Year of Russia in Italy and Italy in Russia

On March 31, 2011 the Opera Centre presented in Moscow for the first time Accademia della Scala leading soloists: Pretty Yende (soprano), Valeria Tornatore (mezzo) and Filippo Fontana (baritone).
This concert has concluded the joint project by Opera Centre and Accademia della Scala in the official framework of the Russia-Italy Year. On March 25 Centre soloists Lyubov Molina, Sergey Polyakov and Sergey Plyusnin received a master-class by famous opera singer Mirella Freni; the next day, March 26, they performed with great success on the Arturo Toscanini’s Hall stage in La Scala. Then a visit in return took place: on March 30 Galina Vishnevskaya delivered a master-class to the Italian singers and on March 31 P. Yende, V. Tornatore and F. Fontana performed on the Opera Centre stage.
Accademia La Scala was founded by Maestro Ricardo Muti in year 1997. Today it concentrates the most vibrant talents not only from Italy, but from all around the world. Accademia is headed by Pier Andrea Chevallard and Luisa Vinci. The latter is the one who brought to Moscow the best soloists.
Among the guests of the evening were prominent public figures of cultural, political and business Russian and Italian elites, representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate, the diplomatic corps, leading Italian offices and banks. For a huge contribution to the development of Russian culture Association of Russian Banks handed Galina Vishnevskaya an Honorary Diploma.