Orchestra La Scintilla
The care for historical performance practice has been a tradition at the Zurich Opera House for many decades. In the seventies, Nikolaus Harnoncourt first made a furore in the field of early music with his Monteverdi cycle; In the eighties, he continued his work at the Zurich Opera House together with the director, Jean Pierre Ponnelle, with Mozart (including Idomeneo, Lucio Silla, The Abduction from the Seraglio, Così fan tutte, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro). Harnoncourt did further pioneering work and the musicians of the Orchestra of the Zurich Opera House adapted their playing technique to the latest findings in historical performance practice.

This continuum formed the orchestra of the opera, today's Philharmonia Zürich, an independent ensemble of first-class specialized musicians, which were able to create an excellent reputation. The spark that ignited the enthusiasm for new early music gave the ensemble its name: officially founded in 1998, the ensemble called itself La Scintilla - The Spark.

In the years that followed, performances with luminaries like Nikolaus Harnoncourt, William Christie, Mark Minkowski, Reinhard Goebel, Giuliano Carmignola, Giovanni Antonini, and Ottavio Dantone were so successful that the Zurich Opera House let the ensemble play all the baroque operas and more and more works from the classical period.

Outside of the opera house La Scintilla performs regularly in the large concert halls and with renowned soloists, instrumentalists and singers like Cecilia Bartoli, Rolando Villazon, Andreas Scholl and others.

In 2014, the orchestra received the Echo Klassik Music Award in the category "Opera Recording of the Year" (19th century) for its recording of Norma with Giovanni Antonini and Cecilia Bartoli. Besides that, Mozart arias with Juan Diego Florez, Norma and La sonnambula with Cecilia Bartoli, Orlando and Iphigénie en Tauride with William Christie and Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria with Nikolaus Harnoncourt appeared amongst others on CD and DVD.

In the season 2018/19 La Scintilla designes the La Scintilla series of four concerts in close collaboration with the violinist and conductor Riccardo Minasi. The musical spectrum spans from the early symphonic beginnings in Italy to the great masters of baroque, Georg Friedrich Händel and Johann Sebastian Bach to the sounds of the early Giuseppe Verdi.

Riccardo Minasi
Conductor and Violinist Riccardo Minasi has quickly established a reputation as one of the most exciting talents on the European scene in recent years. Co-founder and director of the ensemble il Pomo d’oro from 2012 to 2015, he has been the Chief Conductor of the Mozarteumorchester in Salzburg since 2017 and “Artist in Residence” of the Resonanz Ensemble at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Most recent engagements include the new ballet by Christian Spuck “Der Sandmann” with music by Schnittke and Schumann, as well as Don Giovanni, Orlando Paladino and Il Matrimonio Segreto for Opernhaus Zürich, Iphigénie en Tauride for the Hamburgische Staatsoper, Carmen for l’Opéra national de Lyon, Rinaldo at Theater an der Wien, and orchestral conducting/directing engagements with the Orchestre National de Lyon, London Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Resonanz, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Zürcher Philarmonia, Zürcher Kammerorchester, Basel Kammerorchester, La Scintilla, NDR Radiophilarmonie Hamburg, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and Stavanger Symfoniorkester.

As conductor he has directed the Orchestra and the Choir of the Opéra National de Lyon, Kammerakademie of Potsdam, Zürich Kammerorchester, Philarmonia Zürich, Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, L’Arpa Festante of Munich , Recreation-Grosses Orchester of Graz, Attersee-Akademie Orchestra, Ensemble Resonanz, the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO), Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, Casa da Música Porto, Il Complesso Barocco, Holland Baroque Society, l’Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa and the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra with whom he was the associate music director from 2008 to 2011.

As soloist and concertmaster he performed with Le Concert des Nations of Jordi Savall, Accademia Bizantina, Concerto Italiano, Il Giardino Armonico, Al Ayre Español, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di S.Cecilia, Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid and invited by Kent Nagano at the Knowlton Belcanto Festival (Canada). He also collaborated with Concerto Vocale, Ensemble 415 and with such artists as Joyce Di Donato, Albrecht Mayer, Reinhard Goebel, Nils Mönkemeyer, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Cecilia Bartoli, Viktoria Mullova, Edgar Moreau, Gautier Capuçon, Christophe Coin.

In 2010 he worked as assistant conductor, concertmaster and curator of the critical edition of the opera Norma by Vincenzo Bellini with Cecilia Bartoli and the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble of Thomas Hengelbrock at the Konzerthaus of Dortmund. In collaboration with Maurizio Biondi he published the critical edition of Norma for Bärenreiter in 2016. From 2004 to 2010 he was professor at the conservatory Vincenzo Bellini of Palermo. He has held seminars, master classes and historical performance practice lessons at the Juilliard School of Music of New York, Longy School of Music of Cambridge (USA), Sibelius Academy of Helsinki, Hochschule für Musik of Hannover, Antwerp conservatory, Chinese culture university of Taipei (Taiwan), Zürich Opernhaus, Kùks residence (Czech Republic), Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, Sydney conservatory (Australia), at the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) and as historical advisor for the Montréal Symphony Orchestra (Canada).

Among the numerous prizes received, notably was the album “Stella di Napoli” with Joyce Di Donato (Diapason d’Or of the year 2015, BBC Music magazine Award, Grammophone Choice, Grammy Award nominee 2015), “Agrippina” with Ann Hallenberg (International Opera Award 2016), “Partenope” with Philippe Jaroussky and Karina Gauvin (Grammophone Magazine – recording of the month), “Catone in Utica”, “Giovincello” and “Haydn concertos” (Echo-Klassik Award 2016), “Rosenkranz Sonaten” by Biber (finalist at the Midem Classical Award Cannes as album of the year 2009).

Future projects are including a frequent collaboration with the Ensemble Resonanz of Hamburg and the orchestra La Scintilla of Zürich and recordings for ES-DUR, Harmonia Mundi France and Deutsche Grammophon.