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The Farnch soprano, Ilona Baldo, studied musicology at the Sorbonne, then participated in several master-classes with Gina Cigna in Paris, Rita Streich at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and Alfredo Kraus at the Chigiana Academy in Siena, Italy Her meeting with the South American singer Ana Raquel Satre was crucial, providing the opportunity for a vocal work and musical depth to achieve a richness of interpretation. She was semifinalist at the Luciano Pavarotti Competition in Modena and at the Verdi Competition in Busetto, and finalist at the Bellini Competition in Catania in 1992.
Her career has led her to perform in several theaters in interpreting Miss Silberklang in Schauspieldirektor by W.A. Mozart, Gilda in Rigoletto by Verdi, La Voix humaine by Francis Poulenc, The Telephone by Gian Carlo Menotti, Venus in Venus and Adonis by John Blow. Ilona Baldo has appeared in many festivals (Festival Musical des Promenades du Pays d’Auge, Festival de Pimpéan, Festival Volcadiva, Les Jours de Lumières, Musique en Baie) and cities in France (Paris, Rouen, Nantes, Chamonix Clermont-Ferrand).. She also sang abroad in Palermo in two series of recitals (Associazione Ester Mazzoleni) and Geneva under the direction of Pablo Pavon
Her concert programs are devoted to: Italian opera: Aureliano in Palmira, Il Turco in Italia, La Cambiale di Matrimonio and Tancredi by Rossini, Beatrice di Tenda and I Puritani by Bellini, Lucia di Lamermoor, Lucrezia Borgia, Don Pasquale and La Fille du Régiment by Donizetti, Rigoletto by Verdi; Baroque music: Giulio Cesare, Alcine, Ariana in Creta by George Frideric Handel, Cantates BWV 51 and BWV 209 and Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) by J.S. Bach; W.A. Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, Concert Arias; Czech music: songs and arias from Russalka by Dvorak; Hungarian music: Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók songs, arias from operas by Erkel; French melodies: Ravel, Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, Francis Poulenc, Chausson; French operas: Dinorah, Les Hugenots and Robert le Diable by Meyerbeer, Le Domino Noir and Manon by Auber, Faust and Roméo et Juliette by Francis Poulenc, Hamlet and Mignon by Thomas; Operettas: The Merry Widow by Lehar, Die Fledermaus by Strauss, Véronique and Masked Messenger Love; Music of the 20th century: Dmitri Shostakovich, Delerue, Leonard Bernstein; Contemporary workst with the French composer Charles Chaynes
As an oratorio soloist, Ilona Baldo performed Laudate Pueri Dominum by G.F. Handel with the Orchestre d’Auvergne, Great Fantasy by L.v. Beethoven accompanied by pianist Micheline Ostermeier, Coronation Mass, Mass in C and Requiem by W.A. Mozart, German Requiem by Johannes Brahms with the Orchestre du Marais in Paris. In 2004, she performed by his request works of Charles Chaynes in Paris. As part of the Soirées Onslow 2005 at the Châteaux d’Auvergne, she performed works by Onslow, Meyerbeer and Auber in the company of Prima Vista Quartet. She also performed in La Voix humaine by Francis Poulenc, The Telphone by Gian Carlo Menotti in Lyon, Rossini concerts with the l’Orchestre de Chambre de Normandie conducted by Gilles Benkemoun.
After being invited in late 2007 to Morocco for a lyrical concert, Ilona Baldo sang for the Taylor Foundation in Paris in March 2008 and has performed with the Prima Vista Quartet as part of the Festival d’Art Sacré du Couserans (Ariège) in Boccherini 's Stabat Mater. With the Ensemble des Cuivres de Rouen, she performed Liturgical Fanfares by Henri Tomasi at Abbaye St Martin de Boscherville. She again sang Boccherini's Stabat Mater in June 2009 with the Italian cantata BWV 209 at the Bach au Festival Art et Spiritualité of Troyes, both accompanied by the Prima Vista Quartet. She then performed at the Festival «Les Automnales» of Auvergne in a recital devoted to the composer Georges Onslow and French music of the 19th century. She was invited again by Taylor Foundation in March of 2010 for a recital of Czech, Hungarian and Italian music. Recently, she gave recitals at the Cercle de l'Union Interalliée in Paris, and at the Théâtre du Château de Fontainebleau in Coronation Mass by W.A. Mozart. |
