Accademia dell'Opera Italiana:
Midsummer Opera Gala

Join us for a luminous midday celebration of operatic excellence presented by the Accademia dell’Opera Italiana. Baritone and founder Massimo Modoni, together with pianist and co-founder Brian Hughes, return to the stage of Conway Hall with a sweeping programme of Italian operatic masterpieces. From Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, Don Carlo, La Traviata and Otello, to the raw verismo of Puccini, Giordano, Mascagni, and Leoncavallo — this gala traverses the full emotional and stylistic range of the Italian baritone tradition.

Two of AOI’s 2025 Young Artists, soprano Daria Moskaliuk and mezzo-soprano Nadiia Chaichenko, will present a selection of Italian and French arias and duets, exploring the intricate musical relationship between soprano and mezzo voices — from tenderness to tension, from rivalry to resolution.

About Massimo Modoni

Massimo Modoni is an Italian baritone and the founder of the Accademia dell’Opera Italiana (AOI). He began his musical journey as a harpist and trained vocally with Francesca Scaini, Sherman Lowe in Venice, and later with Alison Pearce at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He further refined his technique in masterclasses with operatic legends including Mirella Freni, Raina Kabaivanska, Giulio Zappa, and Silvio Zanon.

Massimo has sung at prestigious venues such as Teatro Malibran, Accademia Chigiana, Teatro Dante Alighieri, Teatro Comunale, and at the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival. His collaborations include working with conductors Renato Balsadonna, Paolo Olmi, Emanuela Di Pietro, and David Brophy, and with pianists such as Michele D’Elia, Joice Fieldsen, and Andrés Gallucci. He recently appeared as Starveling in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with BVOF and will soon perform Pierrot in Le Fête Galante with Pegasus Opera Company, conducted by Odaline de la Martinez.

About Brian Hughes

Irish pianist Brian Hughes graduated with Distinction in 2020 from the Royal College of Music in London with a Master of Performance in Collaborative Piano, as a Kenneth and Violet Scott Scholar. He studied with Simon Lepper, Roger Vignoles, and Danny Driver, and trained in improvisation with Sophie Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin.

Brian has performed at major venues in London, including the Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Princess Alexandra Hall, and St. Mary’s Battersea. He appeared as a Young Artist at the Leeds Lieder Festival and participated in the Oxford Lieder Festival, presenting a lecture-recital on Clara Schumann’s songs. In Ireland, Brian has performed with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra in the National Concert Hall, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Ulster Hall, Waterfront Hall and Cork Opera House.

He has served as musical director and arranger for various theatrical productions, including The Ballad of the Cosmo Café (2019), The Unicorn and Joe (2021), and Welcome to Terezin (2022). Most recently, he directed and arranged the music for Brendan: Son of Dublin, performed at the Liverpool Irish Festival 2023.