Silvio Barbato
He studied conducting at the University of Brasília and composition in Milan. He started his conducting career when he was 25 with a performance of Puccini's opera Tosca. He also helped to bring other operas to places in the middle of the Brazilian rainforest. He directed the music in a film about the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos called Uma Vida di Paixao (A Life of Passion). In Rio de Janeiro he conducted operas which included world-famous singers such as Montserrat Caballé, Robert Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu. He also conducted choral works such as Berlioz's L'enfant du Christ.