Biography
With productions last season of Don Giovanni, L‘ incoronazione di Poppea, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Giulio Cesare and Keiser’s Der lächerliche Prinz Jodelet at the Hamburgische Staatsoper; Hasse’s Cleofide at the Semperoper in Dresden; Hercules at the Händel Festpiele in Halle; and with highlights of this and future seasons including Orlando in Essen, Così fan tutte at La Monnaie, Alcina a the Opéra de Lyon, and a new production of La clemenza di Tito at the National Theatre in Prague, Alessandro de Marchi is one of the most sought-after conductors in his repertoire.
He studied organ and composition at the Conservatory di Santa Cecilia in Rome and harpsichord, chamber music and baroque style at the Schola Cantorum di Basilea. He then became Professor of organ and Gregorian chant at the Conservatory D. Cimarosa, pianist of the St. Louis Big Band, and harpsichordist with the Italian Baroque Orchestra, and went on to become conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of G. Carissimi, being awarded his diploma in organ and composition.
Following study with J. B. Christensen, he began his collaboration with the ensemble Il Teatro Armonico with whom he toured Europe as well as making recordings and radio broadcasts of unpublished Italian baroque works (Harmonia Mundi France, Accord, Symphonia, WDR, Radio France, Radio Classique, etc.)
He then began working with René Jacobs on Cesti’s Orontea as harpsichordist and musical assistant, leading to engagements in all the principal European theatres. He was invited by Daniel Barenboim to work as his assistant at the Berlin Staatsoper, and became a regular guest artist, as assistant and harpsichordist, at the Salzburg Festival (Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Jacobs; Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Barenboim and Donald Runnicles; and J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Claudio Abbado).
At the Staatsoper unter den Linden in Berlin he was the harpsichordist and musical assistant, before making his conducting debut there in Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto. He subsequently conducted Graun’s Cleopatra and Caesar, Bach’s Kunst der Fuge, Haydn’s L ‚isola disabitata and Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia.
He has also conducted Jommelli’s La passione di nostro signore Gesu Cristo in Palermo, Provenzale’s La Stellidaura vendicante in Liège and Bruxelles, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in Innsbruck, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Rossini’s La cenerentola and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale in Bruxelles, Cavalli’s Gli amori di Apollo e Dafne in Fano, Haydn’s Orfeo ed Euridice in Enschede, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Maggio Musicale in Florence, Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d‘ Ulisse and Keiser’s Masaniello furioso in Stuttgart, and Il re pastore in Bruxelles. He is also a regular guest conductor at the Rossini Festival of Bad Wildbad and the Halle Handel Festival.
He records exclusively with his own orchestra Academia Montis Regalis for Opus 111.
Update: 2006