Roberto Abbado
He studied conducting with Mario Gusella in Milan and Franco Ferrara at Teatro La Fenice in Venice and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
His first appearance as an opera conductor, aged 23, was in Macerata, Arena Sferisterio in 1978, in a new production of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, featuring Renato Bruson, Cesare Siepi and Ilva Ligabue.
In 1980, he conducted Verdi's Aida at Teatro Massimo in Palermo: one of the performance was attended by the Intendant of Wiener Staatsoper Seefelner, who immediately engaged Mr. Abbado.
In the same year he conducted a new production of Rossini's La Cenerentola at Wiener Staatsoper, staged by Gian Carlo Menotti and featuring Agnes Baltsa, Francisco Araiza, Enzo Dara, and Giuseppe Taddei.
In the summer he conducted at Edinburgh Festival Rossini's La pietra del paragone staged by Eduardo De Filippo with Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro alla Scala.
In November he conducted Verdi's Don Carlo at Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona with a stunning cast including Montserrat Caballé, Elena Obraztsova, José Carreras, Leo Nucci and Martti Talvela.
He made his debut at Teatro alla Scala in 1984 conducting Donizetti's Don Pasquale, in a production featuring Sesto Bruscantini in the title role and Lucia Aliberti.
In 1989, he made his debut at Münchner Opernfestspiele of Bayerisches Staatsoper with Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur with Mirella Freni and Plácido Domingo.
He worked again with the English stage director in Turin for Mozart's La clemenza di Tito in 2008, and at Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro for Mosè in Egitto in 2011.
In 2015, after his debut with Don Pasquale, he was appointed music director of Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain.
At same house he previously conducted Rossini's Maometto II staged by Pier Luigi Pizzi in 2014, Ponchielli's La Gioconda in 2012, Verdi's Luisa Miller in 1990 and the world premiere of Ferrero's Charlotte Corday in 1989.
He also premiered many new orchestral works of leading composers, including Claudio Ambrosini, Giorgio Battistelli, Niccolò Castiglioni, Aldo Clementi, Azio Corghi, Michele dall'Ongaro, Luca Francesconi, Ned Rorem, Steven Stucky, Giampaolo Testoni, Fabio Vacchi, Charles Wuorinen, and new operas by Lorenzo Ferrero[3] and Marco Tutino.
