Italian conductor Carlo Rizzi ranks among today’s leading conductors, equally at home in the opera house and the concert hall. Since making his UK conducting debut in 1988 at the Buxton festival, he has gone on to conduct productions at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Opera North, and he's a regular guest at some of the world’s most prestigious opera houses. In 2016 Rizzi was nominated for Best Conductor at the International Opera Awards, and in 2019, he was announced as the new Artistic Director of Opera Rara.

From 1992 to 2001 and again from 2004-2008 Rizzi was music director of Welsh National Opera, and in September 2015 he took on the new role of Conductor Laureate of the company. This ongoing relationship saw him return to WNO for their 'Verdi Trilogy' of new productions by David Pountney, and in February 2020 he will conduct the final part, Les Vêpres siciliennes. He will also be conducting Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with the company in the same month.

Other highlights of Rizzi’s 2019-20 season include a new production of Turandot at Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, a new production of Montemezzi's L’amore dei tre re at Teatro alla Scala, a return to The Metropolitan Opera for Puccini’s Turandot and Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, and Donizetti’s Il furioso all’isola di San Domingo with Opera Rara. He will also conduct concerts with the Hallé, WNO Orchestra and Antwerp Symphony Orchestra.