Antonio Pappano

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Antonio Pappano (born 30 December 1959) is a British conductor and pianist of Italian origin currently serving as music director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and l'Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Pappano was born in Epping, England to a family having its origins in Castelfranco in Miscano, near Benevento, Italy. When he was 13 years old, he moved with his family to Connecticut, in the United States. After musical training in piano, composition, and conducting, he became a rehearsal accompanist at the New York City Opera by the age of 21.[1] Pappano is the youngest conductor to lead the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in London, accompanying both the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet.

[edit] Career

A pianist as well as a conductor, he attracted the attention of fellow pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, with whose assistance he became at the Bayreuth Festival.[2] He worked in Barcelona and Frankfurt, and served as an assistant to Michael Gielen.[3] In 1990 he was made musical director of the Den Norske Opera after his conducting debut there in 1987. His role as Sjefdirigent has been taken by Olaf Henzold.

In 1992, at the age of 32, Pappano became music director of La Monnaie, the Belgian Royal Opera House, a post he held until 2002, but meanwhile in 1999, he was appointed to his current position as music director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden that began with the September 2002 season. He has also been principal guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also conducted at the English National Opera (ENO), the Metropolitan Opera (1997) the San Francisco Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Berlin Staatsoper.

Recently he has been working his way through the Ring Cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner, with stars that have included Plácido Domingo, but, with the Covent Garden orchestra and chorus, he has also conducted a new David McVicar staging of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro from the harpsichord to widespread acclaim. His reputation as accessible yet charismatic and as someone who can work with even the most demanding prima donnas is helping him to build a formidable reputation in London and the opera world.

In 2005, Antonio Pappano became music director of the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and regularly conducts the London Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Pappano has renewed his contract with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden putting to rest speculation that he might leave.[1]

[edit] Recordings

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Anna Picard. "Antonio Pappano: Local hero", The Independent, 3 Dec 2006. Retrieved on 2007-09-07. 
  2. ^ Rupert Christiansen. "High octane, high hopes", The Telegraph, 2 September 2002. Retrieved on 2007-09-07. 
  3. ^ Peter Conrad. "Lightning conductor", The Observer, 23 Feb 2003. Retrieved on 2007-09-07. 
  • Maeckelbergh, Lucrèce (2006). Antonio Pappano: Con Passione. Snoeck. ISBN 9053495274. 

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Sylvain Cambreling		 Music Director, Theatre de la Monnaie, Brussels
1992-2002		 Succeeded by
Kazushi Ono
Preceded by
Bernard Haitink		 Musical Directors, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
2002-present		 Succeeded by
incumbent
v • d • e
Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Music Directors

Bernardino Molinari (1912) · Franco Ferrara (1944) · Fernando Previtali (1953) · Igor Markevitch (1973) · Thomas Schippers (1976) · Giuseppe Sinopoli (1983) · Uto Ughi (1987) · Daniele Gatti (1992) · Myung-Whun Chung (1997) · Antonio Pappano (2005)