Vocal ensemble Il canto di Orfeo

The vocal and instrumental ensemble Il Canto di Orfeo was founded in 2005 by Gianluca Capuano. Initially, one of its chief goals was to perform the music of Giacomo Carissimi and other Italian works dating from the period between 1600 and 1750, including many forgotten treasures of Renaissance and Baroque music. Its repertoire now extends to contemporary music as well. Il Canto di Orfeo comprises specialists in historically informed performance practice and has appeared throughout Europe at renowned early music festivals as well as in major concert halls. In Milan, the ensemble presents the concert series “Vespri musicali in San Maurizio” and “Bach in Basilica.” The choir made its debut at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival in 2019 with Caldara’s La morte di Abel; subsequent appearances have included Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, and, in 2025, Hotel Metamorphosis. Il Canto di Orfeo has given several guest performances at La Scala in Milan: in 2007 for the world premiere of Fabio Vacchi’s Teneke, in 2013 with Alexander Raskatov’s A Dog’s Heart, and in 2015 with Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten. In Nantes, the choir was featured in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea in a production by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier. In the fall of 2026, it will perform Orfeo ed Euridice at the Berlin Staatsoper. Il Canto di Orfeo has recorded madrigals associated with Mantua and Ferrara, arias by Galuppi with mezzo-soprano Catherine King, and works by 17th-century North German composers with the organist Kei Koito.

Lucerne Festival debut on 20 August 2022 in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, led by Gianluca Capuano, who also conducted the ensemble in its most recent appearance here, in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia on 21 August 2025.

June 2026