Carlo Rizzi

Carlo Rizzi holds a long-standing reputation as one of the world’s foremost operatic conductors, in demand as a guest artist at the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals. Equally at home in the opera house and the concert hall, his vast repertoire spans everything from the foundation works of the operatic and symphonic canon to rarities by Bellini, Cimarosa and Donizetti to Giordano, Pizzetti and Montemezzi. Combining a deep expertise in the vocal art with theatrical flair and the practical collaborative skills honed over decades of experience in the world’s finest theatres, he is acclaimed by singers and audiences alike as a master of the operatic craft. Born in Milan, Rizzi studied at the city’s conservatoire, and following his graduation was employed as a repetiteur at the legendary Teatro alla Scala. He launched his conducting career in 1982 and has now performed over a hundred operas, with a broad repertoire that is rich in Italian works in addition to the major titles of Mozart, Wagner, Strauss, Britten, Mussorgsky, Martinů and Janáček. Since 2019 Rizzi is Music Director of Opera Rara, the UK-based company devoted to resurrecting and returning to the repertoire undiscovered and undervalued works from opera’s celebrated and neglected composers, and since 2015, he has been Conductor Laureate of the Welsh National Opera, following his tenure as Music Director (1992-2001 and 2004-2008) during which he was widely credited with overseeing  a dramatic increase in the company’s artistic standards and international profile. He also has held longstanding relationships with the Teatro alla Scala, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and his career has seen him leading numerous productions at the most distinguished operatic addresses including the Opera National de Paris, Teatro Real Madrid, the Rossini Opera Festival of Pesaro, the Netherlands Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the New National Theatre Tokyo, Zürcher Oper, Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie, Brussels. 2023/24 he conducts revivals of La bohème and Un ballo in maschera at the Metropolitan Opera, I vespri siciliani and La fanciulla del West at the Wiener Staatsoper, Otello at the Seoul Arts Centre, and a new production of Il trittico for Welsh National Opera.