In its early years, helping to establish the Festival as a major international event were conductors Tullio Serafin and Nicola Rescigno, singers such as Ghena Dimitrova, Maria Chiara, Giuseppe Taddei, and Rolando Panerai, and well-known directors and set designers such as Giancarlo Menotti, Dinos Giannopoulos, Spyros Evangelatos, Nikos Georgiadis, Dionyssios Fotopoulos, and Nikos Petropoulos.