catalogue: L’INFINITO – SONGS BY ONORIO ROCCA
Candida Guida
Born in Vico Equense (Naples), she graduated in 2005 at “Conservatorio G. Martucci” in Salerno. In 2015 she attended the “Corsi di Alta Formazione del Teatro Lirico Sperimentale di Spoleto” with G. Banditelli, G. Bertagnolli, F. M. Sardelli and C. Desderi and sang in lots of baroque concerts.
Debuts in 2015: Opera di Firenze as Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas conducted by Stefano Montanari and Teatro San Carlo di Napoli as Tisbe in La Cenerentola conducted by Gabriele Ferro and directed by Paul Curran. At the Spoleto’s Teatro Lirico Sperimentale, in September 2015, Ms. Guida sang in A Christmas Eve, directed by Ricci/Forte. In 2013 and 2014, Ms. Guida attended the “Accademia del Belcanto Rodolfo Celletti” at the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca, where she performed in several project such as in Marco Taralli’s contemporary opera Nûr as a wounded woman, in Vincenzo Bellini’s Zaira as cover od the difficult role of Nerestano (a role that she also performed in concert in Catania in summer 2013), in Luigi Rossi’s L’Orfeo as Aristeo, a role that she also performed in Tallinn, in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde, and in Casella’s La donna serpente conducted by Fabio Luisi.
Recent highlight were: Un viaggio a Reims with Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro conducted by A. Zedda, Panariello’s Requiem with Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Le nozze di Figaro (Marcellina) with As.Li.Co and in a production at Teatro Olimpico di Vicenza conducted by Rigon, La Carovana volante (Rossini for the Schools) with Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Orfeo ed Euridice (Orfeo) at Real Giardino in Capodimonte in Naples, L’Italiana in Algeri (Isabella) at Teatro Municipale in Piacenza. In concert she sang in Vivaldi’s Gloria, Magnificat and Stabat Mater, Haydn’s Missa Cellensis, Pergolesi’s Salve Regina and Stabat Mater, Antonio Bononcini’s Stabat Mater.
In 2010, she was first prize at the international competition “Francesco Albanese”. Candida Guida studied with Raina Kabaivanska at Accademia Chigiana in Siena and in Sofia, and earned her diploma in 2008 at “Istituto Orazio Vecchi” in Modena. Ms. Guida also took part in Master Classes with Bernadetta Manca di Nissa and Marjana Lipovšek (at Mozarteum in Salzburg). In 2016 she debuted the roles of Flora in Verdi’s Traviata and Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina, at Bill-Bienne Theatre (Switzerland); she also debuted the roles of Ulrica in Verdi’s Ballo in Maschera in Spoleto and Zita in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, in Pisa.
She plays Marta in Iolanda, directed by Dieter Kaegi and Alexander Mikhailovich Anissimov at the Biel Solothurn Opera, and Farnace in Mithridates in the same theater, directed by Predrag Costa and Francesco Bellotto. She participates to several concerts about the works of Stradella, Handel, Vivaldi with the Ensemble Mare Nostrum. She is Mercèdes in the Carmen production of the San Carlo in Naples, directed by Zubin Mehta.
She is invited by the Haendel Festspiele of Halle in 2020 for a solo recital on a program of arias for alto and sung alongside the great bandoneonist, composer and arranger Marcelo Nisinman. She was the first Marquise of Merteuil in Les Liaisons dangereuses, for 40 performances with music by Vivaldi / Moretto. She plays the Intermedi della Pellegrina at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under the direction of F. M. Sardelli, Sorceress in Dido & Aeneas at the Luglio Musicale Trapanese and again Flora / Traviata at the San Carlo in Naples in autumn 2019.
For the 2022 season she was Wowkle in Fanciulla del West in the Theaters of Brescia, Como, Pavia, Cremona, directed by Valerio Galli and directed by Andrea Cigni, Debuts the role of Scellerata, in the world premiere of Nicola Campogrande’s Opera Italiana under the direction of Alessandro Cadario at the Valle D’itria festival. She debut the role of Tancredi in Tancredi / Rossini in autumn 2022 at TOBS. Available on DVD Orfeo by Rossi, La donna Serpente by Casella, gli intermedi della Pellegrina and the CD (Naxos) L’ambizione delusa by Leo.
Francesco Addabbo
Francesco Addabbo owes his training to Angela Annese, Patrizia Marisaldi and Riccardo Mascia, under whose guidance he graduated in Piano, Harpsichord and Piano Accompaniment from the conservatoires of Bari and Vicenza, achieving top marks and honours. He subsequently obtained a Master of Advanced Studies in Organ at the Bern University of the Arts under the guidance of Pascale van Coppenolle.
Particularly interested in the performance practice of early music, he has taken part in various harpsichord and organ masterclasses (Roy Goodman, Christophe Rousset, Enrico Baiano, Alfonso Fedi, Harald Vogel, Léon Berben, etc.) and furthered his study of the harpsichord with Béatrice Martin at the Haute École de Musique in Geneva, obtaining a Certificate of Advanced Studies.
He also took part in a training course on basso continuo in French opera at the Centre de musique baroque in Versailles. Fascinated by languages and the relationship between music and words, he graduated with honours in Foreign Languages and Literatures from the University of Bari, having specialised in German and Slavic studies, and has published works of musicological interest (Libreria Musicale Italiana, Rivista di Studi ungheresi).
He performs on the harpsichord, organ and piano, with a focus primarily on chamber and vocal music. He plays with orchestras such as the Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn, Chapelle ancienne (Zurich) and the Orchestre de chambrthe Geneva Chamber Orchestra (Geneva), Musique des Lumières, the Neuchâtel Symphony Orchestra, etc.
He has performed at prestigious concert venues and churches as harpsichordist and organist: the ‘Centro di Musica antica Pietà dei Turchini’ (Naples), ‘Grandezze & Meraviglie’ (Modena), ‘Spazio & Musica’ (Vicenza), the ‘Festival Toscano di Musica Antica’ (Pisa), ‘Settimane barocche’ (Brescia), Napoli Musica Sacra Festival – and in Switzerland (Chamber Music and Symphony Concerts, Theatre Orchestra Biel-Solothurn, Barocktage Solothurn, Murten Classics, Musique à L’Eglise française de Berne, Concerts d’été à St.-Germain, Bellelay Musiques, etc.). He has recorded for Novantiqua and Armida Records.
In 2025, he took part in a tour with the Baroque orchestra Cappella Mediterranea in the Netherlands and performed at the early music festival “Banchetto musicale” in Vilnius (Lithuania). Since 2012, he has been a lecturer at the Schweizer Opernstudio – Hochschule der Künste in Bern, where he works as an accompanist and coach with young opera singers from all over the world. Since August 2025, he has also been teaching harpsichord at the Biel School of Music (Switzerland).