Carlo Rizzi Photo Tessa Traeger
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 in 2018, 2019 and 2020 for their 'Verdi Trilogy', featuring new productions by David Pountney of La forza del destino, Un ballo in maschera and Les Vêpres siciliennes.
Other highlights of Rizzi’s 2019-20 season included a new production of Turandot at Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, concerts with the Hallé, WNO Orchestra and Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, and his Maggio Musicale Fiorentino debut with concert performances of La traviata and Un ballo in maschera.
}The Times, Roberto Devereux, March 2019"Conducted by Carlo Rizzi, who understands the idiom utterly, the WNO orchestra gives every note meaning and blazes with joy"
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Carlo Rizzi’s 2019-20 season includes rare operas in Pesaro and La Scala, Turandot and Simon Boccanegra at the Metropolitan Opera and Les vêpres siciliennes at Welsh National Opera. Conductor looks forward to innovative projects as Opera Rara’s new Artistic Director
5 Aug 2019
Carlo Rizzi’s 2018-19 season includes Tosca and Mefistofele at the Met, Falstaff in Tokyo, a new production of Un ballo in maschera at Welsh National Opera and symphonic concerts in Japan, Italy and Spain.
28 Aug 2018