the future of the Rossini Opera Festival.  With regard to the nomination of Juan Diego Flórez, an authentic symbol of contemporary Rossini interpretation, I join in with the words of the General Adminstrator, with whom the singer has worked right from the beginning of his prestigious career.  With regard to Cristian Della Chiara, the choice made by the Administrative Committee has lit upon an expert on the theatre world, deeply immersed in our town’s culture and vaunting a wide knowledge of the structure of the Festival, within which he has developed and grown over the years.  Lastly, on my own behalf as well as that of the Administrative Committee, I should like to thank Olivier Descotes for having, through years of difficulty, successfully led the machinery of organization of the Festival, hoping that he will remain within the great Rossinian family”.